How Berlin became one of Europe's unlikeliest havens for vegans

Look up “Germany” in Larousse Gastronomique and it tells you “meat platters are encountered everywhere”. Not so at Bardot’s Bio Deli at the eco-friendly Hotel Almodóvar in the hip artistic neighbourhood of Friedrichshain (the Berlin equivalent of Shoreditch).

For breakfast they serve a vegan version of the city’s famous currywurst – a bratwurst sausage with curry-flavoured ketchup – alongside scrambled tofu plus vegan cakes and croissants.

It’s one of about 600 vegan and vegetarian restaurants, cafes, snack bars and shops listed by HappyCow.net, the online guide to vegan eating and living which this year voted Berlin the number one vegan-friendly city in the world (it has since slipped to second place behind London on the updated list). 

I met up with Claudi Sult, founder of the online “eco city guide” GreenMeBerlin.com, for a four-hour walking tour of vegan and vegetarian Berlin to discover what the city has to offer. We began with almond cream cheese tartines and iced coffee made with coconut rice milk at the minimalist Kaffee Ingwer, recently opened just around the corner from the Almodóvar by Steffi Witt. She also runs Green Market Berlin, a vegan lifestyle market held quarterly in various locations around the city.

The tour continued to Boxhagener Platz, the site of an excellent Saturday farmers’ market with plenty of organic produce. It is surrounded by vegan eateries including 1990 (a Vietnamese restaurant) and Goura Pakora, known for its dosas. One block west we stopped at Goodies café for ginger-flavoured kombucha (a refreshing fermented tea) and a “peanut protein bite” made with dairy-free pea protein.

Before crossing the Spree river via the landmark Oberbaum bridge, we visited Veganz – the first vegan supermarket chain in Europe – its shelves packed with jars of “cashewmus”, packs of “Happy Cheeze” and bags of chia seeds. We drank healthy shots of turmeric, carrot and orange in the bar of the achingly trendy Michelberger Hotel.

Then it was back across the river to Kreuzberg where, at Markthalle Neun, we tasted deep-fried spicy tofu balls from TofuTussis before heading to the boho-chic Wildeküche restaurant near Görlitzer Park. There I sampled pink raspberry gazpacho and a “Buddah Bowl” with beetroot hummus, kimchi, tempeh (fermented soybean cake), chickpeas and rice. 

“We became vegetarian and figured out there was no place to eat because everything was vegetarian burgers or fried fast food,” said Patricia Weil, who opened Wildeküche four years ago with visual artist Nelja Stump. “We wanted a healthy, light kitchen so we had to start doing it ourselves.

"Berlin has always been an open-minded place where creative people from all over the world come to live because it’s cheap and easy to make a living. There are more start-ups here than in Silicon Valley, and opening a restaurant has been easy.”

Although Sult agrees it is only recently that the Berlin vegan and vegetarian scene has become more about “fresh, natural and holistic” food, two high-end restaurants have been serving a refined version of this style for a number of years.

Opened in 2011, Kopps – in the central neighbourhood of Mitte – is not only a top spot for vegan brunch (a big trend in the city) but also serves a seven-course tasting menu including complex dishes such as chanterelles ragu with chard, potato purée, glazed baby carrots and pearl onions. 

Cookies Cream, accessed through the backyards of the Westin Grand hotel in the city centre, has been serving vegetarian food in industrial chic surroundings since 2007 and won a Michelin star on its 10th anniversary. Eating signature dishes such as quail egg in brioche with port wine shallot, potato foam and truffle jus, or Parmesan dumplings with Périgord truffle stock was as richly satisfying as any carnivorous alternative.

My visit to Berlin hasn’t completely converted me to a plant-based diet, but it has opened my mind – and stomach – to just how delicious it can be. Ich bin ein vegetarischer Berliner. 

• Read more articles by Andy Lynes at telegraph.co.uk/tt-andy-lynes. Twitter: @andylynes