Hans Wurst Sunday Brunch
Please note: Hans Wurst has closed as of January 2011.
Before arriving in Berlin I asked a lot of people for restaurant recommendations and everyone suggested I check out Hans Wurst. The restaurant serves organic vegan food and has an interesting menu with a mix of seasonal specials and standard items like salads, burgers and pizza. I ate there twice, once for brunch and once for dinner.
Veni Vidi Vegi, Berlin, Germany
If you haven’t caught on yet, I’ll tell you straight up that Berlin is a very vegan-friendly city. In addition to all of the restaurants, cafes and fast food joints serving up vegan food, there are a lot of bio shops and regular supermarkets that have a great selection of vegan items you can buy to make meals at home. Another place worth checking out, although you may have to make a special trip to get there, is Veni Vidi Vegi. It’s an all vegan store with a whole lot of vegan food, books, shoes and clothing packed into one small shop.
Maja's Deli: Holy cow, it's vegan!
Maja’s Deli is one of the few restaurants in Berlin that falls somewhere between fast food and fancy. It’s pretty causal, but has a really nice atmosphere, healthy dishes, and affordable prices.
La Mano Verde
Berlin is full of fast food options but there are only a small number of restaurants where vegans can go if they have something to celebrate and want to enjoy a fancy meal in a posh environment. We had an anniversary while in Berlin and decided to make reservations at La Mano Verde.
Fika Berlin
Wanna hear a cool idea? Wouldn’t it be fun to start a monthly meet up where a bunch of people make vegan cakes and get together on a Sunday to eat cake, have a coffee or tea, chat and relax? It’s simple but just so perfect. In Berlin, there is a monthly event called Fika Berlin that brings together a group of people who want to enjoy all of these simple pleasures without all of the commercialization.
Special Chips and Vöner Sandwich
If you’re a fan of vegan fast food, get yourself to Berlin pronto. There are lots of vegan takeout places, but just a handful of fancy and casual places where you can sit down and enjoy a meal. Personally, I don’t really like typical fast food. Mock meat products made with soy don’t get me very excited. But sometimes, eating a big, greasy meal can be a nice treat. John, on the other hand, loves this kind of stuff. I owe him a big thank you for helping me eat my way through Berlin’s vegan fast food scene. If you’re like me and prefer to eat healthy meals most of the time, you’ll be happy to know it’s not all burgers and pizza. Berlin also has some semi-healthy takeout options for you and me.
Cafe Vux, Berlin, Germany
Oh how we love Sunday brunch! There’s something special about it, isn’t there? The friends, the food…the food, and the friends. I’m a big fan. In Berlin, there are several restaurants that host a weekly all-you-can-eat, pay-what-you-can vegan brunch. Cafe Vux quickly became our favourite place to hangout on Sunday mornings.
Love and Ice Cream in Berlin
I’m going to skip over our time in Brussels (it was two days, we didn’t eat out and my camera was broken) and move on to the sweet stuff. The sweet stuff being all of the vegan eis, the german word for ice cream, we enjoyed in Berlin. We spent six weeks in Berlin. Six lovely weeks without carrying around our backpacks and moving cities! We rented a cute apartment in Friedrichshain, which put us within walking distance to many of the city’s vegan restaurants and two ice cream shops known for having a wide selection of vegan flavours. As part of our strategy to survive the intense July heat, we frequently went on ice cream dates. Keeping cool was our first priority, the second, of course, was research. After many tastings and flavour pairings, I’m excited to bring you a review of vegan ice cream options in Berlin…
Indian Tandoori, Bruges, Belgium
Oops! I skipped a stop. I got so excited to share our news from Ghent that I passed over Bruges, a famous town in Belgium known for its medieval architecture, fancy lace work and In Bruges, a movie staring Colin Farrell. We visited Bruges on a day trip from Antwerp. We were only in the city for a few hours, and spent most of our time enjoying an Indian feast with a group of new friends.
Ghent, Belgium
My impression is that most people haven’t heard of Ghent, the city in Belgium. Up until a couple of months ago, I had no idea it existed. But you should know about Ghent because it’s shaping up to be one of the most vegetarian friendly cities in the world. In fact, in May 2009, Ghent was the first city in the world to adopt a weekly vegetarian day. The local government has recognized the positive impact of a meat-free diet and mandated every restaurant in town to have a vegetarian dish on their menu. Every Thursday, school cafeterias serve only veg-friendly options and civil servants and elected councilors are encouraged to abstain from meat for the day. Some restaurants also join in on Thursdays and offer a special vegetarian menu. But the veggie love doesn’t stop there. The city is also home to many vegetarian restaurants, and a few that are 100% vegan. We spent five days in this awesome city and ate out as often as we could.
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