As always, I’ve been spoiled for good food in 2025! Across Switzerland, Tokyo, Kyoto, London, and Berlin, I’ve enjoyed some sensational dishes. And the Prague scene is pulling its weight too with delicious options. So here are this year’s greatest hits, in no particular order.
Bakery Bakery, Zürich, Basel, Bern
The cheese tarts at various branches of Bakery Bakery are truly the stuff of dreams. They fuelled us on our week of football in Switzerland, along with numerous other delicious items from this all vegan bakery. Read more here.
Eaternia, Prague
This casual canteen has become one of our favourite spots in Prague, with it’s incredible selection of cakes and exciting specials. A special mention goes to their ambitious St Martin’s Day goose. Read the full review here.
Gives a Fork, Geneva
Our favourite restaurant in Geneva was this vegetarian spot with exciting vegan options. The dishes were creative and flavoursome – a bright light in an otherwise somewhat underwhelming vegan scene. More here.
Vegan Sushi Tokyo, Tokyo
My time in Tokyo usually focuses on ramen, but it’s always fun to try something different and the sushi plate at this new-ish restaurant was quite the treat. Each piece is different, and the tuna was particularly good. Read the full report here.
Gauthier Soho, London
We like to splurge on a trip to Gauthier Soho whenever we visit London for some all-vegan fine dining. As always, the food was amazing this time. Some of the highlights were the brioche with whipped feta, potato dauphinois with a savoury sauce, blue cheese tartlet, and cherry and beetroot dessert. What a treat!
Brammibals, Berlin
The best vegan donuts in the world? Quite possibly! From the regular menu to the monthly specials, everything looks and tastes fantastic, and the dough is pillowy soft. Read more here.
The Tavern, Prague
My usual Friday night takeaway is burger and chips from the best spot in Prague, The Tavern. It’s not fully vegan, but has really great vegan options, including the magic mushroom truffle and Swiss burger which is my absolute favourite. The fries are nicely seasoned too, and they recently added a vegan cake to the menu.
Vegan and Gluten Free Osaka, Osaka
This spot didn’t get its own post in 2025 as we’d already visited in 2024 (mentioned here) – but we were fonder of it this year than last and it earned a spot on this list. It serves veganised traditional Japanese dishes including okonomiyaki, takoyaki, and kushikatsu. Everything was delicious and really special.
Vegan Ramen Uzu Kyoto, Kyoto
I wasn’t going to include this place because it would be two years in a row in the top ten – but fair is fair. I love the art, but it’s not just style over substance – the dishes are delicious as well. Read the full report here.
Okja, London
It’s been an exciting year for pastries! This fully vegan bakery in London was an absolute delight, and the hot chocolate was not too shabby either. Full review here.
I’m excited to discover what awaits in 2026! Thanks for reading along!
Last Christmas, I gave Dr HH a cookbook and selection of Korean pastes and seasonings so we could spend the year enjoying tasty Korean food. We found Korea the least exciting culinary destination on our trip to east Asia last summer, but we’re not giving up on this cuisine yet! Armed with Joanne Lee Molinaro’s The Korean Vegan, we have tried a lot of new (to us) dishes and broadened our understanding of typical Korean meals.
We didn’t make anything from the sections: basics, breads, and kimchi and salads. Here’s what we did try.
Banchan (Side Dishes)
Gamja Jorim (Braised Potatoes)
While we fantasised about making a full feast with an array of banchan, which we loved so much in Korea, we actually just made one dish from this section and served it as a main instead. It made for quite a quick and easy dish for lunch, scaled up a bit and served with some rice. The potatoes were nice and soft, with a few tasty vegetables, all in a sweet and savoury sauce. Like a lot of dishes in this book, our version looked a bit saucier than the pictures.
Soups and Stews
Spicy Doenjang Chigae (Fermented Soy Bean Stew)
I followed this recipe exactly, though I possibly diced my potatoes too small – I made my potatoes, courgette, and onion the same size, but the recipe later referred to taking 20 minutes to cook through the potato, which means the pieces should have been larger. I enjoyed this texture though, and have stuck to it on subsequent attempts. It was a tasty dish. The doenjang (which I’d never tried before) reminded me a bit of miso and was quite nice combined with the spicier seasonings. This time, my version was significantly less saucy than the picture in the book – partly because I cooked it in advance and then reheated it later. I’ve made this several times, switching now from firm to silken tofu due to personal preference. It’s a nice easy stew for a work night.
Soondooboo Chigae (Silken Tofu Stew)
This one was spicy! It was also easy to make. I used regular courgette rather than the recommended hobak, and a stock cube rather than homemade vegetable broth. The only real seasoning is the gochugaru, which brings a lot of heat. I loved the silken tofu, and the other vegetables were tasty, plus it was very easy to just chuck it all together. I have toned down the spiciness on subsequent occasions, but Dr HH loved this first iteration!
Noodles and Pastas
Jjajangmyun (Black Soybean Noodles)
This recipe could be more specific – it calls for “half a soy fillet”, and suggests alternatives to this such as tempeh but no sense of quantity. How big is a soy fillet?! I did use tempeh, but wasn’t sure how much to chuck in, and it broke up quite a lot. The recipe also calls for tiny quantities of cabbage and courgette, which feels a bit wasteful and requires further planning for using up the rest of the veg. It’s so hard to see the dish in this photo in the book: it’s dark food in a dark bowl on a dark background. Help me out a bit, I want to get a sense of how the dish looks while I’m working on it!
Bar and Street Food
Curried Tteokbokki Skewers
Dr HH loves tteokbokki, so he was excited to try this. He didn’t skewer them, and we lack a good griddle pan, so he just served them in the sauce. It was a tasty sauce, well flavoured. It was also easy to make. He found that the suggested amount of vegetables was very small (a common theme) and added more peppers and onions to the pan when cooking to bring a bit more variety to the plate.
Cheesy Hotteok (Fried Stuffed Pancakes)
These were delicious, one of the highlights of the book! This was another one for Dr HH. He was a little bit skeptical about the cheesy filling made from potatoes carrots and vegan cheese, but it worked very well. They were relatively easy to make, and he prepared them in advance and heated them in the oven at meal time. There was a good crisp outer, they were fluffy inside, and the cheesy filling melted and oozed nicely. The onions pressed into the bottom of the pancake added a nice bit of extra texture and flavour. He never got round to making the sweet ones, despite having his eye on them. Fingers crossed for 2026!
Main Dishes
Mapo Dooboo (Mapo Tofu)
I can’t resist a mapo tofu! This differed a little from my usual recipe in that it didn’t include any Sichuan peppers. Instead, the gochugaru added some spiciness and red colouring. I found it a bit too spicy, but it was perfect for Dr HH, and I would definitely make it again. I followed the recipe, but doubled the amount of shiitakes, for fun, and I don’t regret it as they were really fun and peppery.
Kkanpoong Tofu – spicy crunchy garlic tofu
This dish consists of nice crispy tofu in a spicy sauce, and Dr HH served it with rice. It was very tasty and hit the common notes of a bit sweet and a bit spicy.
Mushroom galbi
Dr HH made a batch of Omma’s BBQ sauce to use in several dishes, starting with this one. It was easy to make, as he just had to blitz a load of ingredients and then simmer it for a bit. Again, without a griddle pan we didn’t manage to get any char on the mushrooms. And again, we added extra vegetables compared to recipe suggestions.
Bulgogi
Tasty stuff again using the BBQ sauce. Dr HH used a lot more sauce and vegetables (again), so it looks very different to the dish in the book, but it was tasty and pretty easy to make overall.
Lasagne with Gochujang Red Sauce
This was an endeavour! The recommendation is to make various components before the day of cooking as there is a lot to do. Dr HH spent almost a week of his summer holiday bringing this together, and fortunately it was a labour of love. The components were: oven roasted tomatoes, roasted courgettes, red sauce, avocado bechamel, tofu ricotta, mushroom filling (which involves Omma’s Korean BBQ sauce again), and some roasted doenjang-glazed onions (found in the banchan section). It was a lot of work but the end result was delicious. The Korean flavours worked throughout the dish. It was a bit sweet and a bit spicy, and the mushrooms made a satisfying filling.
Dooboo Jorim (Braised Tofu)
This dish has some things in common with the crunchy garlic tofu. A lot of the flavours were quite similar, but the tofu didn’t have the same crispy coating. There are also a few more vegetables in the mix, and as usual Dr HH added more as there always seem to be so few in the recipes. This used the spicy soy sauce dressing from the basics section, which was soy sauce with a few extra bits added to make it more fun. This one was nice, but not an instant classic like some of the others.
Sweets
Chocolate Chip Paht (Sweet Red Bean) Cookies
I find myself a bit reluctant to try red bean sweet dishes when I’ve travelled to east Asia, because beans just don’t sound dessert-appropriate to me. But I have had them and I know it works! I bought a packet of red bean paste so I could try a couple of the sweet dishes. For these cookies, I followed the recipe exactly, but the method said to remove them from the oven after 11 minutes when they still looked underdone, so I kept them in longer. The recipe suggests that the red beans makes the cookies lighter and chewier. They felt quite heavy to me, though they were chewy. They had a really nice crispiness to the outside which I liked, but they won’t be replacing my go-to cookie recipe any time soon.
Paht (Sweet Red Bean) Marble Cake
Continuing on with my packet of red bean paste! I made this as a loaf rather than the recommend bundt cake, and baked it for 45 minutes rather than 50-55 as recommended, as it looked done. I couldn’t get the milk and vinegar to curdle, but the mixture curdled when it was added, so maybe that’s alright. The paste doesn’t actually create much of a marble effect, and the recipe calls for red food colouring to achieve it, which I didn’t use. Without food colouring, it’s not a very dramatic colour contrast at all. It’s a tasty cake and a nice sponge, but not mind-blowing and again I’m not totally sure what the red beans are adding.
Verdict
I really enjoyed this book, and we plan to continue using it next year – trying some more recipes and revisiting some of our favourites. In general, we added more vegetables to every dish to make it more substantial and avoid waste. We didn’t need too many specialist ingredients – there’s a lot you could make without ordering online. It was nice to try a diverse range of Korean dishes, when I feel like in the past I haven’t seen that many different options on menus. I would definitely recommend this, it’s not as daunting as you might expect and there are loads of fairly straightforward rice-veg-tofu dishes that are flavoursome and easy to whip up. I think we’ll spend a bit more time exploring this book before we try the author’s newest publication, but it’s definitely on my radar.
Eaternia has been around for a good few years now, but it’s only over the last year that I’ve become a regular. This is mostly because I now live a bit closer, and it makes me sad that I let the distance (which was never that much in a small city like Prague) deter me for so long. A lot of the long running vegan spots here are quite classy joints, and Eaternia feels like a throwback to the older punkier spots like Moment and Sabotage that have sadly closed down. It’s got a punk jukebox and loud music, and neon coloured merch. There are big communal tables which are usually occupied by groups of friends (alongside some smaller tables too – don’t worry, fellow introverts!). The menu is a zine. It’s fun and different.
Menu-wise, like many Czech places they do a daily lunchtime special of soup and main dish, alongside a permanent menu. The weekly menu is posted on their social media every weekend for the week ahead, so you can see what appeals. Alongside that, there’s also a monthly special to try as well. This means they’re experimenting with lots of different dishes and styles, which is fun to see. Not everything is a total success for me personally, but they’re being creative and I love that.
The regular menu contains a mixture of traditional Czech dishes and north American junk food. I think their fried cheese is the best vegan version of this traditional dish in Prague. The cheese is always just the right texture – slightly gooey but still holding its shape. And it’s nicely fried too. The chips are also good and crispy.
The poutine is another favourite of mine.
The hot dog is a bit much for me – the bread and sausage are delicious, but it’s piled high with a bit too much stuff. The flavour of the sausage gets a bit lost under all the cabbage and sauce. Additionally though, it’s just very messy to eat! Don’t order this in front of someone you’re trying to impress!
We order a lot from the daily and monthly specials. One daily special I tried was the onion bhaji burger, which came with tandoori fries, mango chutney. The fries were probably the highlight for me, with a lovely dusting of spices. The bhaji was good too. This isn’t really an option anywhere else in Prague, so it was fun to try something different.
One of their Saturday specials was langos day in which they offered four different toppings. By the time we got there, just before 2pm, they had already sold out of all but one savoury option, which is good for their business but a shame for us. We got the Mediterranean langos, which was topped with a tasty feta, olives, and tomatoes. It was really flavoursome, but because the toppings were all cold, the bread did not retain its heat.
The huevos rancheros was another Saturday specials we enjoyed earlier this year. All the components were tasty, apart from the egg which was a bit lacklustre. More of an eggy flavour or texture would have really elevated it for us. But it was still a fun brunch that, again, is not available anywhere else.
February’s monthly special was a katsu curry, which was a bit of a letdown to be honest. The curry sauce didn’t properly capture the sweetness of a Japanese curry, and the tofu, while beautifully coated and cooked, was desperate for a bit of seasoning. It didn’t really feel like a Japanese dish to us, as katsu curry enthusiasts.
The bao bun dish was more of a success, a glorious riot of colours and ingredients. The sauces and textures were fantastic, but the advertised tofu pork belly didn’t taste of much.
I’ve tried some fish and chips too. I approve of switching to “proper” chips rather than fries for this British classic! As always, the chips were excellent. The fish was blocks of tofu wrapped in seaweed before frying, which always gives a nice taste of the sea and a good crispy texture.
One of the highlights of my year is the traditional St Martin’s Day feast of goose, veganised in several eateries across the city but done best here at Eaternia. The meat is tasty and has a great texture, particularly with its crispy skin. I was a bit concerned by the amount of cabbage at first glance but they were delicious and different – the white cabbage quite sharp and the red quite sweet. We enjoyed that the dish was served with potato pancakes rather than a heavy Czech dumpling – it made a big dish slightly lighter. All in all, this was one of my favourite dishes of the year.
On another occasion, we enjoyed a Saturday special of tofu eggs Benedict. This was delicious! The tofu bacon was nice and crisp, and the hollandaise sauce was flavoursome. There was even an egg yolk effect there too, which added more flavour. Personally I was not a fan of the pomegranate seeds on top, but Dr HH didn’t mind them.
Dr HH has also tried a corndog there, which he enjoyed. The sausage and sauces were good, but coating could have been crispier.
The dessert counter is the stuff of dreams. They specialise in these cinnamon snails that are about the size of my head. I couldn’t eat one for dessert, they’re a meal in themselves for me – making them good for breakfast. I do frequently forget this and order one for dessert though!
There’s quite often an Oreo cheesecake too, which is really tasty with a lovely cream cheese layer.
They almost always have the classic Czech mole cake in, which is an absolute mountain of cream. They also do lots of layer cakes in fun flavours that you don’t see in other spots in Prague. Their kremes are also good but again somewhat overkill – I don’t think I need icing on top of my cream and pastry. Maybe I need to expand my eating capacity though!
One downside to Eaternia is that they don’t have a coffee machine, so they don’t offer much in the way of hot drinks – just filter coffee and tea. We usually get our desserts to take away so we can enjoy them with a nice drink at home. On the plus side though, they do a fun and often changing array of homemade lemonades including strawberry basil, plum and cinnamon, and pumpkin spice, among many more. So there’s always something fun to drink on the cold side anyway.
I love all the creative dishes Eaternia puts on the menu – so many things that I just don’t see anywhere else. Even when I think a dish could have used an extra bit of seasoning, I’m never sorry to have taken a chance on a dish and there’s always something to love about it. It doesn’t seem to pop up that much in recommendations to tourists, presumably because it’s very casual, but in my opinion it’s far superior to many of the more popular spots, and well worth your time.
The donut scene in Prague has gone downhill over the years, with our one fully vegan spot closing down and the best vegan options also going. In Berlin, of course, it only seems to go from strength to strength with a new branch of Brammibal’s seeming to appear every time we visit! It is a fully vegan chain with a wide range of donuts, including a solid permanent offering, exciting monthly specials, and even occasional weekend specials. I have been known to look at their monthly specials on Instagram and wonder if it’s worth the 4 hour train journey to Berlin to try them. While I do manage to exhibit some restraint, I’m always desperate to try one (or several) when we go up to Berlin for a scheduled weekend break. On our last trip, we were frequent visitors to the Potsdamer Platz branch (lovely and spacious with lots of tables and plenty of light), though I believe all branches have the same donut options.
The quality of the donuts is still excellent – still like eating a cloud! They are so fluffy and soft. The Boston cream remains my favourite, with a silky chocolate ganache and lovely sweet cream. Dr HH tried the pistachio on our last trip and also loved it, with its flavoured cream and crunchy texture on top.
He also enjoyed the brownie cheesecake, which had lovely brownie crumbs and a mound of flavoured cream cheese. He loved the smoothness of the cream and the chocolatey flavour.
We both loved the chocolate bombolini, which was filled with a delicious thick chocolate cream. Dr HH had some issues with the cream distribution, as he had one pocket and lots of plain donut, while I fared better with a more even distribution.
Earlier in the year, I had also been pleased to find that a takeaway-only branch has opened up in Berlin’s main train station. During a quick transfer, I grabbed myself a chocolate sprinkles donut to sustain me for the rest of my journey. It was delicious fuel. Again, the chocolate coating was really tasty, and the sprinkles added some fun crunch.
I’m looking forward to more top notch donuts on my next visit!
Here’s one of the other new spots from our summer trip to Berlin. There was a time when we always went for an all-you-can-eat buffet brunch in Berlin, but it’s been many years since we’ve done that. Possibly covid ended that trend, or maybe we just need to do more research. This time we went for a regular Sunday brunch and were very pleased!
Dr HH had the breakfast burger, which included some omelette, bacon (a little difficult to bite through), avocado, and smoked salmon. All the components were good and worked well together – but maybe they would work better on a plate rather than squashed into a bun. I suppose that’s what you get when you order something in burger format then! The hash browns on the side were also tasty.
I had the full breakfast, and really enjoyed it. The sausages were a little softer than I would have liked, but tasted great. The mushrooms and tomatoes were nicely warmed through – I have no patience for the raw tomatoes you often get on a European breakfast. The beans were good but a bit saucier than I personally like – fortunately, they were contained in a little pot. The spinach was quite boring and doesn’t really belong on a breakfast plate for me. The hash browns were perfect, and the omelette was sensational, so thin and well flavoured. I could have eaten a lot more of that, and it makes me think I should experiment with omelettes a bit more at home. My only real complaint was the bread, which I would consider a very German bread and not really agreeable to my British palate – one of those dark, dry, seedy breads.
The restaurant was so busy I think they were turning people away, so definitely book a table if you plan to visit. I would definitely recommend this for a good brunch. I’d love to go back and try the pancakes!
This summer we made our traditional pilgrimage to Berlin to enjoy the thriving vegan scene. With only a few days there, it’s the eternal dilemma of whether to stick to the same tried and tested hits of previous visits or give something new a try. We ended up with a balance of the two. I think every time we visit we see this big sign for vegan Japanese food, and this time we finally paid it a visit. Yes, it’s a fully vegan Japanese restaurant!
For starters, Dr HH and I shared two dishes. The mochi agedashi sounded like a really fun idea, combining the soft and tasty tofu agedashi with a fun mochi texture. Unfortunately though the texture was not actually enjoyable to us, too chewy. Still, it’s always fun to encounter something new, and I’m happy we got to try it.
We quite enjoyed the vegan karaage. It had a lovely crisp coating, but the meat was a little under seasoned for us and the texture inside could use more bite, it was a bit mushy. The coating did help with some texture though, and I enjoyed it more than Dr HH did.
For his main course, Dr HH had the Japanese curry. The sauce was tasty and had those familiar notes of a classic Japanese curry, but it was quite a small portion. He liked the katsu chicken here a lot more than the chicken in the karaage, in terms of both flavour and texture.
I am powerless to resist a big bowl of noodles and broth, so I had the tantan ramen, and really enjoyed it. The broth was rich and well spiced. The noodles were plentiful, making it a filling dish. And the toppings were quite good, particularly the soy meat.
Be warned that the only card payments they accept are from German bank cards. If you don’t have one, you need to pay with cash.
All in all, it was good but not perfect. It’s a nice restaurant, stylish and spacious with very fast service. Honestly, I’d be thrilled if this place existed in Prague, where vegan Japanese pickings are very slim indeed!
Club Mexicana had been on my London wishlist for a long time before we finally managed to visit on out trip in June. There’s always too many eateries to squeeze into one weekend! We don’t get a lot of vegan Mexican options in Prague, so I was very excited to try this place and it certainly met my expectations.
The menu is fairly small, which is no bad thing in my opinion. We weren’t that hungry but ate as much as we could manage!
We shared the classic nachos to start, and they were really good. As a starter, this was plenty – we had considered getting the loaded nachos, but this was enough for us. There was a really pleasant mix of textures and the flavours were well balanced. The cheesy sauce was lovely.
We each got three tacos. Dr HH got the al pastor, which is described as like shawarma but he didn’t really pick up on those classic shawarma flavours. I was deterred from this one because it includes pineapple, but he said it was unobtrusive.
I got the cheeseburger, which really did capture the essential flavours of a classic burger. The mock meat was really good.
We both got the buffalo mushroom, which was quite spicy but not too overpowering. The mushrooms were really tender, just perfectly cooked.
We agreed that the best taco was the BBQ short rib. The meat was exceptional! It had a nice crispy edge and more tender centre, and the flavours were fantastic. We were really impressed. I’d love this to be available in Prague!
I wish I’d had room to try the churros for dessert, but alas, I was full. Maybe we’ll try a return trip next year!
This branch is quite small, and was busy when we went on a Sunday lunchtime – it looked like there was a bit of a wait for tables, so I was glad we had a reservation. There weren’t too many tables indoors, but there was outdoor seating too in a bustling courtyard shared with other eateries. The staff were really friendly and service was fast. I heartily recommend this place, and hope someone brings exciting vegan Mexican food to Prague!
Back in June, we made a quick weekend trip to London to see Beyoncé (who was predictably excellent) and fill out bellies with some good vegan food. I’m still always delighted by the prevalence of vegan options in the UK. There are great options in Prague, but you do have to go looking for them. In London, every eatery we walked past seemed to have something vegan – and there was even a fully vegan bakery just a ten minute walk from our hotel, so we headed there for a tasty breakfast one morning and got two pastries each.
Dr HH got a citrus pistachio swirl, which he loved. It was soft on the inside with good crispiness on the outside. There was plenty of good flavour from the cream. It was sticky, messy, and delicious.
He also got a pesto and cheese bun, which had good textures and a pleasing amount of cheese, but very little pesto. Perhaps he was just unlucky though.
I got a chocolate hazelnut swirl, which was as big a success as the pistachio one. There was plenty of tasty chocolate hazelnut spread, which was very decadent.
And I also tried an intriguingly-named morning bun. Like the others, it was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. It was filled with delicious flavours of cinnamon, cardamom, and orange zest.
We also got a takeaway coffee and hot chocolate (very rich and delicious – a bit much on top of two pastries!) and these were also good.
There’s no seating inside so we ate everything on one of the handful of seats they have outside the shop, as the June weather was favourable. It would be a nice little cafe if there was space for indoor seating, but as it is, it’s an excellent bakery and I hope we’ll be back for more delicious pastries soon!
And saving the best for last, here’s an all vegan bakery! We visited branches in Zürich, Bern, and Basel – I believe there are branches in other cities as well, though regrettably not Geneva.
Bakery Bakery was possibly my favourite thing about my visit to Switzerland. The baked goods were excellent. The first branch we tried was in the train station at Zürich. It has no seating, so it’s takeaway only. As well as pastries, they also serve hot drinks and have a small selection of chocolate, chilled meats, and cheeses for purchase. We only had eyes for the pastries though. Here’s what we tried.
Sausage roll: great pastry with nice seeds on top for texture, but the sausage was like a hot dog (not my preferred style, and quite different from a British sausage roll). There was loads of mustard in the pastry case alongside the sausage. It was an unpleasant surprise for mustard haters like Mother HH and me, but presumably fine if you like mustard.
Cheese tart: this is one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. The pastry was rich, crisp, and crumbly. The filling was delicious, really creamy and cheesy. It felt like a really high quality vegan cheese. Absolutely divine. We are a lot of these in our week long trip!
Cinnamon snail: the cinnamon flavour and filling were really nice. It was a bit nutty, and very sticky. The pastry was nice, but note that this is a snail that is more like a pastry than a bread, so it may or may not be home you like your snails.
Crookie: this is a croissant with two cookies baked on top. It was not very visually appealing to me, but it tasted really great. The cookies on top looked pale, but were baked and had a bit of nice crisp. The croissant was filled as well with lots of chocolatey, cookie spread. It was extremely decadent and delicious, it certainly filled us up!
Cookie: it was quite hefty, a really good size and thickness. It was absolutely packed with chocolate chips. It was quite a soft cookie, which is just how I like them.
I highly recommend this place to anyone passing through the city centre!
We also paid a visit to a branch in Bern, which was a nice cafe with seating available. Of course, we got more cheese tarts, but we also tried a few other items.
Lauch speck strudel: it had too much leek and not enough meat for my liking, which was a bit of a shame and prevented it from being truly great. The pastry was really nice though.
Donut choco nut: this was nice but not mind blowing, as the texture was a little bit chewy. The chocolate coating was the highlight.
Chocoggigipfel: this croissant filled with chocolate was more bready than pastry. The chocolate cream inside was absolutely delicious, really rich and thick. It was very tasty.
The last branch we visited was in Basel train station. We ordered from the takeaway window, but there was an additional counter and seating for dining in. It had the same baked goods as the other branches, and we didn’t try anything different here.
Overall I wasn’t overwhelmed by the number and range of vegan options in Switzerland, so it’s quite surprising to me that they have this thriving chain of fully vegan bakeries. I wish this would catch on in other countries – especially if they had those cheese tarts!
I’m rounding out my Switzerland posts with a couple of reviews from places that we visited in multiple cities, starting with Nooch. We visited branches in both Zürich and Basel. The menu was at least very similar in both branches, if not identical. It is an east Asian chain with quite a few clearly labelled vegan dishes. It was a very popular spot in both locations – you can easily book a table online if you wish.
All three of us at one point ordered the mushroom miso carbonara – in fact, it was so nice that Mother HH and I ordered it twice. It didn’t really taste of miso, but it was nicely spiced (warm, not hot), creamy, and quite light, with plenty of sauce to keep everything coated. There were loads of tasty mushrooms and some fairly bland tofu, but everything else had flavour.
Dr HH also tried Beijing nights, which was a sweet and sour chicken dish. The chicken pieces had nice texture inside, but the sauce reduced the crispiness of the coating, which is always a risk.
He also got the tuna sushi, for the novelty factor – Prague is sorely lacking in exciting vegan sushi. There was plenty of tuna, which was flavoursome and seemed quite authentic (to someone with very little tuna experience). The crispiness of the roll was a little lacking, but it was still a tasty bite.
This chain was a solid option for us – the meals were tasty, service was pretty fast, and there were decent vegan options. If you’re traveling with meat eaters it might be a crowd-pleasing option too.
Herbivores' Heaven 