We went without much planning, but it was one of the best decisions ever…read more The music was great. I'm not a jazz expert, but I could tell that the band was very genuine and versatile. Tonight, it was also great to have an American band perform, so that we could understand what they were singing! Absolutely great acoustic as well. Service was very good. Everyone was kind, and I couldn't have asked for more. Ambience was the perfect balance of cozy and exclusive with fun and dynamic. Given the proximity between the audience and the stage, everything felt very intimate too. Highly recommend it if you're looking for a great jazz experience at a reasonable price!

Perfect atmosphere; steaming hot, loud and loving! Absolutely recommend!…read moreWe had standing places because the seating is limited, but Hamilton de Holanda was performing, so maybe it was better that way..

The one jazz trio we saw here was terrible…read more But many first rate clubs have a mix of stronger and weaker musicians. So there may be fine jazz to be heard here. Or there may not. * * * Bartending is strong here. Other Yelpers say the house gin is excellent. I had a house creation, a port cocktail that was absolutely outstanding. It was reminiscent of a really fine Spanish or Argentine vermouth. * * * The downside of the Hat Bar is that the only seating is on stools. They really don't have a choice on this matter. The bar is microscopic - and narrow to boot. The band has to play in a space the size of two balance beams in a gymastics competition. They couldn't fit regular chairs into this establishment, Even if they wanted to. Worse, they need to have the maximum amount of seats to pay for the routine high expenses of a jazz club. So there are a lot of stools crammed in there. This is really NOT a space to get comfortable and mellow - Even if the beverage you are drinking is superlative. * * * I just don't get into good music if the seats are too uncomfortable. I have spent too many nights in the cheap seats in old school concert halls for classical music ... Where they make you take the stairs all the way up to the twelfth level balcony, There are four inches between your seat and the next row. Your knees are jammed up close to your body with your kneecaps at your nostrils. It doesn't matter that the orchestra is so far away that you can't hear them. You are so miserable that not even the Emperor Concerto could make you feel good. * * * The stools at the Hat Bar are not nearly that bad But I was still not having a great time. Fortunately, the trio that was playing was mediocre, So I had no deep sense of abiding loss.

Went here on a date and it was a great spot. The music was awesome and the drinks weren't too…read moreexpensive. Great time but best for a small group

You can book this as the same time as reserving seats for concerts at A-Trane - we were slightly…read moreconfused initially as it's across the street rather than next door. As we weren't hugely hungry, we went for the tapas, a small selection of around nine items on offer, such as goose liver with Feldsalat (lamb's lettuce), or Kasseler (smoked pork) with Sauerkraut; decent house wines, pleasant ambience and friendly service. The band came to eat here before their set so you had a feeling it would be fine - and it was. Would visit again.

This little-known place is probably too small to make it into the guide books and that's good news…read more It's intimate, loud, boisterous, tatty, cheap, and everything you want your local jazz club to be. The only downside is the wine, which one should studiously avoid ordering as even the waitress winces if you do so. But the beers are good, and comes with that German extra frothy top that takes the mandatory 7 mins to create (so that your beer doesn't oxidise too quickly I've been told). So you've now been warned that you should order early and often. The music is eclectic but generally very good, and there's always an open jam session after 10pm for anyone who wants to show his stuff on stage. So people there are often entertained by me playing bluesy Robert Cray riffs on the electric guitar (just kidding!). Oh, one other thing. The jazz nights are not on every evening so you should check out their website to find out the program before heading out there. Without the jazz, the place is rather ordinary and the food is pretty ho-hum. But cheap.

After visiting their website and securing that the show on that night was one we wanted to see, and…read morethe food looked like something we wanted to eat, we took the advice given on the site and made a reservation for a table. First, the positives: food was good (although the dressing on the salad was positively awfulvery mayonnaise-ywould ask for oil and vinegar next time). We both ordered the steak with Bratkartoffeln and salad. The steak was perfect, potatoes you can't really mess up, and the side salad was large and colorful and diverse. The waiting time for the food was very longwe waited maybe 45 minutes, an hour? Obviously we weren't in a rush but it did take quite a long time, I think because the kitchen is a one-man affair. The music was top. I was surprised that in such a small room (we sat in the room in which the band played, at the table closest to the stage) that it wasn't overwhelmingly loud, even with a microphone hooked up to the sax. I can imagine that it might be a bit less pleasant had there been horns in the band, although I wouldn't mind that either. The service was attentive and friendly. The girls were definitely busy but they took care of us very well. The negatives: um, yeah. So, the thing with the reservation? Couple of problems with that. First, when you make a reservation for a table, you're not asked where you'd like it to be, which is not a big deal, unless they happen to take it upon themselves to seat you at a table with a EUR15 per person surcharge. Even that would have been OK, if at any point along the way we'd been informed. Neither on their site nor while making the reservation was it mentioned. They simply sat us at a table which had a sign on it, informing you of the chargethe first we'd heard of it. Of course it would have been both pointless and embarrassing to take an hour-long trip out to the place and then turn around because we were too cheap to cough up the money, and we decided to make the best of it and enjoy ourselves, but next time, we'll take a table elsewhere. And, this is the kickeryou pay EUR15 to sit at a table they they then fill with other people. In our case it worked out OK because our table was big enough to accommodate the three other people they jammed onto it, but there were other tables who wanted to order dinner and couldn't because there was literally no space for the drinks of five other strangers plus your food. One guy just got something small he could place in his lap, although he would have preferred to order a proper dinner. Apart from that it was a very pleasant evening and we will go back.

This is one of the best jazz clubs I have been to…read more Never mind me reviewing the drink options. They sell bottled beers out of a fridge. No one gets them for you. You pay on the honor system. They have empty glasses. You can pour yourself a glass of water. You are really here for the music straight up. * * * Jazzkeller 69 is an free-jazz and bop club founded by Assi Glode and Willi Kellers. Assi Glode is a long standing Berlin jazz entrepreneur who regardless of his day job spends much of his time organizing jazz concerts. Willi Kellers is an Elvin Jones quality drummer with his own takes. The Jazzkeller is NOT a place you can just go any night that you feel like hearing Jazz. They are closed most nights and open only when they have something really special worth hearing. One semi regular event they call "Freebop - No Standards". The name is a slight misnomer. There will be no jazz standards played to be sure, but most of the music is Coltrane era experimental and not bop per se. There is also very little post experimental. You go to Donau 115 for that. Freebop -No Standards is an open call for any jazz musician in Berlin to just show up and get a chance to play. The music is forking amazing. The night we were there, at least 30 musicians must have shown up. My wife and I were one of the few people in the room who were not Berlin jazz musicians or close friends of a Berlin jazz musician. Assi Glode divides people arbitrarily up into groups of four and people get one chance to play. A very small number of distinguished eminence-grises will get two chances to play. Most of the jazz artists are between 55 and 85. A few younger artists show up. The youngest ones are probably students of the older figures. Out of the thirty musicians we heard on Freebop No Standards night, at least twelve did legendary sets. We were completely rapt. No one who played was bad. This is NOT true of Berlin jazz as a whole. We have heard some wretched material in competing establishments. (Not however at Donau 115). * * * Berlin is an incredible town for both jazz and classical. Classical ticket prices will bankrupt you. You get what you pay for - music to remember for a lifetime. But you have to be as rich as Count Esterhazy to hear classical every night in Berlin. In contrast, the jazz musicians play - literally for a song. I have no idea how they survive with the negligible amount of money they are earning But they are playing music worthy of the great jazz gods. Get yourself to Jazzkeller 69 or Donau 115. These places are cash only. (Americans: This means Euros). If you truly love music, put some extra Euros in the hat.

We saw a live jazz band here and they were great! It's a nice intimate venue. The bar had a good…read morebeer selection, and I highly recommend if you're into live music.

The place is very cosy and nice - a lot of photos and pictures with famous jazz and blues…read moremusicians, the sound is perfect. Sometimes, when you visit bars with live music you can not hear anything, and your ears are "dying", but hear you really can enjoy the music. Only two points are explaining my 4 stars: they charged 8 euro from everyone for the live music (when I had called them to book a table, they have not told me anything about this) and food was not perfect (but it is bar, so it is fine :) ) But even though I enjoyed music and place, and will visit it again.

A memorable evening with a lively crowd. Reasonable entrance fees depending on the evening…read more Tonight there were three different bands in the mix. Not much by the way of food so plan ahead. There is a Thai place next-door and a Turkish restaurant a few blocks away.

Fantastic jazz bar experience with an extensive bar. Choose one of the great spots nearby for…read moredinner then go to the BFlat for a great night.

Not a part of Friedenau that we've spent much time in, but Zig Zag is only 5 or 6 minutes walk from…read morethe SBahn (Innsbrucker Platz). Attentive staff and reasonably priced drinks - Rollberg (hell) on tap. My partner's Prosecco was rather flat but it was immediately sorted out in a friendly manner, no Schnauze here! Relaxed atmposphere, windows to the street along one side make for a different feel to the typical dark jazz cellar. The place was pretty full, some seats at the back offer only a reduced view of the stage so probably wise to get here a bit earlier, or reserve a table. The music is not paid on the door, but via a collection - the suggested sum last night was €15 per person which we happily paid, and in fact added a decent extra "tip" as the music was really good and the two sets (with a pause) lasted over two hours. Why "Zig Zag" ? The name comes from a celebrated childrens' book, "Ben's Trumpet"written in 1979 by US author/illustrator Rachel Isadora. Set in the 1920's, the main character aspires to be a jazz musician and often sneaks into the (fictional) Zig Zag to listen --"Ben thinks the trumpeter is the cat's meow." Great that Berlin now has a real Zig Zag Jazzclub that can be heartily recommended.

I want so much to like this place! It's cozy and the music is great. But the way I've been treated…read morehere has been consistently poor. The source of the problem is the reservation system, which prompts the managers to be dismissive and unwelcoming. Last week I came in with a friend at 8pm for a show at 9pm, we were among the only people there, and we started looking for a place to sit. Immediately the manager came over and said aggressively, "Do you have a reservation??" We didn't. Continuing his unnecessarily antagonistic tone, he said he couldn't help us (as if it were our fault for wanting to be there, rather than a good thing), and that we would just have to stand.... In a still nearly-empty place. This is absurd. At least his manner could have been accommodating, offering perhaps that we could sit at the bar until the people who had reserved arrived. Which we did anyway, of our own accord, and ended up staying the whole evening there, because GUESS WHAT, not all those people with reservations showed up. Generally, punishing your customers -- especially the eager earlybirds -- is just garbage. This is the third time something similar has happened to me here, which means EVERY TIME I have been here. I've had enough and am never going back. I hope there is a change of management and abolishment of the reservation system so that I can go back someday and have a nice time.

Wild at Heart was exactly what I was hoping for. A proper punk/dive bar. It delivered in spades…read more The decor was perfect, messy, dark, a little dank. The peeps were friendly in their own way. Took a little bit of time but eventually they seemed to warm to me. One huge biker dude took a shine to me and kept joking with me all night in broken English. At the end of his night (which was quite early) he swooped in and gave me a kiss on the cheek and wished me a lovely vacation. The bathrooms were cleaner and nicer than the cobalt/funkys/astoria from my dives back home in Vancouver - seriously Vancouver, get your shit together - LITERALLY. Drink prices seemed super reasonable to me. But really anywhere in Europe they seem reasonable to me. Bartender didn't really know how to make a whiskey sour and what I ended up drinking wasn't that fantastic, but I think that's my fault, what the hell was I doing ordering a whiskey sour at this place? Beer seems to be the best bet. The place filled up quick and seemed very popular with the locals and tourists alike.

Wild at Heart is one of the best rock bars in the world. It's exactly like the sort of places I…read morelike to hang out back home... only better! Grab a beer and enjoy great DJs, awesome bands and even a regular burlesque show! I had been told to go here by various people who had travelled there to perform with their bands and I'm glad I listened to their advice. The crowd were all great too, you felt really comfortable and among like-minded people. My favourite night in Berlin was the night I spent at Wild at Heart. GO. I urge you. One final tip - make sure to go next door and eat at Tiki Heart.