Vöner — Restaurant in Berlin

What do you expect when you read VÖNER? A vegan kebab that tastes like a real kebab? With grilled meat? Or just vegetables in a flatbread, with sauce and anything that should represent the "meat" of the "original" doner kebab?

After there are hundreds of kebab shops in Berlin where you can eat vegan and vegetarian kebabs (but without meat substitutes), you can expect something special from VÖNER. Especially for the price of 5.00 euros. A special meat substitute or a great sauce. Anything!

But the sauces were not amazing now, the staff was quite friendly but a bit dizzy (which is not really bad in Friedrichshain). The location was nice and suitable for a snack. Cool atmosphere.

But the meat substitute was absolutely disappointing. Didn't even have anything to do with kebab meat. And since I've only been eating meat-free for 3 years, I can still remember the taste very well. You also got really thirsty afterwards.

Also I did not find it ok to charge a 50 cent surcharge for the peanut sauce. Not if the VÖNER is already more than 40% more expensive than other kebab shops ...

Therefore there are only 3 stars. And yes, you can argue about taste. And maybe we just had a bad day. But since we were there half a year ago, I can assess this with a clear conscience.

Was erwartet man, wenn man VÖNER liest? Einen veganen Döner, der wie ein echter Döner schmeckt? Mit gegrilltem Vleisch vom Drehspiess? Oder einfach nur Gemüse in einem Fladenbrot, dazu Soße und irgendetwas, dass das „Fleisch“ des „originalen“ Döners darstellen soll?

Nachdem es in Berlin hunderte Dönerbuden gibt, in denen man vegane und vegetarische Döner (jedoch ohne Fleischersatz) essen kann, erwartet man vom VÖNER also schon etwas Besonderes. Vorallem zum Preis von 5,00 Euro. Einen besonderen Fleischersatz oder eine tolle Soße. Irgendwas!

Aber die Soßen waren jetzt nicht der Wahnsinn, das Personal recht freundlich aber etwas verplant (was in Friedrichshain nicht wirklich schlimm ist). Die Location war nice und passend für nen Imbiss. Coole Atmosphäre.

Absolut enttäuschend war jedoch der Fleischersatz. Hatte nicht mal annähernd etwas mit Dönerfleisch zu tun. Und da ich mich erst seit 3 Jahren fleischfrei ernähre, kann ich mich noch ganz gut an den Geschmack erinnern. Zudem bekam man danach richtig großen Durst.

Auch fand ich es nicht ok für die Erdnusssoße 50 Cent Aufpreis zu berechnen. Nicht wenn der VÖNER ohnehin schon mehr als 40% teuerer ist, als bei anderen Dönerbuden...

Daher gibt es auch nur 3 Sterne. Und ja, über Geschmack lässt sich streiten. Und vielleicht hatten wir nur nen schlechten Tag erwischt. Aber da wir vor nem halben Jahr schonmal da waren, kann ich dies mit ruhigem Gewissen...

Edit: seems my review bas been flagged and removed, mostly likely by the restaurant. Nothing I posted is offensive, quite thr opposite: they were rude to us!

Hmm, this was a bit of a dissapointment.

I went with my non-vegan husband, he is really open to vegan mock meats etc but has sensory issues with certain foods (particularly salad, certain vegetables), but I really wanted to try a vegan kebab for my first time in Berlin and found this place on HappyCow, so he said he'd come with me.

Granted I understand things are different in different countries, but in the UK when you get a kebab you get the meat and usually you choose what salad you want etc. When we arrived I asked if we chose what salad we wanted and the women serving us seemed incredibly annoyed with the idea. I asked for one kebab with salad and one without and said my husband didn't like salad. When it arrived it had salad on it... I took it back and said I ordered without and she reluctantly took it from us, and said in a really grumpy way "so just bread, and meat?". I said yes (had already said this before very clearly), then when the new one was ready she shouted "the one with just the meat and bread" in this really sarcastic way. It was embarrassing.

I'm sorry but I'd understand more if it was some really obscure request but I find wanting a kebab without salad not that difficult to understand. I feel a language barrier somewhat but the sarcasm etc was completely unnecessary and made the entire meal unenjoyable.

In terms of the actual food, it was OK. The meat was very salty, the sauce watery and it was quite messy to eat because of this. It wasn't terrible, maybe it tasted worse due to me feeling uncomfortable. I...

At first, the place looks pretty cool - it certainly has its own magic in being kinda messy and home-like, but the food is not that special. Seems like they really try to compensate the lack of taste with extra grease and oil and it's just not working well. The french fries we got were completely soaked in oil to the point where they weren't even crispy anymore and the fried onions were just really mushy wet from excessive amount of oil. We didn't expect this to be a healthy vegan food but still the food was literally sinking in the oil.

The cheese as they state on the menu is not a vegan cheese but just a yellow sauce. No desserts and no wifi. Both the cook and the waitress were nowhere close to being friendly. The waitress even laughed at us when we came to buy a beer for the second time with "Oh you again?". All and all, we expected much more especially after we have visited other vegan places that were super cool and friendly. We might have a bad luck on that day but definitely not coming back anytime...