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I never meant to become the guy who knows the difference between a vegan schnitzel and a seitan cutlet. I’m 40, I grill things for fun, and I still consider butter an emotional support condiment.
But then my oldest friend — the “I don’t eat anything with a face” friend — came to Berlin for 24 hours and announced we’d be doing a vegan marathon. Not metaphorically. From morning to night. No breaks. No meatsplaining. No “just one currywurst.”
And Berlin, being Berlin, rose to the challenge like it had been waiting for me to convert.
This is the story of how a carnivore survived one day in vegan Berlin…
…and how the city almost, almost, turned me.
Kreuzberg in the morning is still sleeping off the night before. Graffiti is illuminated by the weak sun, and the air smells like strong coffee and faint remnants of late-night street food. It feels less gentle than Prenzlauer Berg—it feels earned.
My friend, the plant-based purist, dragged me straight to what she called a “Berlin institution.” I was expecting oat milk and regret. I received something far more dangerous.
I expected punishment. Instead, I got a breakfast bowl so dense and colorful it looked like it could solve world hunger. The menu is an exercise in deceptive simplicity: everything is vegan, gluten-free, and almost criminally photogenic.
I ordered the Savory Bowl with smoked tofu, roasted root vegetables, and a creamy cashew-based dressing. It was warm, deeply spiced, and aggressively satisfying. It tasted like comfort, but for clean-living people. I ate it with suspicion, waiting for the inevitable hunger pangs that follow "rabbit food." They never came. The place was buzzing with stylish early risers who made me feel like my Köfte Champion hoodie was judging me.
By 11am I felt… good. Too good. Suspiciously good.
Which is when my friend decided to push me over the edge with dessert.
Address: Lausitzer Pl. 10, 10997 Berlin
Website: (No official website, known for local Instagram presence)
Hours: Mon–Fri 8:00–18:00; Sat–Sun 9:00–18:00
"It's just a cinnamon roll," my friend chirped, pulling me toward a tiny café near the Görlitzer Park U-Bahn. But it wasn't just a cinnamon roll. It was a giant, sticky, cinnamon-drenched coil of perfect bread. It was also, I was informed, 100% vegan.
I tried to mentally dissect it, searching for the tell-tale structural weakness of non-dairy butter, but there was none. It was buttery, decadent, and required three napkins to eat. I realized that my most precious, meat-adjacent comfort foods—the heavy sauces, the rich breads, the deep savory flavors—were all being perfectly replicated without the need for animal products. I felt a dangerous shift in my personal philosophy.
Closest location: Danziger Str. 65, 10435 Berlin
Website: https://brammibalsdonuts.com
Hours: Vary by location (usually 10:00–19:00)
Look. I don’t like sweets. I don’t trust desserts. But the tiramisu donut tasted like a small Italian opera singing on my tongue.
“Still vegan,” my friend whispered.
I pretended not to hear.
We ate outside, watching Prenzlauer Berg wake up. Vegan families, vegan couples, vegan tourists. It was like the plant-based Hunger Games but quiet and polite.
By noon we headed into Mitte: clean sidewalks, minimalist boutiques, people in expensive sneakers pretending not to care.
Mitte is where veganism stops being lifestyle and becomes philosophy.
Address: Torstraße 180, 10115 Berlin
Website: https://freaberlin.com
Hours: Mon–Fri 18:00–22:00
We didn’t have a reservation — you usually need one — so we just peeked inside.
FREA is like stepping into a Scandinavian eco-temple. Zero-waste. Local. Seasonal. Every scrap composted. No milk, no meat, no compromise.
My friend whispered reverently, “Even their compost has a name.”
I said nothing because I was afraid I’d accidentally convert on the spot.
Instead we booked dinner for another day and continued our march.
Address: Behrenstraße 55, 10117 Berlin
Website: https://cookiescream.com
Hours: Tue–Thu 18:30–23:00; Fri–Sat 17:00–23:00
For lunch, Cookies Cream was too fancy — Michelin-level fancy — so we promised we’d return when I wasn’t wearing a hoodie that said “Köfte Champion.”
Still, just standing outside, I felt my carnivore credentials trembling.
Friedrichshain is Berlin’s chaotic middle child — loud, colorful, tattooed, full of Vietnamese restaurants that could emotionally ruin you.
Address: Krossener Str. 19, 10245 Berlin
Website: https://restaurant-1990.de
Hours: Sun–Thu 12:00–23:00; Fri–Sat 12:00–23:30
This restaurant broke me. Truly.
The tapas-style vegan Vietnamese plates were the kind of food that makes you stare at your fork like, “Have we been eating wrong our whole lives?”
Crispy rolls, spicy curries, soft dumplings — everything bright, fragrant, deep.
The room buzzed, full of people who were definitely cooler than me.
By the time we left, I was sweating lemongrass.
Address: Grünberger Str. 69, 10245 Berlin
Website: https://likethaivegan.business.site
Hours: Daily 12:00–22:00
We didn’t need a second lunch. We had a second lunch anyway.
Dim sum. Basil stir fry. Red curry that tasted like a warm argument.
Even my friend tapped out halfway through. I did not. I was proving something to myself — that a man can change. Or at least pretend to until he digests.
We walked it off in Volkspark Friedrichshain, pretending the world wasn’t spinning gently from chili heat.
Then came the evening calm.
Address: Dunckerstraße 80A, 10437 Berlin
Website: https://chaylong.de
Hours: Daily 12:00–22:00
Entering Chay Long felt like stepping into a monastery kitchen.
Soft lighting, hushed voices, a sense that the food was meant to heal, not just feed.
Broths that felt like therapy. Herbs arranged like someone’s grandmother was watching. Dishes that tasted clean, intentional, calming.
If lunch was shock, dinner was meditation.
By nightfall, we had to finish strong. And in Berlin, that means Neukölln.
Address: Leykestr. 18, 12053 Berlin
Website: https://lastellanera.de
Hours: Tue–Sun 18:00–23:00
A worker-owned vegan pizzeria with blistered Neapolitan crusts and the energy of a punk show. We ordered two pizzas “because research,” and I watched myself eat them like a man possessed.
Address: Danziger Str. 16, 10435 Berlin
Website: https://vamosveganos.de
Hours: Daily 12:00–22:00
Yes, this is technically Prenzlauer Berg, but this is a vegan marathon.
I needed a vegan döner to complete the circle — and somehow, at the end of 16 hours of plant-based consumption, my body said: Absolutely.
We walked home in silence. I was processing the impossible.
I had spent a full day eating vegan in Berlin.
And I had… loved it.
Not because I stopped being a carnivore.
But because the food here is so good that the labels stop mattering.
This city doesn’t ask you to convert. It just asks you to taste — and lets the flavors do the rest.
Brammibal’s Donuts — Danziger Str. 65, 10435 Berlin — https://brammibalsdonuts.com
Chay Long — Dunckerstraße 80A, 10437 Berlin — https://chaylong.de
Vamos Veganos — Danziger Str. 16, 10435 Berlin — https://vamosveganos.de
FREA — Torstraße 180, 10115 Berlin — https://freaberlin.com
Cookies Cream — Behrenstraße 55, 10117 Berlin — https://cookiescream.com
1990 Vegan Living — Krossener Str. 19, 10245 Berlin — https://restaurant-1990.de
Li.ke Thai Vegan — Grünberger Str. 69, 10245 Berlin — https://likethaivegan.business.site
La Stella Nera — Leykestr. 18, 12053 Berlin — https://lastellanera.de
If you want more Berlin stories — the kind that start with culture, drift into food, crash into real expat life, and leave you wanting more — explore Expats Magazine.
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