Being vegan gets so much easier
Last year I had the honor of presenting my personal top spots in my adopted home called Munich in the World Vegan Magazine. Of course, I do not want to withhold this from you in an updated form – even if I am currently sitting in Cape Town and reminisce a little. Like maybe some of you noticed on Instagram, I’m now on the road for a while. No idea how long and no idea where my path will ultimately lead me. I am currently in Cape Town for 3 months, work as a model, and also try my luck as a photographer. My only motto is: Go with the flow, listen to your gut feeling!
I have spent my last two years in Munich. I love this city! “Minga”, as the people of Munich affectionately call their city, has not only a wonderful beer garden culture, with traditional Bavarian veal sausages, knuckles of pork and roasted chicken, but also a lot to offer for the vegan heart. I particularly recommend shops that are run with heart and soul. Shops that live and spread the vegan idea out of deep conviction. Not because they can do “additional business” with it. Cheeky and unobtrusive, as if “vegan” was the most normal thing in the world, which I hope it will be in the future!
In addition, all recommendations come from the heart and are in no way sponsored – I like to recommend shops that I like. The game is up! If you still see this as an advertisement, you are welcome to keep looking to find a fault with something! 🙂
bodhi
The bodhi is actually one of my absolute favorite restaurants. The completely vegan, Bavarian, and infinitely relaxed inn is located in the heart of the beautiful, authentic Westend. It has held the position there since 2013! In the meantime, the bodhi has already expanded to Augsburg and Ulm. Speaks for itself! And these are just a few reasons why I wanted to celebrate my 30th birthday with my loved ones here. Unobtrusive, authentic, easy-going, great service, and above all delicious. Usually, I’m hard to get. Usually. 😉
The bodhi shows that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel and convinces with the bodhi Pfanderl: a crispy coated soy steak in dark beer sauce with red cabbage and potato dumplings. Otherwise, no one has gone home hungry with the “Kees” spatzn, the soy schnitzel “Vienna Style” or various delicious burgers. The portions are really filling. Even if everything else is homemade, you can get the notorious Beyond Meat Burger served. Absolute recommendations include the chili “Cheeeze”-nuggets, the Buffalo Wings and the Kaiserschmarrn. Not to mention the sweet potato fries! Brunch is also served on Sundays in the winter months. Come in, roll out!
STRANGERS
Okay, I have to admit there are moments when I miss home. Even if I love to sit in Cape Town right now and type these lines. One of those moments is when I think of Caro and Saia and their STRANGERS Café. You’ll meet them with heart, body, and soul, prepare every cake, power ball, and cappuccino themselves and exemplify through their own life what they want to communicate with their café: To give the anonymous and sometimes very distant city-life a little more warm-heartedness and bring strangers together. Be it at a vegan chocolate workshop, a workshop as part of “Active Food for Active People” or simply with a super delicious cappuccino with oat milk.
The two consciously work without almond milk or avocados and generally try to implement the sustainable ideas on their menu and in their dishes as best as they can. As regional as possible, as seasonal as possible, and as organic as possible. And when I sit here in Cape Town and read that they now also offer a winter bowl with spinach, sweet potato, homemade antipasti, couscous, beetroot, and homemade hummus with dried tomatoes, my heart is already breaking a bit. Not to mention all the other goodies like raw vegan cakes. Or other SNÄCCIDENTS, as the two call their creations without artificial additives or refined sugar. Go, go, go! Give them a big hug from me and enjoy some healthy seduction for me!
Lost Weekend
The Lost Weekend is not only a bookshop, a completely vegan café, event location, but also an official co-working space. Super practical for everyone who occasionally tucks the laptop under the arm and doesn’t want to work from home. So, you can quickly get to know like-minded digital nomads. Everything is vegan making no bones of it – as if it was the most normal thing in the world. “Yes, we are vegan and we do give a f’ ***!”
Due to the location in Maxvorstadt, directly at the universities and the possibility of co-working, the audience is very mixed. And that alone is worth a visit. I’m also a big fan of watching people sitting in the café. There’s definitely something to see here, especially if you can grab a seat outside. Open every day, whether it’s a holiday or a Sunday – a big plus for me too! Sometimes I don’t really have the weekends and holidays in mind. 🙂
Iss Dich glücklich – plant-based eatery
Not far from Wiener Platz, Sophie Radke has fulfilled her life’s dream with “Iss Dich glücklich – plant-based eatery” (means “Eat you happy”). You can notice this not only in the interior inspired by her trip around the world but also on your plate. For over 6 years she has collected recipes all over the world to get them served to you hand-picked in her own shop now. You can see that in her sunny and warm heart as well. She also likes to stand behind the counter with the active support of Sandra. On the menu, you will find, among other things, the Bali or the Byron Bowl, which will bring you a little holiday feeling. Especially on grey or rainy days.
You can expect balanced, wholesome, fresh and pure taste explosions – without any refined sugar! Plus, the food will keep you full for a long time as it is loaded with good fats and fiber. Everything is as seasonal and regional as possible and a lot of organic quality. If there’s no beet, there’s no beet. Here, nobody would think that vegans would have to abdicate anything. My absolute recommendation: the coconut banana pancakes – divine! If you want to enjoy it on the go: Everything will be packed in recycled paper or biodegradable corn starch!
Veganista
In the middle of Munich’s art area between the art galleries, museums, and universities there is another project of the heart: the Veganista. That is why you will usually find the owner Rahel herself in her small, but all the more loving boutique directly at the Pinakotheken. Here vegan, fair, ecologically manufactured clothes, shoes, and accessories are waiting to be discovered by you – and have been since 2012! So it combines pretty much all of my filter functions when choosing to clothe, which is a logical consequence and somehow conditional.
Personality is very important to Rahel: That’s why she prefers having no online-shop because she is happy when she can get to know her customers. So she managed to bring a neighborly, personal atmosphere to the store and shows you that ecological and vegan fair fashion can look incredibly good. Among other things, you will find hand-picked parts from Armedangels, Good Guys Don’t Wear Leather, Noani, and Peopletree.
heartbeet
Over 5 years as the sous-chef of the two-star chef Fritz Schilling made a good taste impression on Peter. Together with his hopefully soon 😉 brother-in-law, Andi, he opened the heartbeet in Rosenthaler Strasse last summer. Delicious organic bowls are served with the ingredients sourced as locally and seasonally as possible. Here, the heart beats also for crooked fruit and vegetables! The food dealers of the day can always be seen on a chalkboard on the wall. Unfortunately, the heartbeet is not completely vegan, but the selection is still gigantic. In addition to the bowls already compiled on the menu, you can also create your own and let off steam with over 60 fresh ingredients!
Must-try: Chickpea tofu as an extra topping for the Lentil Avocado Bowl! There is also the Tokyo Sushi Bowl with grilled eggplant and edamame or the Mexican Vegan Bowl with jalapeño-pickles and tortilla chips. Excellent! Here, too, everything is possible to go: in sustainable, recycled, FSC-certified cardboard, in bio-plastic made from corn starch, or in your own box. The main thing is that there is no unnecessary disposable plastic. In the meantime, you can even grab a reusable bowl!
Be there or be square! Otherwise, Andi will be happy to bring your order with the bike. In winter I actually saw him cycling in only a T-shirt: unbelieva-bowl!
iceDate
“Date Me. Eat Me. Love Me.” At least that’s what it says on the wooden spoons at iceDate. Of course, you can also move your date to eat ice-cream in the Maxvorstadt but, actually, “dates” are the only sweeteners used! 100% natural, vegan organic ingredients, no artificial additives, binders, flavors, and no other added sugar. The delicious balls consist only of dates, homemade cashew cream, and fruits and are therefore completely free of gluten (except the waffle) or soy.
Even spoons and cups are sustainable because they are compostable. It sounds like an ice-cream without guilty conscience which I can confirm: it actually tastes less noxiously sweet and simply delicious. No wonder that you can buy iceDate sundaes in various organic stores across Germany now! I am definitely looking forward to warmer days back in Munich when I can swing my iceDate spoon.
Café Gans am Wasser
Last year I discovered Café Gans am Wasser, and I am very happy about that! Beautifully located in the Westpark at the Mollsee, you can enjoy a touch of festival feeling for a few hours. In fact, hardly any tourists get lost here and so you can enjoy your seitan vegetable kebab with hummus among mostly Munich people sitting in half a bathtub overlooking the water and a few geese. The decoration is really great and there is a lot to see, but also a lot to experience – from events such as yoga, Punch and Judy shows, handpan solos to song-making, there is a lot to do in every season. It is only closed on completely rainy days.
A short detour to the nearby pagodas in West Park is also highly recommended. Open every day from 10 AM, serving coffees, freshly squeezed juices, homemade lemonades, beers, wines, spritzers, homemade fries or the seitan vegetable kebab with caramelized onions, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, lettuce, and hummus. Super cozy and especially in summer there is an acute danger of staying out late boozing! So, girls: don’t forget a scarf or a light jacket for the evening!
TIAN
Vegetables don’t come along with star cuisine? Fine dining is only possible with goose liver, lobster, caviar, quail eggs, cheese variations, coq au vin, ceviche, and Co.? Wrong thought! And the team around Paul Ivić in Munich’s TIAN proves this with their vegan-vegetarian creations. Located directly next to the Viktualienmarkt, regional, organic, and seasonal vegetables play the main role and are more than skillfully staged – from the green to the tuber. Even rare and partly forgotten varieties are put back in a new light and get a small but very well deserved comeback at the TIAN.
Different cooking and fermentation techniques not only bring the palate into a party mood, but also the perfectly selected, optional wine accompaniment does the rest. The strikingly young service is also a perfect mix of attentive and relaxed. Always a loose, yet discreet slogan on the lips, the team at TIAN also uses this to dust off the star cuisine, which is somewhat “stick-in-the-ass”. We had the 5-course menu with wine accompaniment served and with every bite and sip the feeling: Yeah, someone got the star right there! Of course, it costs a little more than a “normal meal”, but it is worth every penny and is really an experience that you should really treat yourself to. In the spirit of their own credo: “Long live the here and now. Long live the life.”
SOY
I love Asian and especially Vietnamese cuisine. You can eat it all year round – in winter I tend to warm phos (soups) and curries. In summer there are delicious summer rolls, dumplings or salads.
Veto: Actually, summer roles always work for me! Just like others have an extra stomach for desserts, I probably have one for summer rolls! 🙂
Fish sauces etc. are often hidden in Asian cuisine, which is not always apparent from the menu. Quite different in the SOY! The SOY at the crossing of Theresien- and Schleißheimer Straße not only makes the vegan heart beat faster: the SOY has set itself the task of showing that the eponymous tofu can be incredibly tasty. Each of us has probably had the opposite experience. I often hear that tofu doesn’t taste good, but the problem is usually in the preparation or the cook. I personally love to eat tofu and don’t fear soy.
Back to the SOY: Every dish is completely vegan and actually infinitely delicious! Like any other shop or restaurant mentioned here, I have already sacrificed myself as a taster! The summer rolls with peanut dip, the baked tofu covered with green rice flakes and the traditional Vietnamese pancake with bean sprouts, tofu, seitan and vegetables are definitely recommended – as is a reservation!
Bananaleaf
As soon as the Bananaleaf appears, it is usually gone. Born out of the necessity of not being able to really afford a location in Munich, Daniela has simply nestled again and again with her passion called “breakfast” in shops that were not used during the day. The SHQUARED pop-up concept was born! Since Nasti has been on board as a business partner, the two of them pop up again and again with Bananaleaf, enchant all guests with their infinitely delicious vegan breakfast creations, and then disappear again as if nothing had ever happened.
They describe themselves as “creative free spirits with attachment problems.” Delicacies à la coconut-orange French toast with rhubarb and raspberry jam, sweet potato chia bowl with coconut matcha cream, spice carrot cake or drinks like the Rosy Coconut Milk or the magical butterly pea aloe-vera lemon ice-tea leaves nothing to be desired. Sounds at least as inspiring as the owners themselves, because they are bubbling with a zest for action, good mood, and ideas. In order not to miss a pop-up, you should inform yourself on the social media channels. Definitely worth it!
You must be the change you want to see in the world.
Mahatma Gandhi
The bonus self-cooking tip
Even if it’s not a real physical store where you can grab something vegan, I highly recommend Surdham’s Kitchen! Here you will learn how to conjure up really delicious vegan dishes in a playful way. I attended the freestyle cooking class with a friend and we were both thrilled. Chef Surdham is a super relaxed, personable, and pleasant fellow vegan who has traveled to all continents, played with spices, and also gives you general tips and tricks for cooking. Super inspiring and aha moments are guaranteed! Say hello from me – maybe he still remembers the crazy Rosa who wanted to put figs in everywhere! 🙂
Do you have any other tips and maybe undiscovered corners that will make my vegan and sustainable heart beat faster? Then always bring it on! I am always happy to receive recommendations! To stay up to date, here is my Facebook fan page – sharing is caring! I would be happy if you accompanied me a little bit on my trip! 🙂
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