A business contact was in town and staying in the Körnerkiez area, and so after telling me she was…read moregluten and lactose-free, I did a quick search of nearby restaurants. I actually used to live in this area two years ago, but even so, it's already changed quite a bit since I have left, and there were some new places to check out.
One such place is From Hanoi With Love, which sounds like a cute restaurant based on its name. That aside, the reviews seemed good and their Facebook page even has the "Vegan Vegetarian" classification selected.
Let me tell you now that if you are vegan or vegetarian, you won't have many choices here.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. The interior here is really quite clean and minimal. It's small, with maybe seating for 15 people max. There is tasteful art on the wall. No complaints.
The menus are kind of strangely put together, but they have German on one side and English on the other. There is also a menu board with specials (that are different from the regular menu) so be sure to check those out, though be warned they are only in German.
The food? Well, lots and lots of meat. Of course, you can sub sojafleisch (soy meat) in dishes, but be warned that about 80% of the meals are made with meat or fish sauce, so even your "vegetarian" meal will have meat in it.
There was a whole page of "street food," meaning starters, and some of these were a bit more flexible with the meat/no meat thing.
Of the four or so mains that were veggie friendly, there was the pho, the glass noodle salad, a green coconut curry, and some kind of tomato sauce dish (which sounded strange). My companion and I both opted for the green curry dish with fake meat.
The food came out fast and it was fine, but nothing outstanding. I liked the spice of the curry, but the fake meat was pretty gross. It wasn't that it was bad, but there was no nice presentation of it, and it was just kind of gray-ish strips of unseasoned meat. I think the meal would have been better if they used tofu instead of soy meat, but that's a personal preference.
All in all, the food was filling, and our bill for two dishes and two drinks came to under €15. So I wouldn't say the place is bad per se. I just didn't feel like it was a place I would ever seek out. Stop by for a quick, warm meal if you're in the area, but if you are veggie, you might consider someplace else.