FREA Bakery & Cafe — Restaurant in Berlin

I hate having to write this review. I used to love Frea Bakery, one of the few purely vegan cafes in Berlin. I would go out of my way multiple times a week there to stuff my face with their amazingly delicious pastries. Their pastries were and are unbelievably good (the Spandauer! The croissants! The brioche loaves!), but I am sad to say I can never step foot in this bakery again and cannot in good conscience ever give them another cent of my money. I will advise all of my friends to go elsewhere. Specifically, to great vegan bakery less than 500m away from Frea, a bakery that actually has a backbone, The Sanctuary.

Frea Bakery is no longer a vegan bakery, apparently because customers asked why Frea does not serve milk, eggs, and cheese (because it's a vegan bakery - duh). And instead of just reminding these customers that they can go to literally ANY bakery anywhere in this city and get milk, eggs, and cheese, Frea Bakery, a vegan bakery, decided to spit in the face of its vegan customers, its vegan morals, and the animals they used to claim to care about, and essentially ignore feedback from vegan customers about the change. How many reviews here from upset vegan customers have they responded to? I saw two, with a copy and pasted answer. That tells you a lot. They do not care about us vegan customers. At all.

With this move, it's a clear step backwards in all directions, from animal welfare to being environmentally friendly. Frea, what do you even care about? What do you stand for? Because it isn't the animals, and it isn't the environment, and it certainly isn't your dedicated vegan customers. It's clear that Frea Bakery management never actually cared about vegan morals, vegan values, the animals, or their vegan customers. All they care about is a profit.

Frea management, the vegan community had so few safe spaces. It was always such a joy to come into Frea and know everything was made without animal suffering and that I was free to choose whatever I fancied. Now I can't come there again - because I won't support an establishment that takes a step back in terms of environmentalism and animal welfare/rights, but also because I simply would feel uncomfortable. Is this really vegan? Is this still vegan? How do I know? And how am I supposed to trust Frea management after they pulled the rug out from under us?

So, Frea management, I hope you sleep well with your extra income from selling cheese, milk, and eggs. I'm sure the cows and the chickens who are abused and slaughtered in the millions so that you can provide your customers with vegetarian meals are so happy that you're making more money. You should be ashamed of yourselves. You are...

What has happened to this place? I used to be very excited to come here every time I've come to Berlin. But at my most recent visit the food menu is completely different - vegan options that I did not find interesting, whereas before, I thought they were super creative and interesting dishes. I also found the new meat options not exciting either (e.g. chicken caesar salad, salmon teriyaki bowl). The kitchen also closed at 330pm (not sure if that's a new introduction) but it meant I was left with (what I felt) a limited selection of savoury food and had a (in my opinion) overpriced gouda bread roll (2 slices of gouda, a slice of tomato and some lettuce. And too much butter for my liking). I was really disappointed.

For reference to others reading, since writing this review, I received an email that my review was taken down for "defamation" grounds (use that information as you wish). And it looks like it’s happened to many others. Please consider whether it looks odd that there haven’t been many recent reviews 🤨. This version has been re-worded to make clear what is my opinion. I also provided them with my credit card statement to prove I was there on the date this review was originally posted.

I have spent 100s of Euros at Frea (both at the restaurant and bakery) over the last couple years and I find it very disappointing that the recent deletion of reviews imply management are not happy listening to honest feedback. I will not be going back to this place again after...

Update: Please note this place is not vegan anymore. I don’t get it when a place enjoys the community support for years, and then decides to add non vegan products.

Original review: I’ll start with the good: The pastries are wonderful. Vegan, fresh, delicious. The place is decorated nicely and it was comfy.

When that being said, in my opinion, there’s still a lot to improve (Keep in mind we were visiting on a busy weekend) The food menu was pretty basic and missed some protein to help you feel full (especially with all the sugary pastries) the prices are not cheap, which I don’t mind if I feel like I’m getting what I paid for. Unfortunately that was not the case. The place is self-service. It’s very unclear if you need to stay in the pick up line or sit, because the host was also cleaning tables and was running around - therefor didn’t communicate with new guests. For the short time we were there, 3 different people were asked to get up from unoccupied tables because there’s a waiting list. Made everyone uncomfortable and could be avoided. So we were waiting in line, then told we should sit, waited for a table, set down, got up again to order, got two different buzzers, got up to get drinks, got up again to get the food. Very messy.

As a vegan foodie who love supporting vegan places with delicious food, I think they might be missing the mark with service and organization. If this would be improved - this place would be amazing. Until then - take away is...