Kopps

June 11, 2012

   

The place we're spending the most time in on this trip is Berlin, which may or may not be related to the forty or so veg*n places serving up delicious treats there. Even with 10 days we're going to have to pack things in. We arrived in the early evening on Monday and went for a quick stroll around our neighbourhood before dinner.

   

   

   

   

The main aim was dinner, which we'd booked at nearby Kopps. We were pretty excited - it promised slightly high-end dining, traditional German dishes and an entirely vegan menu.

   

The space itself was sleek and trendy, with lots of windows, a nice bar area and a slightly overbearing table of 15 right next to us. The large group, along with drowning out our conversation, meant that the staff were run off their feet, leaving us to wait 10 minutes or so for menus to arrive.

   

We didn't think to ask for English menus and were forced to rely on Cindy's Grade 8 German to get us by. Thankfully, Cordon Bleu means Cordon Bleu in any language.

   

This was specified as a 220g Cordon Bleu, and was served with braised red wine shallots, glazed carrot and mashed potatoes (15.5€, $20). The cordon bleu was wonderful - a fantastic mock-meat patty, crisply crumbed and stuffed with a layer of garlic and herb mush. The red wine sauce on the shallots added a rich sweetness to the whole dish, and the mash and carrot were both top notch - there were even little dehydrated garlic discs dotting the spud. It's nice to have a slightly fancy mock-meat treat - it doesn't always need to be served on massive burgers with oodles of chips (although it can be, hold your breath for 24 hours to see some fine examples!).

Our second main was the braised soya roulade, with home made apple and red-cabbage, potatoes and tasty gravy (13.5€, $17). 

   

This was all very rich. The cabbage was slathered in another red wine sauce and had really soaked it up - I loved it, but I think it was a bit too intense for Cindy's palate. Luckily she had the perfectly cooked spuds and wonderful soy rolls to fall back on. The gravy had a strong, deep flavour and my only disappointment was that I couldn't soak enough of it up with the potatoes.

Given the quality of the mains, there was no way we were skipping dessert. Having clearly realised over the evening that we had no real German, the waitress kindly brought us the English menu to order from. Again we went for an even split of two dishes, starting with the creamy mousse au chocolat with dark berries (4.8€, $6).

   

I'm not sure how they make their vegan mousse, but Kopps sure do get it creamy - this had a divinely rich texture, a nice chocolatey flavour and was at least as good as it looks.

The other dessert was the intriguingly named lemon polenta (with marinated rhubarb and strawberry mousse, 5.5€, $7).

   

Lemon polenta turned out to be a lemon flavoured polenta cupcake, which had a strangely coarse texture and was a smidgen on the dry side. Luckily, the lashings of strawberry mouse and the refreshing marinated rhubarb overcame this minor concern. This wasn't as good as the mousse, but was still a pretty satisfying dessert.

Kopps was a revelation: an entirely vegan place doing German inspired food and doing it very, very well and at pretty damn reasonable prices. We've been told their brunch is a must-do, so you won't be waiting long at all to see another review of them on here.

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Everyone loves Kopps! Just focussing on reviews written in English, I've found consistently positive write-ups. Check out: The Food and The City, ForeignerinBerlin, Know where to go, Vegan Gourmet Caravan, Vegan für Anfänger und Fortgeschrittene, TheKua Does Food and A Finn in Berlin.

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Kopps
Linienstraße 94, Berlin
030 432 097 75
mains 11.8 - 15.5€ (AU$15 - 20), desserts 3.8 - 5.5€ (AU$5 - 7)
http://www.kopps-berlin.de/

Accessibility: Street tables are relatively accessible, but to get inside you have to make your way up a small flight of steps. Once you're in, things are a little on the crowded side (although this was possibly due to the aforementioned large group). Ordering and payment happens at the table.