Tag: Berlin Brandenburg Airport

I’ve mentioned, several times (so I’ll be quiet on the matter now), that I don’t like this airport, but I will say that I like its lounge even less. This is a third rate airport lounge, poorly designed, too small and with a limited selection of food and drink. My two loyal blog readers will soon get tired of this negativity, but there we go…..

I will say that the coffee tasted OK though. The beer is the Franziskaner Premium Weissbier which is light and pleasant, slight edge of bananas and it was on self-service draft pour, I’ll give them credit for that one.

The rice and chilli, in fairness, was entirely acceptable although it wasn’t going to win many awards for the depth of taste. I took all the grapes that were left, my bunch of three grapes is visible in the background.

The rice and chilli was pretty much the entirety of the food options for those who didn’t want dried up salad or sausages.

This is the aforementioned sausage selection and some other stuff to try and take the taste of them away. I didn’t go near it.

The dessert option was apple something or other with some other stuff. I didn’t go near that either.

The second beer option was Becks on draft which is a third rate beer that tasted as I expected, like flavoured water. It’s on self-service draft and it was fobbing heavily, so the waste was quite high, although there’s a valid argument that if a beer is going to be wasted it might as well be this one.

There was one thing that I did very much like in the lounge and that was the chocolates and sweets. I put these in various places in my bag and then, like an excitable squirrel, I uncovered them over the next few days. I was quite pleased with myself with that arrangement.

I found the staff here polite and helpful, but the lounge was at near constant capacity and it’s just too small. It was hard to find somewhere to sit (and I had visited at what appeared to be a relatively quiet time for the airport) and it took me a while to find somewhere with a power point. The surfaces were sticky and dirty, the floor was dirty, the self-service area was dirty and the range of food and drinks was limited. I would have been very disappointed if I had paid the walk-in fee of €36, although the temperature was warm and once I had found a suitable seat it wasn’t uncomfortable. But there were plenty of people coming into the lounge who couldn’t find seats and I’m confused why at a new airport they’ve hamstrung the lounge by not making it that bit larger.

There are two locations at Berlin Airport that are accessible from Terminal 2 that I can use with my Priority Pass card, namely the Tegel Lounge and the NU Made With Love restaurant (there’s also a dessert option, but it’s not reachable from Terminal 2). I went to the latter first and was, to be honest, confused what to do. There’s a takeaway section and a restaurant area, but it felt like somewhere that you needed to be seated. I waited there for a while and then thought perhaps you had to order at the counter and then be seated.

The menu options, it all looked exciting and interesting.

Card holders get €23 to spend here on whatever food and drinks they want. There was then something of a situation, which is that the customer in front of me was also using his Priority Pass card and was being shouted at by the team member with some force. The team member was saying “this isn’t a lounge, why don’t you understand?”, but I think the customer in front was fully aware of that, he was asking for help on how to use his card. He walked off, slightly wounded, and I did feel sorry for him as he just looked confused. The team member was pre-annoyed when I told him I had the same card, but I mentioned I wasn’t sure where to stand for the best and matters improved immediately and he was helpful and personable. I ordered the chicken skewers and a beer, but he said that I could get a pretzel as well for the money. I asked the team member if they had any power points and he helpfully walked around to show me the best place to sit, so I found him agreeable in the end. I suspect that he was feeling a little guilty for shouting at a random passenger as well, but a lot was likely lost in translation.

Served after around seven minutes, the chicken skewers had a pleasant flavour with the sauce, but the texture of the chicken itself seemed odd. The pretzel though tasted good and the Tiger Beer was served in a clean glass with the drink being at the appropriate temperature. It’s not cheap for what was just under €23, but it looked well presented and the chicken was at the appropriate hot temperature.

The surroundings felt modern and on-trend, so it was a comfortable environment. There weren’t many other customers, although the poor guy that had been shouted at obviously had another go as I saw him meekly appearing into the seating area with a beer. If I come back to Berlin again, I will likely come here again, the seating area was really peaceful and comfortable, although I might go for a different food option.