li.ke : serious||thai||vegan — Restaurant in Berlin

Forgot to take pics - sorry. The food I had was fine, though not better than I've made myself using a vegan Thai spices mix.

The menu is clearly marked with allergens, though every single item is marked as containing gluten, which makes no sense to me at all. There's a limited number which can be made gluten-free. This may be because of the risk of cross-contamination, though that isn't an issue for me, I just need to not directly eat gluten; the waiter wouldn't discuss it, just pointed out which I could choose from.

I had a tofu & veg dish with noodles and coconut milk. Anywhere in Thailand or even Thai restaurants, the tofu has always been chunks and deep-fried; these were chunks but not deep-fried. The flavours were underwhelming, though perfectly acceptable and pleasant. I've just finished it off for brekkie and they didn't even intensify over night.

It was very, very busy, with long, canteen-style tables inside. Take earplugs if you're sensitive to noise.

Staff were Thai and lovely, dealing with numerous customers and orders quickly and efficiently.

I've given 3* for food not because it was bad, but because it was decidedly average and I have done better myself given the correct ingredients. Maybe the non-gf dishes are better or maybe I went at peak time on a Saturday so it was very busy. If I was staying in Berlin I'd definitely give it another go but I'm...

Update: Unfortunately we ate here last week and everything tasted very sweet. As if they put a big spoon of sugar in each dish. The Phad Thai was more like a sweet & sour dish and our mouths were all sticky as if we had eaten candy and something very unhealthy - everything but authentic. Can't recommend any longer....

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The best Asian restaurant in the neighbourhood, Lemon Leaf, turned vegan and is now called li.ke. Instead of having the usual starters and mains, they offer Asian "Tapas" which are 3,50 each and all vegan. Next to the tapas are also some regular main courses, which are around 8,50.

They call the restaurant Thai but I believe there are also still some dishes from Cambodja and Laos on the menu. It's luckily still run by the same family, who I know is very keen on using good ingredients and making almost everything themselves (curry mixes, dumplings etc), and you can taste it. We had a really nice lunch here, with some delicious curries including an excellent massaman.

Inside it looks like you're visiting a street restaurant in Bangkok. Very cool and original.

I'll write more once i visited more often, but so far I can really...

at first it took us 45 mins to get our food despite being empty sometime before 1pm, but we could understand because probably we came just short after the opening time.

portions were rather small, so if you are a group of two people starving, 6 small bowls are not really enough! we really enjoyed the vegan prawns (first time trying those), but the other bowls were just.. bland and we were actually expecting for more unique and tasty food.

we love the interiors and location can't be any better, however we were not really satisfied with the service. no welcome, no smiles, the waiter did not want to look us in the eyes, had a bit hard time explaining the menu when i asked for some recommendations, did not say anything when the card machine was not working (or working very slowly? we ended up just paying cash).

i had high expectations after reading all the nice reviews, but it was an interesting experience. another visit? i don't...