Vegan in Berlin
EuropeArguably the vegan capital of Europe: fully vegan supermarkets, vegan döner and currywurst at ordinary street stands, and hundreds of restaurants with plant-based menus rather than a single token dish.
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24 destinations with the dishes that are already plant-based, the market staples, the exact phrases to use, and the hidden animal ingredients to ask about.
Arguably the vegan capital of Europe: fully vegan supermarkets, vegan döner and currywurst at ordinary street stands, and hundreds of restaurants with plant-based menus rather than a single token dish.
One of the highest vegan densities per head in the world. Most restaurants mark vegan dishes, many are fully plant-based, and the default mezze table needs no substitution at all.
Every cuisine in the world plus legally enforced allergen labelling. Markets, chains and fine dining all carry marked vegan menus, and dedicated vegan restaurants span Ethiopian, Sri Lankan, Chinese and modern British.
Density solves the problem: vegan Chinese, Ethiopian, Caribbean, Indian, Israeli and diner food all exist within a few subway stops, and most restaurants can adapt a dish on request.
A concentration of jay and vegan kitchens unusual even for Thailand, thanks to the Buddhist temple network and a long-term international community. Northern Thai food adapts easily once fish sauce is removed.
Legally required allergen labelling plus fierce supermarket competition make the UK one of the simplest places to eat plant-based. Chains carry marked vegan menus year-round, and Veganuary is a mainstream retail event.
Per head, one of the most vegan countries on earth. Kosher separation of meat and dairy means 'parve' labelling already tells you a product has no dairy, and the everyday mezze table is chickpeas, tahini, salads and bread.
Europe's biggest vegan product market. Supermarkets carry own-brand vegan ranges at conventional prices, V-Label certification is everywhere, and every mid-sized city has multiple fully vegan kitchens.
The easiest large country in the world for plant-based eating: an enormous vegetarian tradition, pulses at the centre of most meals, and regional cuisines that were dairy-free long before the word vegan existed. The one thing to watch is ghee and paneer, which appear in restaurant cooking far more than in home food.
Poland's vegan scene grew fast, and Warsaw now has one of the highest counts of vegan restaurants per head in Europe. Traditional Polish food adapts well: potatoes, cabbage, mushrooms, buckwheat and pickles are already central.
Portugal legally requires a vegan option in public canteens, and Lisbon's restaurant scene followed. Bean stews, grilled vegetables, bread and olive oil form a reliable base outside the seafood tradition.
Orthodox fasting days mean plant-based food is a mainstream, everyday tradition rather than a niche. Ask for 'beyaynetu' — a platter of lentil, split pea and vegetable stews on injera — and you are eating what most of the country eats on Wednesdays and Fridays.
A large and growing vegan scene layered over a cuisine already built on corn, beans and chilli. Vegan taquerías with soy al pastor are now a fixture rather than a novelty.
Buddhist 'chay' cooking gives Vietnam a nationwide network of fully plant-based kitchens, and the everyday food culture is built on rice, herbs, tofu and vegetables. Fish sauce is the single biggest obstacle, and it hides in almost every dipping sauce.
Enormous variation by region. Coastal cities and college towns have dense vegan infrastructure; rural areas rely on supermarket staples and the plant-based edges of Mexican, Ethiopian, Indian and Thai restaurants.
Tempeh was invented here, tofu is everywhere, and coconut milk replaces dairy entirely. The main obstacles are shrimp paste (terasi) and fish sauce in sambals and stir-fries.
Coconut milk instead of dairy makes Thai food a natural fit, and the annual Jay (เจ) festival has left a permanent infrastructure of yellow-flag vegan stalls. The catch is fish sauce, oyster sauce and shrimp paste, which are used as salt rather than as an ingredient.
The 'zeytinyağlı' tradition — vegetables cooked in olive oil and served cold — is an entire category of Turkish cuisine that happens to be vegan. Meze tables, pulses and breads carry the rest.
Cucina povera is a plant-based archive: pasta e fagioli, ribollita, pasta alla norma, marinara. Dry pasta is egg-free in the south, and 'senza derivati animali' is now a recognised menu phrase.
Tapas culture hides an entire vegan menu: pan con tomate, patatas bravas, pimientos, olives, gazpacho and escalivada. The catch is jamón and tuna appearing in dishes that sound vegetable-based.
The everyday plate — rice, beans, farofa, salad — is already plant-based, and per-kilo buffets let you build a full meal without negotiation. The exception is feijoada and the pork fat used in bean pots.
The base of Mexican food — corn, beans, chilli, squash, tomato, avocado — is entirely plant-based. Problems come from lard in refried beans and masa, cheese sprinkled by default, and chicken stock in rice.
Korean temple cuisine (사찰음식) is fully plant-based and increasingly visible, and banchan culture means a meal can be assembled from vegetable side dishes. The obstacles are anchovy stock, fish sauce in kimchi and egg garnishes.
Shojin ryori, the Buddhist temple cuisine, is one of the world's oldest fully plant-based traditions — but everyday Japanese cooking is built on dashi made from bonito flakes, so 'vegetarian' dishes are often not plant-based.
Indian, Ethiopian, Levantine, Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican and Southern Italian cooking all have long-standing dishes built on pulses, grains and vegetables — usually the easiest places to eat well without special ordering.
Hidden fish sauce and shrimp paste in South-East Asia, ghee and paneer in South Asia, lard in pastry and beans in Latin America and Central Europe, and butter or cream finishing sauces in France and Italy.
Each destination guide gives short phrases in the local language, plus the specific ingredient names worth pointing at on a menu.
Place by place
The difficulty of eating without animal products varies enormously by city, and almost none of that variation is about ideology. It is about which staple cuisine already contains legume-and-grain dishes, how labelling law works, and whether a supermarket stocks fortified milk.
Historic peasant cooking across the Mediterranean, South Asia, West Africa, the Levant, East Asia and Mesoamerica is built on grains, legumes, vegetables and oils, with animal products used as garnish or feast food. That is why the easiest plant-based cities are frequently not the ones with the most dedicated vegan restaurants: a place with strong dal, mezze, injera-and-shiro, or tortilla-and-frijoles traditions offers dozens of naturally plant-based meals at every price point.
In the EU and UK, milk, egg, fish, crustaceans and molluscs must be declared as allergens in the ingredient list, which makes packaged screening fast. In the US, the FALCPA allergen list covers milk, eggs, fish and shellfish, but 'natural flavours' can obscure animal origin. In many other markets, disclosure is voluntary or partial, so certification marks and a small vocabulary of local ingredient names matter more.
The phrase that works is rarely 'I am vegan'. It is the specific list: no meat, no fish, no fish sauce, no egg, no milk, no butter, no ghee, no lard, no broth. In many cuisines a single hidden ingredient — fish sauce in Southeast Asia, ghee in South Asia, lard in Central Europe and Mexico, butter in French cooking, dashi in Japan — accounts for most accidental animal content in otherwise plant-based dishes.
Some of the cheapest and easiest places to eat plant-based are middle-income cities with strong street-food legume traditions; some of the hardest are wealthy places with meat-centred national cuisines and few fortified products. Availability of B12-fortified foods, rather than restaurant count, is the variable that most affects long-term feasibility for residents.
A short due-diligence list that resolves most problems on the first day.
| Factor | Why it matters | How to check quickly |
|---|---|---|
| Staple legume dish | Guarantees a cheap default meal | Search the local name for lentil, bean or chickpea stew |
| Hidden animal ingredient | Main cause of accidental consumption | Learn the local word for fish sauce, ghee, lard, broth |
| Allergen labelling regime | Determines supermarket speed | Check whether milk and egg are bolded on packs |
| Fortified plant milk | B12, calcium, D availability | Look for a national brand in a large supermarket |
| Market culture | Cheapest produce | Find the main wet or farmers' market and its days |
| Restaurant vocabulary | Ordering accuracy | Two written phrases saved on your phone |
| Supplement access | B12 continuity | Confirm pharmacies stock cyanocobalamin |
EU Regulation 1169/2011 · FDA FALCPA · national food agencies
Roughly two hours of preparation removes most of the friction of the first week.
Meat, fish, egg, milk, butter, broth — plus the phrase for 'without'. This outperforms any app.
Every food culture has one. It becomes your reliable, inexpensive default while you learn the rest.
Establish which fortified milk, tofu and legume products exist locally before relying on restaurants.
One for ordering, one for explaining a serious allergy where cross-contamination matters to you.
Even in difficult cities, one supermarket chain or one cuisine reliably works at 22:00.
Indian, Ethiopian, Levantine, Thai and Vietnamese (with fish-sauce substitution), Mexican, and much of Mediterranean cooking all offer numerous naturally plant-based dishes at ordinary prices.
Ask for the dish without it and with soy sauce or salt instead. In Thailand and Vietnam the specific request is understood in most kitchens, particularly with the Buddhist-vegetarian term used locally.
Contact the host or restaurant in advance with a short list of what you do not eat rather than a label. Kitchens respond much better to concrete constraints than categories.
Only if you eat at dedicated plant-based restaurants. Market produce, bakery items and the local legume dish are usually the cheapest food available.
A weekly 1,000–2,000 µg tablet is easier to maintain across time zones and disrupted routines than a daily dose.
Both. Long-term feasibility in a place is determined mainly by grocery availability, so fortified products and legume staples are covered alongside eating out.