(this is from summer 05)
I'll be honest: I spent some time researching restaurants in Berlin, and yet every single one we ended up at -- and particularly the ones we liked best -- were discovered by accident.

Our top choice in Berlin is, by far, ReMake, located at Große Hamburger Str. 32, near Hackescher Markt (we found this one after getting lost on the way to a club late one night.) Cristiano Rienzner, the chef, studied under the awesome Ferran Adrià (of el bulli fame). That says it all, right? Not surprisingly, this restaurant was honored as Aufsteiger des Jahres 2005 (Rising Star of 2005). I'll post menu and photos later.

I'm not sure if they just hit my Thai craving just right or what, but Restaurant Papaya was the MOST AWESOME Thai food I'd ever had. We went back more than once, so I'm sure there was something to it. The decor and staff were really nice, too.

Midtown Grill , inside the Marriott at Potsdamer Platz, is a great place for lunch. Great food, not too expensive (they do the whole "business lunch" thing that is really popular in German cities). I have a weak spot for open kitchen design so the architecture was another draw for me.

We also went to über-famous Bocca di Bacco, an Italian restaurant on Friedrichstrasse. We had fresh pasta and shaved white truffel to start off with -- you can't get more awesome than that. As for entrees, I had the cavatelli with quail ragout and pistachio, Val had the sea bass. Neither were spectacular, though very good for Italian food (I guess I was reminded why I don't go out for Italian much). The place was also very stuffy and the server didn't seem to want to hand over the wine list (pointing us instead to the open wines by the glass)...whoa, you suck.