China Club Berlin: The Private Club in the Adlon Palais and What Centurion Cardholders Get There

If you want a table with a view in New York, as a Centurion cardholder you go to the 55th floor of One Vanderbilt. The German counterpart is not in a skyscraper but in a palais next to the Brandenburg Gate: the China Club Berlin.

What the China Club is

A private members club in the Adlon Palais, Behrenstrasse 72, directly behind the Hotel Adlon on Pariser Platz. No sign, no walk-in crowd, no reservation via a booking platform. The club describes its members as selected personalities from society, politics and business, and that is exactly how the place feels: a second living room for people who need a table in Berlin where nobody listens in.

There is a restaurant, a bar, salons and private dining suites across several floors, furnished with Chinese art and antiques. The name is the concept: the kitchen is Chinese, the interior too, the rest is Berlin.

What members get

The club lists it itself:

• Unrestricted access to all club areas, for members and their guests
• Free use of the private dining suites and meeting rooms
• Access to internal events: New Year's Eve gala, Chinese New Year, Art & Collectors Talks
• Event organisation and concierge service

Opening hours: Monday to Friday 9 am to 1 am, Saturday 12 pm to 2 am, closed on Sundays. This is a club for weekdays, not for Sunday brunch.

What a membership costs

The prices are published on the club's website:

• Private: one-time joining fee 1,000 euros, then 4,000 euros per year, both including VAT
• Lifetime Private: one-time admission 10,000 euros, then 2,500 euros per year
• Corporate: one-time 1,000 euros, then 5,000 euros per year, both plus VAT
• Lifetime Corporate: one-time 15,000 euros, then 3,000 euros per year

For comparison: the Centurion Card in Germany carries an initiation fee and an annual fee of a similar order of magnitude. A club membership is not a side expense, it is a second card.

The Centurion benefit

American Express grants Centurion cardholders benefits at the China Club Berlin. This is the kind of perk that never appears on a public benefits page but is communicated directly to cardholders, which is exactly why hardly anyone knows about it.

What it covers in detail depends on the current communication from Amex. If you hold the Centurion Card and need a table in Berlin, ask your relationship manager or the Centurion team before buying your way in for 5,000 euros. I will update this section whenever the terms change.

Verdict

The China Club is not a restaurant you recommend to friends, because you cannot simply go there. It is a tool: a place in the capital where you can hold conversations that do not belong in a hotel restaurant. For most people a membership of their own is too expensive for that. For Centurion cardholders, access is part of what the card is for, and together with One Vanderbilt in New York it is one of the few Centurion benefits that have nothing to do with flying.

How you get the card in the first place is in Amex Centurion: how to get the invitation.