Hallo Berlin

Behind this door, you can enjoy the best of the wurst.

Every now and again – and perhaps even more frequently that that – some German soul food is called for.  And when you get that hankering for some delicious wursts and sausage, go to Hallo Berlin Express in Midtown and get the Democracy Special. Come hungry.

Ordinarily, that sausage would be two meatballs.

For $13, you get enough food for lunch and dinner. But it is so tasty you’re liable to eat it all in one go. The Democracy Special is two wursts, cut into small pieces, potatoes, kraut, cabbage, mustard sauce and two meatballs. On this occasion, there were no meatballs, so they added in a third succulent wurst.

Hungry yet?

It is a poem of meaty goodness. A treasure hunt as your plastic fork skewers the bed of kraut and cabbage to come up with a chunk of wursty happy. The mustard sauce lightly glazes the food, adding an oh-so-faint spicy note to the otherwise hearty (and tremendously filling) meal. You can also enjoy one of several different German beers – they even serve it in the dreaded glass boot, if you’ve got the stamina for that.

As for the wursts themselves, they offer a wide selection, which inexplicably they nickname after cars. In addition to a standard (and comparatively unimaginative) wienerwurst, which is essentially a hot dog made of beef and pork, you can also indulge in bratwurst (pork), knockwurst (beef/pork), bavarian wurst (veal), bauernwurst (beef/pork) and more. With the Democracy Special, you can pick the two you like. I usually go with a brat and bauernwurst.

Minus the boot of beer, it’s one of my favorite lunches, which I highly recommend.

Hallo Berlin Express