YoYo Foodworld

June 14, 2012

   

We had breakfast at Kopps on Wednesday (stay tuned for a Kopps breakfast roundup post to come!) and got chatting to the waitress, a vegan who'd moved to Berlin in the past few months and was clearly giddy with excitement at what the city had to offer. She reeled off a few recommendations, and was particularly enthused about YoYo Foodworld in Friedrichshain. So, when our booking at Lucky Leek fell through, we knew where we'd be heading instead.

   

YoYo is a bright and cheerful place on a lovely street in one of Berlin's hipper suburbs, so it wasn't that surprising to find all the outdoor tables taken when we wandered in. Still, despite the sunshine, outdoor tables in Germany tend to mean you get a gob full of cigarette smoke with your meal, so we weren't too put out to take an inside table. It's all pretty relaxed at YoYo - the fit-out is more about functionality than style, and the service is efficient and direct - just on the right side of surly. The menu is huge and entirely vegan - you can take your pick from 29 burgers, 5 wraps, 5 pizzas, 9 'classics', a soup and a kebab. Although it might be wise to bring a back up plan up to the counter - I'd set my heart on trying my first vegan currywurst (a Berlin tradition apparently), only to find that they'd sold out. In my panic I pointed blindly at the menu, coming up with a 'Grosse Gyrospfanne' (4.99€ ~ AUD$6.20), which translates directly as a 'great gyros pan', but turns out to just be a massive pile of gyros fillings without the bread. With heaps of chips.

   

This is a heapin' helpin' of food. The chips were excellent, which was a relief given the mass of them on the plate, while the remainder of the gyros filling was just okay - there was something about the little seitan pieces that didn't quite taste right to me. Maybe the plate just needed a good drizzle of chilli sauce? Don't get me wrong, this was fine and I definitely ate it all, but it fell a tiny bit short of my expectations. 

Cindy ordered the bacon cheeseburger (3.79€ ~ AUD$4.70).

   

She raved about the condiment combo (mayo and tomato sauce I think) and found the burger patty and 'bacon' both excellent, but wasn't that impressed by the vegan cheese. I snuck a little taste and she was right - it didn't pack a lot of flavour. Still, this was a pretty successful order - if we ever make it back to Berlin (and to YoYo) then I think I'll be focussing on the burger component of the menu, which includes salmon, pork, chicken and many other patty varieties!

YoYo Foodworld is a great place to have in your city - for ridiculously small amounts of money you get as much vegan fried food as you can possibly eat. The food won't blow you away, and the ambience is basic (late 80s dance music was the order of the day on our visit) but it's hard to argue with vegan cheeseburgers at less than $5. Check it out when you want something quick and junky.

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YoYo gets a range of reviews - mostly positive but with a few mixed and a couple of downright stinkers. We first heard of it via our buddies at In the Mood for Noodles, but it's been widely reviewed by: Deutschland is(s)t Vegan, Vegan Backpacker, vegan.in.brighton,Choose Life!, Home of the Carrot Hunter, All about... (vegan) food (twice), HERBIVORE FOX, A Finn in Berlin (twice), Erika and Erika's Excellent Adventure, The Urban Housewife, VeganBlog.it (Italian), Flikan & Kakorna (Swedish), VeganMage (Swedish), Recetas Veganas (Spanish), Different Day, Same Old Story (German), My Vegan World, Moon Child (Swedish), Cinnaholic and Mr Schtief (German).

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YoYo Foodworld
Gartnerstrasse 27, Friedrichschain, Berlin
030 49787384
snacks and meals 3 - 6.5€ (AUD$3.75 - 8.10)
http://www.yoyofoodworld.de

Accessibility: YoYo has a small step up on entry but is reasonably well spaced inside. The bathrooms are on the same level and are pretty small. Ordering, payment and food pick-up happens at a low counter.