Finishing off my Berlin posts (until my next visit!), here’s a delightful vegan Asian tapas spot called 1990 Vegan Living. They don’t only serve tapas, but that’s the only section of the menu I’ve ever looked at because it’s such a treat to order lots of different dishes and try them all. This place does not take reservations, which always stresses me out a bit because I like to meticulously plan my eating itinerary, but the good news is that it’s in an extremely vegan-friendly area (you’ll see vegan options listed almost everywhere nearby) and on both of my visits I’ve got the lovely outdoor table I wanted.

It’s one of those places where you get a piece of paper and pencil and have to mark how many of each item you want. I like that kind of ordering system a lot! Service was fast and friendly on both of our visits, and I liked that all the food came at once – perfect for photographing the entire feast and strategically leaving the best dish for last, rather than potentially finishing on a dud because it’s the slowest to cook.

Let’s dive into the dishes I’ve tried!

This one is the Rausch der Sinne, which is beautifully tender aubergines with shiitakes and tofu in a lovely chilli, ginger, garlic, basil sauce. This dish is all about how well cooked the aubergines are, and we were extremely satisfied with how they just melted away. This is a good time to note though that the dishes you get are not actually filled with what you ordered, there’s always a large bed of salad in there. So this wasn’t a bowl full of aubergine, rather a bowl full of salad and topped with the aubergine. I’m not complaining about it, but I think it’s always important to manage your expectations about how much food you’re going to get!

This was the bun bao taco – a steamed bun with a meaty patty, mango, fried onion, hoisin chilli sauce. It’s not the easiest dish to share, but we did our best. It has a good texture from the crunchy vegetables against the fluffy bun, and the sauce brought a lot of flavour.

Thit Bung is listed in the menu as crispy soy stripes covered in sesame and garlic, and this was not quite what I was picturing. They were quite pleasant, but not exactly what we’d been hoping for.

This again is the secret garden – a wonton filled with tofu and mushrooms, though “filled” is a bit of a generous term, they’re quite sparse. It’s served with guacamole, though most of the bowl pictured here is full of salad and just topped with guacamole. This one falls a bit flat for me, the flavours aren’t amazing though the texture is good.

Here you can see La Lot, which is betel leaves wrapped around tofu and mushrooms. These ones were very tasty and, crucially, very easy to share!

Here’s a similar spread from a previous visit when we did not make note of which dishes we ordered (though some were definitely the same as on our second trip). Everything looks so fresh and inviting! Even though it isn’t overall the tastiest food I’ve had, looking at this picture makes we want to go again, it’s so much fun trying lots of little dishes!