I went to Berlin last weekend. Just for 2 nights so had a lot to cram in!! I thought it was a really lovely, really vegan-friendly/generally friendly city.
As we had such a short stay, I think our decision of having a walking tour was a good one. There are a few around and the one we chose was the insider walks:
http://www.insidertour.com/tours.php/cat/2/title/The_Tours
and I’d definitely recommend if you’re on a short visit.
We also went to the Reichstag dome, which needed to be booked online here: http://www.bundestag.de/htdocs_e/visits/kupp.html
It had great views of the city.
To food!!!
Yoyo Foodworld, Gärtnerstraße 27
Official Website: http://www.yoyofoodworld.de/
Nearest U-bahn: Samariterstraße
We had our first and last meals of Berlin here, burgers both times because they were so amazing!!! Everything the place serves is 100% vegan. I wish I had taken photos. Basically, for under 5 euros you can get a really good burger (many varieties) in a bun with vegan cheese, sauces, pickles, salad and more home-made tiny fries than you could ever possibly eat! Options were also to add a side salad or just have the burger, no fries. They also served vegan pizza which did look amazing, and some other dishes such as wraps, but we were so caught up on the burgers we had them both times we visited!
I also had cake both times-cake of the day. The first time it was a chocolate muffin cake with a raspberry jelly layer and chocolate ganache and whipped cream. The other time it was a vanilla sponge with apricots and a vanilla custard layer with whipped cream and more fruit on top. Both times very tasty!!!
Lucky Leek, Kollwitzstraße 46
Official Website: http://www.lucky-leek.de/
Nearest U-bahn: Senerfelderplatz
Also 100% vegan, this was probably the best vegan restaurant I’ve ever been to. They managed the gourmet food perfectly and the flavours were so good! They had the menu in English as well as German which really helped.
To start, we were brought some crispbreads and pate which was rather tasty. Then for a starter we shared tandoori lentil samosas on a lovely salad that included melon marinated in lime juice and agave syrup as well as lambs lettuce and other leaves. The samosas were as lovely as the salad and left us ready for more!
For main, I had an asparagus risotto which included both white and green asparagus (I LOVE asparagus) and had some salad on the side again. It was very tasty and R said the rice was perfectly cooked for risotto (not something I really notice…) He had tomato and walnut canneloni which was really good and had a roasted vegetable sauce on top with bechamel sauce above that, neatly presented on the plate. That was also very tasty and gave us some inspiration for using nuts more in dishes.
Dessert was a lime tart with caramelised coconut ice cream (mmmm), my mouth is watering just thinking of it. The tart crust was quite spongey and the lime flavour was just right, in a fairly creamy filling. The caramelised coconut ice cream was to die for.
It wasn’t cheap, but it was amazing!!!!!
Tanne B, Eisenbahnstr. 48
Official Website: http://tanneb.de/
Nearest U-bahn: Gorlitzer Bahnhof
Just needed to mention the lovely ice-cream parlour we visited which marked its vegan sorbets and soya ice creams. They told us which cones were vegan and I had a scoop of chocolate and a scoop of hazelnut in a cone, while R had an iced coffee made with vanilla soy ice-cream!!!!! It was lovely and creamy and I wish I could get ice cream like that in a cone in London!!!!
Veganz, Schivelbeiner Straße 34
Official Website: http://www.veganz.de/
Nearest U-bahn: Schonhouser Allee
This is Berlin’s vegan supermarket. There are cosmetics, household products, the craziest frozen section (including loads of amazing looking pizzas) cake mixes, chocolates, jerky, all the vegan cheeses and fake meats. It’s pretty amazing. We bought a gluten free brownie mix and some dessert mixes, a huge vegan german sausage and some treats to get us through the day! There’s also a little cafe out the front, so I had a bbq bagel (with salad, roasted veg, seitan and bbq sauce) and some madeira-type cake with berries in it for brunch!!!
We also found it easy to go vegan in one of the many Vietnamese/sushi places there, and passed many many more vegan cafes, especially around Samariterstraße.
I definitely recommend Berlin and will be returning when I can!
Tofu Jen 