Confronting the suspiciously cheap pizza

Before I left Finland a lot of people gave me what they thought to be good advice. Something my godfather said to me came to mind the other day: "If something sounds too good to be true - it usually is".

There was recently an article in a Finnish economics magazine about the price of pizza. In Finland a pizza should cost at least 6 euros to cover all expenses. Anything cheaper than that and something's gotta give. Berlin is of course much cheaper than Helsinki in every way imaginable, but even here a pizza too cheap can make the locals suspicious.

Opposite to our building on Hermannstraße there's a very cosy-looking Italian restaurant that has the most incredible offers I've ever seen. You can get a pizza for 2,30€, lasagne for 2,10€ or a pasta meal even for 1,90€! You can't make any meal even at home for those prices. So when picking up that ridiculously cheap lasagne in the back of your mind you have to be wondering: what is wrong with the picture? (And here's an actual picture.)

We've been thinking about this with my roommates who've lived here for quite some while, and they  seem to be sure that there's money laundering - or other illegal activities - going on in the restaurant. It doesn't sound that far-fetched. I mean, there's 5-10 people working there at any given time, the restaurant is sort of centrally located and the food isn't crap. It all has to cost something so what gives?

Of course you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth but we did laugh out quite loud when we went to this place for drinks one night and when looking through the menus we noticed that whereas the pizzas are a little over two euros each the stuffed mushroom starters for example are 7€. And you can get a plate of nachos and salsa for the price of two-three lasagnes. I know I'm new at this entrepeneurship thing but this does not sound like good business.

So what exactly is the business behind this - that will remain a mystery to me. I'm leaving Berlin today and heading for Hong Kong. A big thank you to my high school friend Vappu, the roommates Christian and Katharina, my neighbors Anna and Daniel, the other Daniel (Katharina's boyfriend), Tobias, Philipp, Zouhir, the people of Tacheles and everyone who gave me tips on where to go here and who to meet.

And what comes to the advice on the too-good-to-be-true things, I did get the lasagne for 2,10€ so true it was. Though I might have supported the local mafia in doing so, who knows. And even that particular piece of advice was given to me by The Godfather.