Sunday, June 24, 2012

Viasko

June 15 & 18, 2012

One of the key (non-food) recommendations that the Moody Noodles had given us before we hit Berlin was that we should do a tour with Alternative Berlin Tours. So on Friday we spent a good chunk of the day wandering around Turkish markets, old ballrooms, neighbourhoods jammed with street art and generally getting a good sense of some of the (slightly) less travelled parts of the city. It was pretty great, and if you want to see some of our photos scroll to the end of this post. The other great thing about the tour was that it left us within walking distance of Viasko, a place that was high on my Berlin priority list. And it turned out so well that we visited it twice! Our combined experiences are below.`

Viasko is an all vegan restaurant in an old Irish pub, which is tucked away in a leafy part of Kreuzberg. There's a lovely front courtyard (where we sat on the first night) and a roomy interior that feels very much like the inside of a pub (where we sat the second night). On both occasions we had very friendly staff who were happy to speak English with hopeless tourists, and on the first occasion we also got to hang out with their very friendly dog (not pictured, sadly the camera battery was dead and I lacked the dexterity with my phone to get a decent shot).

The menu is a fair bit smaller than the place we'd had our previous dinner - there are 9 mains, 6 starters and 4 desserts, all vegan and supposedly rotated fairly regularly (we only have them 3 days between visits, and nothing had changed over that period!) We skipped the appetisers across both visits but sampled four of the mains and one of the desserts.

First up: the soy schnitzel 'cordon bleu', filled with rocket salad and tomatoes and served with green beans and potatoes (14.5€ ~ AU$18).


This had a much crunchier crumby coating than the version at Kopps, and was probably a tiny bit on the dry side. Although that problem was easily solved by smothering it using the massive chunk of herbed 'butter' that came with it. It was nice to taste a different version of the cordon bleu - this had more texture and maybe a bit more flavour in the filling but didn't have the wonderful Kopps sauce to mush into it. It's hard to pick a winner.

Our other main on our first visit was the homemade potato gnocchi with herb and lemon butter, served with king oyster mushrooms, spinach and marinated tofu (10.5€ ~ AUD$13).


The standout feature of this was its vegan-ness - they really know how to come up with an imitation buttery taste at Viasko. This was rich and wonderful - slightly creamy little gnocchis, a generous sprinkling of mushrooms, a mini tower of spinach and a smattering of delicious marinated tofu. All drenched in something wonderfully approximate to butter.

Viasko's mock dairy skill was a repeated theme on our second visit, starting with the risotto with smoked tofu and roasted onions, breaded mushrooms and garlic cream (11€ ~ AU$13.70)


The risotto was impossibly creamy, with a lovely subtle garlic flavour infusing it all and the treat of crispy onions and mushrooms to stir through. It feels weird to be so enthusiastic about gnocchi and risotto, which are typically the vegetarian's curse at Italian restaurants but these were both excellent meals, with the added bonus of being completely dairy free. Amazing.

Our final savoury course at Viasko was the lemon pasta with fresh artichokes, spinach and avocado in sesame (11.5€ ~ AU$14.30).


This was going for the same creamy non-dairyness as the risotto and it did an okay job of it, but the whole package fell a bit short of our other dishes from Viasko. There was something a bit limited about the flavours - the sauce was a bit creamy and a lot lemony and needed something else to add a bit of depth to it. Maybe just more garlic? It wasn't a complete loss though  - the artichokes and avocado were great, and we happily polished it off between us.

For some reason we only mustered up enough enthusiasm for one dessert at Viasko, the almond creme-brulee with sour cherries (4.5€ ~ AU$5.60). This is gluten free, along with a couple of Viasko's other desserts and one salad. (None of the mains on offer during our visits were gf - still, it was rare for restaurants in Berlin to even note gluten as an issue.)


I really liked this, although it bore only a passing resemblance to creme brulee. The top had a satisfyingly crackly layer, which couldn't contain the massive mound of sour cherries bursting out of it. The almond brulee had a slightly mealy texture and really wasn't creamy at all but I thought it worked nicely anyway. Definitely worth trying.

Our enthusiasm for Viasko is probably best summarised by the fact that we went back there twice when there were so many other places in Berlin to try out (although this was also partly due to the unfortunate number of places choosing to close on Monday evenings). The food is just a touch on the fancy side of basic Italian and was generally excellent, while the laid back atmosphere, friendly staff and massive beers (not pictured!) made for an all 'round great experience. Word is they do a wonderful weekend brunch as well, but that will have to wait for our next visit to this wonderful city.
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There are plenty of positive reviews of Viasko out there, and for once these aren't only by visiting veg*n bloggers. Check out: vegan antispe (German), Hipster Food (German), All about... (vegan) food, vegan.in.brighton, TheKua Does Food, Vegetarian Runner in Berlin, Vegan Mage (Swedish), Wie ein frischer Veganer die Welt erlebt (German), berlinho (Portugese), Vegetarian Diaries (German), Veganfix (Danish), Deutschland is(s)t Vegan (German), Green Laces (Swedish), Vegan Nom Noms, Vegetalian a Paris (French) and Lubeck Vegan (German).
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Viasko
Erkelenzdamm 49, Kreuzberg, Berlin
030 88499785
Starters 3.5-7.9€ ~ AU$4.40-9.80, mains 8.9-14.5€ ~AU$11-18, desserts 2.3-4.5€ ~AU$3-4.40
www.viasko.de

Accessibility: There's no way to get into Viasko except down a half dozen stairs or so. Once you're on the lowest level of the courtyard everything is pretty flat and reasonably well spaced. There's table service for everything.
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Okay, if you've stuck it out this far, here are some snaps from our alternative walking tour of Berlin, starting with a load of street art:











But also including a picture of a 25 year old tree house

A Chinese art exhibition in an old church
 

And a couple more photos of the wonderful 1920s ballroom at Clärchen's Ballhaus

8 comments:

  1. The risotto sounds amazing and so full of tastes and textures you would never encounter in most of the cafes in Melbourne! Love your alternative street tour pics too.

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    1. Yes, Johanna! It's rare to find a risotto that excites us as much as this one. :-)

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  2. As having experienced it myself a few weeks ago I can assure you, that the weekend brunch is worth it!

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    1. Welcome, Sven! I wish we'd had a chance to try the brunch.

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  3. Awesome pics from the streets!

    Thank you for the reference.

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    1. You're welcome, DerLernendeVeganer. :-)

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  4. Thanks for the mention, I hope you enjoyed Berlin! It's like vegan heaven here.

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    1. Hi Nicole! We *loved* our visit - I would never have believed the range of vegan options before seeing them.

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