Cafe Botanico is Berlin’s best kept secret. It’s a bit tucked away in South-East Berlin and if you’re standing in front of it, you might think it can’t be much good. Don’t be fooled, behind this ordinary facade is a magical place: a 1000 square meter garden where herbs, fruits and vegetables grow.
Especially on sunny days Botanico a great spot as you can enjoy the nice weather in a quiet and green surrounding.
The chef cooks Italian dishes with as many ingredients from the garden as possible. It can’t get more local than this! And because Cafe Botanico creates the dishes around the products from the garden, most of the dishes are vegetarian or vegan. This garden plate for example which is made completely with vegetables, herbs and salads from their garden is 100% plant-based, so it’s suitable for vegans.
The risotto of the day, served with products that are harvested on that day, can be ordered vegan as well. We went for the vegetarian version with mushrooms, carrot and geen peas. And it was served with a very special edible lily. it’s called Daylily, it’s only open for 1 day! It opened up that morning and would have closed that evening. It’s likely that a new flower will bloom on the cut stem in a few days. It was a very special experience to eat a beautiful flower like this!
As a small in-between dish we got these homemade sorbets made from redcurrant. It was very refreshing and neutralized our tastebuds before we got our main course.
Our main dish at Botanico was this Strozzapreti alle Erbe. Strozzapreti means ‘strangled priests’ and is a fresh short eggless pasta. It’s served with seasonal herbs from their garden.
Although we already had quite a lot, there’s always room for dessert. Especially if dessert is a vegan cheesecake with apricot and ginger, raspberry sorbet and pineapple sorbet.
As you might have guessed, we had a delicious meal at Cafe Botanico. Even though we didn’t expect it at all when we arrived. If you’re going to Berlin I recommend you reserve a table at Cafe Botanico to enjoy a very local vegetarian lunch or dinner!
Click here for all my vegetarian and vegan friendly food spots in Berlin.
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