Rockcafe Halford and Berlin’s Heavy Metal Bar Crawl

So yeah, we wouldn’t recommend showing up too late, because even though the official closing time is 3 am every day (except weekends — Saturdays they close at 5 am and Sundays at 2 am), rumor has it the owner shuts the place down as soon as the last customer leaves.

The pub is in a lively nightlife area, not too far from RAW-Gelände and the Kreuzberg district.

The address is Mainzer Str. 15. As soon as you arrive, you’re greeted by several unmistakable signs that you’ve reached the temple of Rob Halford and Judas Priest. First, there’s the pub’s logo hanging over the entrance, and right by the door, a bust of Rob Halford himself. Just below, you’ll also find the menu displayed under another sign featuring the singer with his arms wide open and the words “Metal God Pub” shining above.

With such a metallic welcome, there’s only one thing left to do — step inside this church of metal and enjoy it like the true headbangers we are 🤘.

And before you walk in, don’t miss our one-minute tour of the place — check out the Reel we made for Instagram!

The moment you walk in, you’re face-to-face with the main bar. Pretty awesome, right? We ordered a couple of big beer mugs and, of course, they come printed with the bar’s logo and a photo of the Metal God himself.

We sat down, sipping our beers while checking out the walls, which are packed with photos — tons of Judas Priest, some of them actually taken right here inside the pub alongside the owner himself.

That’s Sven Rappoldt, by the way — the guy has been running this place since the ’90s. Back then, he already kinda looked like Rob Halford, but as the years passed, he’s aged in sync with the Metal God himself — almost like a parallel evolution 🤘.

After a while, we got up to explore the rest of the bar, which is crammed with memorabilia celebrating the band’s journey and its legendary frontman. Of course, you’ll also spot a few nods to other heavy metal icons here and there.

The real showstopper, though, is a sculpture of Rob Halford, created back in 1997 for the bar’s fifth anniversary — it used to stand proudly outside.

The place also has a larger area for games like pool and darts, perfect for hanging out between headbanging sessions. And yeah, I probably don’t even need to tell you this, but the music is a carefully curated selection ranging from metal classics to newer bands. Most of the time, Sven himself is the one in charge of the playlist… if he’s around, that is.

On KK Downing’s official website, there’s actually an interview with Sven. You can check it out [here], and basically, he tells us that:

Back in the days of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Sven Rappoldt was a member of the band Metall, which mainly covered songs by Saxon and Judas Priest. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, one of his most unforgettable experiences was attending the Judas Priest concert in 1992 at the Eishalle in Berlin during the “Painkiller” tour — an event forever remembered by East Berlin fans who had been waiting a long, long time to finally see the band live

In 1992, Sven opened his first nightclub in East Berlin. He even asked for permission to use the name “Halford”, taking it directly from the Metal God himself. By ’94, he was also working as a promoter and concert organizer, and at one point he even got to meet Rob Halford in Hamburg during a Fight press conference. In ’97, he organized a press conference and signing session with K.K. Downing and Tim “Ripper” Owens at the Rockfactory Halford-Berlin, and later, in 2002, he hosted another press conference with Rob Halford himself.

Over the years, Rockcafe Halford has hosted events and album launches for bands like AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Savatage, Beyond Fear, Motörhead, Saxon, Ozzy, HammerFall, Helloween, Fight, Judas Priest and, of course, Halford. So yeah, this place isn’t just a bar — it’s a landmark of Berlin’s heavy metal scene 🤘.

When we visited Halford, I posted about it on social media, and right away my buddy Rubén Arnal hit me up. Don’t know him? Well, let me tell you — this guy is probably the most traveled metalhead on the planet. He’s been to every single country in the world — all 193 UN nations — and he’s now on his second round revisiting many of them! Anyway, he sent me some old photos from 2007 taken at the bar, which I’m sharing below. You can really see how much the place has changed… well, the bar, Rubén, us… and life in general 🙂

If you’re still hungry for more after visiting Rock Café Halford, you’re in the perfect place to go on a full-on metal bar crawl through Berlin. The city is home to bars that are absolute institutions within the scene, starting with Paule’s Metal Eck and Bretterbude — two all-time classics where the riffs hit hard and the beers keep flowing. Both spots deliver a true metal vibe, underground décor, and playlists that blast everything from Iron Maiden to Slayer.

Another must-stop is Brutz & Brakel, a bar with metal running through its veins — it’s run by one of the founding members of the legendary Berlin band Postmortem. Here, you don’t just drink and headbang to killer tracks; you actually breathe in the history of Berlin’s local scene.

So, if you’re chasing authentic metal hideouts far from the usual tourist traps, these bars are mandatory stops to round off your Berlin headbanging experience