We looove Berlin so much. This city holds so much opportunity, subcultures, history, and life. And with that, it also offers absolutely amazing vegan restaurants, zero waste shops and second-hand shopping for all of us eco-friendly-freaks! We have listed a few of our best recommendations, which we personally really enjoyed. This is our eco-friendly food and shopping guide to Berlin!
Frea 100% Plantbased and Zero Waste Restaurant
This restaurant opened just 8 months ago and is one of the most popular spots in Berlin. This restaurant is so in, that you have to book at least 4 days ahead! But it is ALL worth it. We were kind of expecting some vegan food that didn’t taste of much, as we have experienced before at restaurants in the same kind of class. HOWEVER, we were taken by complete surprise! The menu at Frea is fairly small and simple, and that is really benefitting the creators! The food at the restaurant tastes amazing. There is so much taste is this food and after dining here, you actually feel like they could have charged you for more with that quality of food. But don’t tell them 😉 The menu is mostly Italian, but has a touch for southern European flavors as well. We both had the focaccia starter, two different pasta dishes, and the chocolate mousse as dessert. The focaccia is one of the best starters we have ever had! And the pasta was freshly made and perfectly al dente. The chocolate mousse was served with sorbet and the dessert was balanced between sweet, bitter, and sour to perfection. A three-course menu costs 32 euros, which is an insane price for this level of quality. The kitchen of Frea is open, so you are able to see the kitchen staff cooking and preparing the food, which is actually great entertainment! The best thing about this whole restaurant is off course, that it is plant-based and zero waste, which means you can dine with great conscience. Oh, and I forgot to add that the staff at Frea is the sweetest staff we have ever experienced! Although the restaurant is crazy busy, they are smiling, focused and super attentive to your needs.
Funk You Natural Food – Vegan breakfast and lunch café
If you are into açaí bowls, avo toasts, superfoods or just vegan and healthy food in general, this is the best place in town to grab breakfast or lunch. Funk You Natural Food is a very low key and inviting establishment located in the center of Berlin, just beside all the popular shopping streets. We had breakfast and lunch here and we really enjoyed how convenient and delicious it was. The prices are good, about 10 euros for one breakfast/lunch dish and a beverage, and the food is super tasty. They also make their own cakes and snacks made of natural ingredients and although we didn’t taste it, we have to say that we were very tempted to. The cafe is very cool and edgy decorated and reminds me of the cafes in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. And the staff is very sweet, smiling and chatty.
The Reed – Café, Restaurant, and Nightclub
Another good vegan breakfast spot we would like to highlight is The Reed. The menu reminds a lot about Funk you Natural Food, however, the prices are a little bit better, and the dishes are a little bit more picture-perfect in our opinion. For example Ras got the biggest avocado toast I have ever seen in my life for only 5 euros. I think there was like three whole avocados on his plate! There are also non-vegan dishes if you are traveling with dairy and meat-eaters. Buuh. The reed would also be a great place to bring your laptop and sit and work for a while. There are several work stations, and you will definitely be able to concentrate in these surroundings. The deco is a bit more modern-hotel chic, with expensive-looking furniture and many wall decorations. The Reed is also a restaurant, a nightclub, and an event space, so maybe you should also try checking it out by night. You might have some fun!
Soy – Vegan Vietnamese fusion
If you are as much into Asian food as we are, you have to try out Soy for lunch or dinner! Soy is a vegan Vietnamese restaurant that is also inspired by popular dishes from all around Asia. Having been to Vietnam ourselves, we would definitely not call this food Vietnamese. You can call it Asian-fusion if you’d like. Soy has a great and cheap lunch menu (about 7 dollars for 1 main dish and 1 starter or a beverage), but also an a la carte menu for both lunch and dinner. The food is really really good, and so are the drinks. We didn’t have the best experience with the staff, who were a bit lazy. However, because the food is so good and the perfect comfort food you can imagine after a full day of sightseeing and shopping in Berlin, we still recommend you to eat here.
Veganz – 100% Vegan supermarket
This is the thing I personally was most excited about since I love cooking and I love grocery shopping! So a 100% vegan supermarket and health food store was a big deal for me 😀 Veganz is the first 100% supermarket we have ever been to, and we really loved to experience it and shop at the store. We bought so much food at Vegnaz, that we even considered taking a uber to our hotel because we were afraid we couldn’t carry it! There are three different Veganz in Berlin, and at every location, you can buy fresh greens, fresh vegan pasta, meat alternatives, vegan sweets and chocolate and superfoods (among others). We were actually super surprised by the broad line of products they carry. If you want to go to the biggest store, it is the one on Warschauer Strasse. Here you can also eat a bit of food at their vegan cafe and shop vegan shoes on the second floor.
PicknWeight & Humana – Second-hand shopping
Another thing I was certain that I could find in Berlin, because of Berlins many subcultures, was great second-hand shopping! I am so glad that I was right! Both Rasmus and I picked up some great pieces at different second-hand stores in Berlin. In the center of Berlin we visited two PicknWeight shops, and we bought pieces in both stores! The clothes in PicknWeight remind me mostly of secondhand stores in the USA, with many vintage biker and western pieces, flowy and colorful dresses and loads of vintage accessories. If you need a new pair of blue jeans or dungarees, this is the place to go. The PicknWeight shops are my favorite choice of secondhand shops, but they are a bit more pricy than the usual second-hand shops. But this has also something to do with the quality of the clothes. Another chain of second-hand shops we checked out was Humana, which is the stores you will see several places in the city. I got a really nice flannel for only 5 euros in Humana, that I have been wearing ever since. But it took me 20 minutes of browsing to find a piece that I really liked. The style of the clothes is a bit more “ordinary” and “dull” compared to the PicknWeight styles, but as I said, I still found a piece that I really liked. And the prices are much more affordable. So if you have time to browse around and take your time, you are definitely able to find some great scoops in Humana!
We really love Berlin and the big vegan, zero waste and second-hand mecca that the city offers. We hope that you will too, and we also hope that our recommendations will help you get the perfect vacation in this great city.
