Café NiL

A friendly and buzzy mostly-male outpost with decorative hints of ancient Egypt (thus the titular reference to the Nile, auf Deutsch), this laid-back but attentive café-bar is back in the domain of its orignial owner, Manfred Krischer — a cheeky and affable scene veteran immediately recognisable for his clump of Warhol-like white hair and who calls Nil "my living room"; he also likes a rude joke and has stories to tell. Krischer's colourful past includes a gay-famous Turkish sauna which he closed in 1987, two years after which he started up NiL — a Paris-style, red-marbled bistro that he ran until 2003. For the next six or so years, the business was overseen (and changed) by two different sets of owners, including a short spell in which the bar went by the name 'Glocke & Bach'. Krischer returned to the fold in 2010, reinvented the space in Egyptian style, with its warm red effect, and brought on board the sweet, pretty and much younger Sebastian Roos (aka Basti) to help run the place. The central bar is surrounded by stools and the spacious room is dotted with sofas for hangng out and looking out the window. Kitchen specialties include a cornflake schnitzel, plus bolognese, wurst, gulaschsuppe, noodles, cakes and more. U-Bahn: Sendlinger Tor.