We love to show our #bestnine for 2018! A year filled with nice restaurants, cosy cafés and so many great vegan food experiences. Thank you very much for your support – we clearly see that you, just as us, like many varied dishes, from pizza and burgers to Asian cuisine and everything in between. Now we are looking forward to 2019 – let’s make that even better!
The pictures are the nine most liked photos on our Instagram page. Click here if you not already are following us! ⠀ The restaurants on the photo, counting from the left to right, are the following:
Many of you might think of Berlin as the country of Döner, Currywurst and beer. But if there is something you’ll find plentyful of in Berlin, it is Vietnamese Restaurants. Several of them are fully vegan, while many who serve animal products also have great vegan options. It would even be hard to live here without eating at any of them. Here are 5 vegan-friendly Vietnamese restaurants in Berlin we visit from time to time. Note: not listed in any special order.
Noras Garden
Originally a hotel, Nora Hotel also opened an all-vegan restaurant called Nora’s Garden this summer. The place really lives up to its name – the wooden interior (walls included) and the plants that fill the whole restaurant make you feel like you got right into your grandma’s backyard. The menu follows their green concept with dishes like “Woody Stick”, “Jungle Fury” and “Give Peas a Chance”, preferably with a Tiger beer to get all set for the wild. If you rather want a swim in the ocean, we’d suggest “Drowning Wonton”, “Salty Cubes” or “Wannabe Fish” – the two latter we’ve tried, and we can certify that it also tastes really fresh, just as the “Slim Chicken” with peanut butter sauce. Fish? Chicken? “Pho real?” Our answer: yes, this is a “Vegan Heaven”. For a full view of their green menu, have a look on their website: https://norasgarden.wixsite.com/vivalasvegan
Nora’s Garden, Simon-Dach-Straße 46, 10245 Berlin – Friedrichshain
Co Chu
Co chu presented their first vegan dishes this winter, including five options in their main menu, and we have already tried every single one of them. All are prepared with tofu which has a very nice texture – crispy fried on the outside, creamy on the inside and deliciously marinated. The food is always freshly made, and the spice combinations of the sauces are well balanced. Our favourite dish is the soup with glass noodles (Súp Miển Tofu), it is simply so tasty and the yellow curry with pumpkin. The service is very friendly with good knowledge about the food that is served. Just make sure you book a table in advance if you plan to visit the restaurant during rush hour, as it often tends to be full (with good reasons for it!). For menu and reservations check out their website here: https://www.co-chu.de/
Co Chu, Invalidenstraße 29, 10115 Berlin – Mitte
Sora
On a haunt for a vegan-friendly Vietnamese restaurant near Ostkreuz? Go visit Sora! It is a vegetarian place but be advised: Almost all dishes can be veganised. Have no anxiety, their menu has a great variety – such as salads, soups, noodles and rice, carefully prepared with much spice, and a rich taste, brought in to our table in haste by a friendly staff that have easy to laugh. We chose tofu with mushrooms and eggplant served hot in a clay pot (“Kho Ram”) and crispy spring rolls with wispy rice noodles (“Bun Nem”) – both quite nutritious and so delicious! The interior consists mainly of wood, and just as the food, it is authentic and traditional Vietnamese, probably made with no ease. This place is a hit and definitely worth a revisit. If you want to see their menu, we give an invite to visit their website (without rhymes, we promise): https://www.sora-berlin.de/menuekarte/
Sora, Sonntagstraße 26, 10245 Berlin – Friedrichshain
1990 Vegan Living
1990 is the kind of place where you go if you want to try everything. With their small bowls that reminds you of tapas, you can order as many if you want – but you’ll have to be very hungry if you want to try them all at once, so we suggest you share them. It is a mixture of traditional Vietnamese dishes and some of their own interpretations. We’d highly recommend the silky tofu encased in crispy green rice flakes with a raspberry chili dip (“Com Chien”, shown on the top) – we could come back only for this dish. But if you don’t feel like mixing lot of tastes, they also have bigger bowls with just one portion. It’s overall a well visited place with a nice location just by Boxhagener Platz. If you want to see more of the restaurant or order a table straight away, head over to their webpage: https://www.restaurant-1990.de
1990 Vegan Living, Krossener Str. 19, 10245 Berlin – Friedrichshain
Mom’s Creation
Met by a cosy and traditional Vietnamese interior and a nice outdoor seating, it seemed like we found a great place to enjoy our dinner this beautiful fall evening. As our eyes glimpsed through the menu of Mom’s creation, we noticed that they had a lot of options, including tofu, seitan and “fake meat” with Vietnamese spices and vegetables. But a few things were new compared to other Vietnamese restaurants that we’ve visited, and without noticing, we ordered almost identical dishes (is this a sign of that we are becoming an old couple?). Although everybody loves the taste of fried chicken, we have never seen it on a vegan menu, nor the sweet but fresh mango sauce. However, if you are more into the “safe” choices, we’d highly recommend the peanut butter sauce – or why not try the (vegan) duck or a crispy mango salad? Serve it with a cup of Asian green tea and you are all set. For a look in their menu, here is their website: http://moms-restaurant.de/ PS. Yes, the Lotus biscuit that came with the tea is also vegan.
Mom’s Creation, Proskauer Str. 1, 10247 Berlin – Friedrichshain
Berlin has
a lot of Vietnamese restaurants, and as it also is known for being a “vegan
Mecca”, you shouldn’t be too surprised of the big variety within the cuisine. No
matter if you want fresh marinated tofu, fried fake chicken or small delicious bowls
of everything, you will surely find something that you like in this city.
Do you think we missed any Vietnamese restaurant
with good vegan options? Are your top 5 vegan-friendly restaurants in Berlin a
whole other story? Please let us know in the comments below!
When an all-vegan burger chain opens in the new shopping mall in town, that must be a sign of that veganism is becoming big. If you want to see it with your own eyes, go to East Side Mall in Berlin and find the restaurant @VincentVeganOfficial. Their most famous dish is the Beyond Burger – for you that haven’t heard of this before we’ll quote the brand @BeyondMeat itself: “the world’s first plant-based burger that looks, cooks, and tastes like a fresh beef burger” (https://www.beyondmeat.com/products/view/beyond-burger#). Exciting, right?⠀ ⠀ They also have chicken nuggets, currywurst (German sausage with curry ketchup) and other burgers. We decided to wait with the Beyond burger and ordered a “Vegmenu” with a cheeseburger as the main, plus sweet potato fries and a rosemary limo. We also tried the döner (German kebab) with fries. Everything looked so delicious – the melted (vegan!) cheese, the fries covered yellow turmeric sauce – just that greasy as you would expect from a hangover meal, with an ice-cold lemonade on the side to cheer you up a bit more.⠀ ⠀ The burger patty was juicy, the fries crispy – but the sauces in the burger didn’t taste as must as we would have wanted, and the döner “meat” was a bit too hard fried. And the lemonade tasted of slightly sweetened, well, water.⠀ ⠀ Our first impression of Vincent vegan did unfortunately not meet our expectations. However, thinking of the many good reviews that the Beyond burger has got, we would love to come back and see if it is as amazing as people say. If you went to the Vincent Vegan, what would you choose?⠀ ⠀ For a view of where else you might find them, or perhaps have a look at their own clothing brand, head over to their website: https://vincent-vegan.com/
Vincent Vegan, East Side Mall, Tamara-Danz-Straße 11, 10243 Berlin – Friedrichshain
One of the restaurant owners told us that already when their new Italian, vegetarian restaurant named Restaurant Sotto opened a few months ago, it was a huge success – people were standing queuing outside. We found the place by a recommendation on Facebook, and when we read about it, we knew we had to try. We even dared to bring my meat-eating family.⠀ ⠀ They have both vegan and vegetarian dishes, of which many can be veganized. We ordered bruschetta with pumpkin cream and tempeh for starter and got amazed with the first bite. Pumpkin with tahini and taste of orange – just the mention of it must make you drool. As the main dish, we chose homemade pizza “Zucca Vegane” with pumpkin cream, almond cream cheese, fresh herb pesto, red onions and rosemary and a pumpkin risotto with rosemary, stirred with almond cream and nutritional yeast (have we mentioned that we like pumpkin?). Both were so creamy with a great combination of tastes! We were also impressed by their creativity – what about a homemade bowl of coffee sciatelli (pasta) with Jerusalem artichoke and roasted hazelnuts? The (very friendly!) staff told us that they wanted that everybody would like their food, not only vegans. And I know you are super curious … Yes, my meat-eating family loved it. Success!⠀
Restaurant Sotto, Neue Hochstraße 25, 13347 Berlin – Wedding
This was the first time we went to the South-Indian restaurant @gourapakora, who reopened a few months ago. Before that, it had been closed for about two years. When we looked at the menu, we saw so much tempting food, so we decided to go for the shared dish with mixed items. Thinking of the massive plate they brought in to us, overfilled with delicious vegan food such as Indian falafels, mixed fried vegetables and potato curry, it is hard to understand why they would close. We got an amazing lentil soup as an appetizer and sweet nut crisp with apple puree as dessert (although the old saying “there’s always room for a dessert”, we could barely eat it because we were so full from the rest). Glancing on the appetizing plates of other guests, we could easily have shared a one-manned dish – they were huge. You’ll find them for affordable prices in Friedrichshain near Boxhagener Platz.
Goura Pakora, Krossener Str. 16, 10245 Berlin – Friedrichshain
Rumours travel fast – after we heard about the vegan fried egg at the new vegan Thai restaurant li.ke Thai Vegan (pronounced lii-gay) near Boxhagener Platz, it didn’t take a long time until we let our feet take us there. The most likely first all-vegan Thai in Berlin opened just a few weeks ago and met us with friendly service and a very vibrant interior full of writings on the walls in their local language. You immediately got the feeling that you just as well could have been at any restaurant in Bangkok. When our eyes glanced at the menu, we decided to take five small bowls of different dishes with the vegan fried egg as an extra option. Wow, li.ke really know their way how to handle tofu – crispy fried on the outside, soft on the inside. Though a small warning is needed for the more sensitive people – it was spicy! And Warning no. 2: the food was so good, the spices really married each other (especially the curries), so you will want to come back several times to try everything, and then have it again, and again …
Are you ready for cosy candle lights, hot tea and sweet cakes? To be honest – we are not, but a doughnut from Brammibals Donuts can cheer anyone up. Fluffy on the inside, sticky on the outside, crusty on the top – just like a really good doughnut should be. Chocolate peanut fudge, fruity blueberry swirl or something more exotic like a banana cherry; You can choose anything you want, and we’ll promise that you won’t get disappointed. These are the kind of sweet desserts that can make anyone gasp, asking out load: “Is this really vegan?”. Yes, it is! As the finishing touch, they serve coffee with oat drink from legendary Oatly, which is the best coffee “milk” you could ever dream of. Or do like us – have an ice cold Oatly Matcha Latte and bring your vegan doughnuts home to your warm couch. It’s the perfect company to hide with under your quilt.
Well, now we know where you are heading today. They have three different locations around Berlin, sometimes accompanied by a food truck at some market in town. You can drool even more on their webpage: https://goo.gl/qdw7hP
Brammibals Donuts, Maybachufer 8, 12047 Berlin – Kreuzberg Danziger Straße 65, 10435 Berlin – Prenzlauer Berg Alte Potsdamer Straße 7, 10785 Berlin – Mitte (Potsdamer Platz)
Just two streets away from our apartment, there was a blocked way, which we could never pass – until now. And guess what was hidden behind? Burger Wehr, with several vegan burgers based on seitan. We tried the Mediterranean with pesto and one called Samba, extra spicy and with really delicious guacamole and loads of garlic – the latter you won’t get vegan everywhere, and we appreciate something different than the usual cheeseburger. Fluffy, homemade burger buns and loads of sauce seem to be their standard, which we approve – after all, isn’t it that, that makes a burger step from just “good” to “super tasty”? Plus for that, the service was really friendly!
We got our orders really fast, but still, you could sense that they put an effort into what they did. As we live so close, there is definitely a chance (/risk?) that we will come here quite often…
For more information such as their opening hours, visit their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BurgerwehrFhain/
Burgerwehr, Rigaer Straße 75, Berlin-Friedrichshain
We learned about Kernvoll when we opened Happy Cow’s website and noticed that there was a new place in the “near me” section – just a few streets away from our home. After having a look at their website, it turned out that this was not only an ordinary vegan restaurant, it seemed to be a whole concept. They offer catering, brunch and even a vegan clothing brand named Organic Tailoring. As you already might have suspected, everything from Kernvoll is organic – including the food.
We also saw that one couldn’t just spontaneously go there whenever you want to – they only have open two or three times a week, of which one of the days you will have to order in advance. Therefore, it took a while unti we finally managed to come to their weekly Pizza Friday (or #pizzafreitagas Kernvoll itself calls it). Let’s put it like this: it was worth waiting for.
Everything is homemade. The fresh pizza bread made of spelt, the creamy vegan cheese and they even had lemonade made of home-cooked syrup. The very friendly service told us all about their menu and made suggestions of what to choose. You really got the feeling of being taken care of as a guest – we even got some fresh, homemade pizza buns as a starter. We ordered a shared plate with slices of all the three pizzas they currently had on their menu. The mushroom & caramelized onion was sweet, yet savoury, the olive & fresh tomato had such a wonderful basil pesto, while the slices with arugula, cherry tomatoes, pomegranate & cashew parmesan were genius, with a perfect balance of sweet and sour.
So, what are your plans for next Friday? If you are already booked, you should at least go there the Sunday after – then they have brunch and vegan cakes. I already know that we will have a sweet tooth by then…
If you want to see their schedule, please visit their website: https://www.kernvoll.de/
Kernvoll, Samariterstraße 34, 10247 Berlin – Friedrichshain
A rainy Friday evening in Berlin we found our way to the vegetarian dumpling place Momos. We were welcomed by a trendy restaurant with friendly staff behind the counter, ready to take our orders. They had a very simple concept, both regarding their interior and their food. There are six different dumplings you can choose from, of which four are vegan. The dishes are served with a dip free of choice. We ordered mixed plates to try all four, together with dips with a taste of lemon-mint and soy-sesame. With that, we enjoyed a delicious seaside salad with red seaweed and sliced cucumber. ⠀ ⠀ The dumplings were so tasty, not to mention the dips! But there was a small problem: the dough of the dumplings easily took over the filling, which made it hard to defer which dumpling you were eating. Our suggestion would be to make them bigger because the dough had a very nice consistency – we would just like to know what the filling is like. Another tip for you, potential guests, is to order at least twelve dumplings to get full. If you are really hungry, order more – and don’t forget the sides!⠀ ⠀ After enjoying our meal, we had a bit of a sweet tooth – and it was Friday! Momos even had a dumpling dessert with banana filling, served with cinnamon and maple syrup. Here the dough did not take over, it was thin and crispy, and the bananas sweet and moisty. They also had a delicious brownie with nuts. Momos is a great place to warm you from the rain! Unfortunately, we had to go out again…⠀ ⠀ For menu please visit their website here: https://momos-berlin.de
Momos – organic veggie dumplings, Chausseestraße 2, 10115 Berlin – Mitte
