As a firm fan of FREA Bakery in Berlin, I was keen to visit their sister establishment, a fine dining restaurant simply called FREA. It is recognised for its sustainable approach, making it somewhere I’m happy to support. There are quite a few all-vegan fine dining places in Berlin these days, but this is the only one I’ve visited so far. Overall, it was a bit of a mixed bag.

Full marks for serving a bread basket though! That is very much the way to my heart. As you’d expect from an establishment connected to a bakery, the bread was fantastic.

Dr HH got the mushroom ceviche for his starter, which listed the promising ingredients fennel, king oyster mushroom, seaweed, and beurre blanc. He loved it, particularly the contrast of the rubbery texture of the mushrooms with the crunch of the fennel. It tasted strongly of the sea, with plenty of dill and seaweed running through it.

This beautiful dish was the panzanella, which I chose for my starter. It continued our tradition of getting really spectacular tomato dishes whenever we go fine dining. It was really tasty, with delicious zingy tomatoes and crunchy croutons.

Dr HH ordered the raviolone for his main, which was an underwhelming pasta and cauliflower dish. He found it both too sweet and too sharp (there was a lemon sauce), just not quite balanced properly. He wasn’t a fan of this one.

My main, simply called eggplant, fared much better. It was bursting with delicious flavours of aubergine, tomato, and basil, and felt quite light but still nice and filling. It looked really attractive and smelled delicious, which also didn’t hurt.

To finish, we both ordered the same dessert, cherries and berries. It didn’t live up to the promise of its name for either of us, unfortunately. The big ball of almond ricotta had quite a dense texture and was not light or creamy as we expected – a bit like marzipan in its texture. The cherry flavour may not actually have been artificial, but it tasted like it, and that is never very enticing to me. It was sitting atop some aubergine cream, which did not taste of aubergine at all and was perfectly unassuming. The fresh fruity flavours were fine, but it was an underwhelming end to the meal for us.

I admire what FREA are aiming for, but they’re not quite at the very top level yet for me. The dishes were a bit hit and miss, and I didn’t love the service – one of the staff asked if I was out of breath on arrival (I was not) and asked later on if I was tired (I was not), which seemed a bit unflattering and unnecessary to me. Nevertheless, we liked their approach to sustainability and seasonal ingredients, and would be willing to give it another go.