Favorite places in Berlin

Berlin is one of the most vegan friendly cities in the world.  According to Happy Cow, there are about 30 all vegan restaurants in Berlin.  There are more vegetarian ones & countless are veg friendly[if not, almost all]. Almost everywhere has vegan options clearly marked[I even noticed in some supermarkets things in the bakery, as well as on the shelf, were clearly marked with the word "vegan"]  Even most ice cream shops offer several soy flavors.  There's also the popular vegan grocery store Veganz, which has 2 locations in Berlin & I visited them several times.(as well as the location in Hamburg)

Now, on to the actual restaurants & food! Here are my top places, in no particular order:

Let it Be, as the sign says is an all vegan creperie, selling both sweet and savory crepes.

This is only part of the menu. They also have both a German & an English menu. As you can see, the names of the items are vegan celebrities, the whole menu is designed this way.

 

this cute guy was behind us! 

Shortly after ordering, they gave us free mini muffins! They were corn muffins, my friend thought they were dry, but I thought they were tasty! I was a fan! & how nice of them to give them to us!

It was hard to decide what to get! So many things sounded really good! & I kept trying to decided if I wanted savory or sweet.  I kept going back and forth, but since I rarely get the sweet option these days when I eat, I figured, I'm on vacation! So Why not?  & so, I went with the Alicia Silverstone : Chocolate Cream & Banana.  It was delicious! & not too sweet!

how cute are those plastic hearts to hold the bread together! (I'm sure there's an actual name for this..but can't think of it haha)

This was the dish I was trying to decide between, the Johnny Marr: caramalized tofu, apples, walnuts, greens and chutney.  I tried a piece and really liked it! I was thinking of getting it to go but after the meal I was so full, I couldn't think about food. [I do regret this, as it was really good and would have loved to have a whole sandwich of it)

Close up!

My other friend got the Mike Tyson burger, which I remember it being BBQ Chicken & not sure what else was in it, but he was a fan!

Then! I couldn't believe it! They brought over this:

 

More free food! I'm not exactly sure why they gave it to us..said something about having extra? not sure..After my sweet crepe, I couldn't eat too much of this! but of course, I did have a few bites. It was tasty but I was sweetened out!

Anyways, I highly recommend this place. We all liked it & I'd definitely go back.

Next up!

Sfizy Veg is an all vegan pizza place! Since we do have some vegan pizza options in NYC, I didn't feel the need to run to it, and wound up going here on my last night.  Well, had I gone earlier in my trip,  I would have definitely come back. The menu is huge! probably 20 pages! All in German, but luckily, since I was with Germans, they helped me out.  They had a page for salads, several pages for pizza pies, one page for slices, one for calzones, there were pastas & more.

Unfortunately, it was dark & so my photos of the food didn't come out well :( so I will just tell you about them (I know, not as exciting as photos!)  I went for the pie with cheese & spinach and broccoli & it was amazing.  In Germany, there's a ton of vegan cheeses, & I have no idea which one they used, but it was delicious & the style was like old school pizza. So good.  My friend got the..well I'm not sure what it was called, but it was a mix of Mexican Food & Italian Food..I remember there was marinara sauce, but there was also guacamole, there was cheese, maybe beans.  When she told me she ordered that, I was a bit scared that it was going to be awful, but, surprisingly, it was AMAZING and I would definitely order it.

Here's some photos of the inside

 

How cute!

 Oh & a heads up, it's cash only.

Next we have

  This place was SO cute! Look at all the pink!

& before I go on, I must show the beautiful dessert case

 Oh La La specializes in French desserts, but they also have food.  On the weekend, they have an ALL YOU CAN EAT VEGAN BRUNCH! (turns out several restaurants in Berlin offer this, but sadly I didn't make it to them :(  [Kopps, Mia Matto, Cafe Morgenrot, Viasko..& there are probably other places I'm not aware of]

Oh La La's all you can eat brunch, I believe was 12 euros, that is considered on the pricier side of things, though it didn't seem like a lot to me!  There was a mix of both sweet & savory:

I want those bowls! So pretty.

Pineapple Coconut Smoothie! So delicious

                                       these were yummy, filled with different beans and corn

I took more photos but they didn't come out too clearly unfortunately and my regular camera battery had died.  Other things that they had were the most amazing strawberry mousse crumble, I went back to get it several times & it was the first thing they ran out, the other most amazing thing was this vanilla cream dish with almonds , I'm not even sure what it was, but it was heavenly.  Other items were various salads, one that I enjoyed had tempeh in it, there was a gazpacho soup, a risotto, some tofu dishes.  Definitely lots to choose from.

After I finished eating & chatting with the people at my table, it was time to figure out what to have for dessert. I was so full, so I had to take it to go.  It was very hard to decide but the woman working helped me telling me what their specialties are and what you can and can't find elsewhere.

I went with:

 Indiana - Peanut Butter

Igloo's- Chocolate with coconut cream

I had both several hours later while at the park & they were both delicious. I think I liked the peanut butter one more but loved both! &surprisingly they were both not overly sweet!

This seems to be their image, if it was on a shirt I would have probably bought it.

The last two places that I'm going to mention are actually in Hamburg. I went there for the day.

My first stop there was Eisbande, which I actually found out about randomly on Instagram!

   [Eis is Ice Cream]

This place was super cute & the woman working was very helpful, and translated things for me, as everything was written in German. I sampled several flavors, but in the end went with Vanilla & Snickers!

I love how this looks! You can't go wrong with a heart wafer! There's also strawberry sauce and those little bits are hazelnuts. SO delicious! I wish i had more time to come by for more later in the day.

For lunch I went to HappenPappen. I randomly picked this place from the list of vegan places on HappyCow and I'm glad I did, because not only was the food probably my favorite from my trip so far (went there on maybe my 4th day) but the people working there were so nice.

Red lentil balls with sweet potato mash. This also came with a side salad which had THE most amazing dressing, which the woman told me they make in house, it was a mix of mango and passion fruit if I'm remembering correctly [note to self: take notes next time! I'm not sure why I thought I'd remember everything!].

The red lentil balls were so tasty, really loved it.  For dessert I had the blueberry pie. I know it may look a little odd, but I can assure you, it was delicious!

I would definitely recommend this place. Yummy food, super nice staff & they have vegan books for sale too.

Before I go though, here's a photo of some of the things I bought at Veganz, as well as some from the local supermarket. Favorites were the Vego, Dame Blanche, Shortcake cookie, Nougat bar, Amore Milo wafer, the Twibio, and the Teegeback cookies...why did I bother saying favorites? all of it was pretty amazing!!! & I still have a fridge filled with some of these! Trying to make them last!

 

Vegan in the apple becomes vegan in Chicago, for a few days

I recently went to Chicago to see my current favorite band Bastille,  everyone go check them out, they're awesome. What else was there to do in Chicago though?  Eat Eat Eat (though I did do some other things too!)

My first stop was Native Foods, which sadly, my photos didn't come out too well so I'm not going to post them.  I had the azteca salad (greens, quinoa, avocado, pumpkin seeds, currants, cucumber, jicama, mango, with mango lime vinaigrette), my favorite sweet potato fries ever and a carrot cream cheese cupcake.  Everything was delicious (& also things I had last time I was in Chicago).

The next day I met my friend for lunch at Handlebar. I got so lost getting there that it somehow took me 45 minutes to get there instead of the 9 minutes google maps said it'd take. Don't ask.  My friend had already ordered the fried pickles:

My reaction was "ew".  Never in my life would I pick/think/choose you name it to order fried pickles..but, I decided to try them anyway...THEY WERE SO GOOD! I couldn't believe it! I don't even really like pickles much these days, but these were so good.  I think the sauce (their homemade ranch) is what really made it good..but the breading was so good.  These were delicious.  I wanted more after we finished.

Then we decided to split the kale quinoa salad and the biscuits and gravy(which that was what I was most looking forward to. by the way..Handlebar has brunch EVERY DAY until 3pm!).

Kale, avocado, quinoa, pumpkin seeds..& not sure if there was anything else in it..I can't remember what the dressing was, but what I can remember is, this salad was delicious!

Next up! What I've been waiting for, biscuits and gravy with seitan sausage.

i

It was amazing!! I loved how much gravy there was and the biscuits were so good. All I could think was "I want to come back and have these tomorrow" and "why don't they have anything like this in nyc?"  They were so good and the gravy was so tasty.  They were just delicious. Probably the best biscuits and gravy I've ever had.

After lunch, we walked to Wormhole which is a pretty awesome 80's themed coffee shop. They have a delorean.  They offer soy and 7 grain milk.  I just got this huge delicious oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. If I lived in Chicago, I'd definitely hang out at Wormhole all the time. (I did come back another day and had tea and went again on my last day for another cookie.)All the staff seemed really nice too.

                                                              Oatmeal Chocolate Chip

Next up! CHICAGO DINER!

I really wanted to try their wings since they're made of seitan instead of the usual soy chicken or even tempeh.  They offer them in either BBQ or buffalo sauce.  My friend & I got it with BBQ sauce.  I was a little worried since I'm not a huge BBQ person, but luckily these did not disappoint.  They were so good.  I LOVED the texture of them, so chewy, so good.  (Note: I wound up going back on my last day and got the buffalo ones to take home with me..They were tasty too & not as spicy as some wings I've had (usually they make my eyes and nose run but these didn't, these had a very nice kick to them.)

 mmmm. (sorry, didn't take a photo of the buffalo ones, but imagine the same thing but orange-y looking). Anyone know of any place in NYC that makes wings out of seitan? I don't..someone should get on that!

For my main meal, I decided to try the reuben with a side of garlicky greens.  I don't think I've had a reuben in my life, they generally don't sound appealing to me and I've only recently gotten into tempeh which most reuben's are made out of.  However, like the wings, their reuben is made of seitan.  It also happened to be their 31st birthday and so the reuben was $6 I think it was (which the waiter said was what they charged in 1983). so why not try it?

Seeing this, it did not look appetizing at all to me..It really looked like meat! They use beets to resemble the color of meat..ick.  However, one can't judge a book by its cover, and one can't judge food by its looks and so I took a bite..and it was really tasty! I really enjoyed it.  I'm not sure if it would be my go to meal here, but I would probably get it again.  The greens were amazing.

& of course you can't leave Chicago Diner without a shake..and so I got the cookie dough peanut butter shake, which I've had before and it was as before, super yummy!

Also, like Handlebar, Chicago Diner has brunch EVERY DAY!  I came back a few days later and got the soul bowl which I've had before

I really love the soul bowl..garlicky greens yet again, avocado(added for $1), beans (hidden in photo), mashed sweet potato (also hidden in photo), quinoa and seitan.  This dish normally comes with tofu but I asked if I could have seitan instead.  He gave me about 5 different types of seitan they had to choose from! I can't remember which one I picked (think I said the one that's in sandwiches?) but it was delicious (hmm how many times have I used the word delicious in this post?) The waiter was unsure how seitan would go with the rest of the meal, but I loved it!  This time had the mint shake which I've also had before (I'll venture away from ones I've had before next time!) and that was yummy too.  Shared sweet potato fries with everyone and yum but definitely overate at this meal and felt full until even the next day! haha but it was so yummy while eating!

On my last day, I went to what was my first stop, Native Foods, I didn't do that on purpose, just happened that way.  Decided to try something different:

the Sesame Kale Macro Bowl, which had tempeh, steamed kale, brown rice, creamy ginger sesame sauce(very slight), tangy sauerkraut,and toasted sesame seeds.  It was very tasty (and healthy!) the tempeh was a bit bland..actually no, very bland. I'd get this again, but probably ask for a side of the ginger sesame sauce on the side, to have extra.

Got a side of the mac and cheese & that was yummy, though I remember liking it more last time I had it..it was kind of watery? wish it was thicker.

To go I got the Twister Wrap :  Salad greens, fresh avocado and cucumber salsa, creamy chipotle sauce and your choice of crispy, blackened or grilled Native Chicken in an organic whole wheat wrap (I got it crispy)

My flight wound up being over an hour delayed & I was so hungry, so I was very happy that I decided to get the twister wrap to go.  IT WAS SO GOOD!

I also got the brownie which I later had at home and that was delicious.

I am crossing my fingers that Native Foods opens in NYC someday soon.  Last time I spoke to them in August they told me they'd be opening in Washington DC soon, so would be nice if NYC came shortly after.  Their food is so good!

& that about concludes the food I ate on my recent trip to Chicago! 'til next time!