As we are nearing Treptower Straße and looking out for the vegan Pizzeria, we pass a young guy in a hoody and a knitted woolen hat. He is agitatedly talking into his cellphone: “No, there’s no notice about their opening hours … don’t know, it’s closed …” The shop sign next to him reads “Sfizy Veg”, it is the vegan Pizzeria – and it is closed indeed. This was the top choice recommended by one of the young guys in woolen hats in our local vegan corner shop. Keen on pizza as well as the vegan experience of it, and meanwhile really hungry, we make our way to the other, “not quite as good as Sfizy Veg,” vegetarian/vegan pizzeria in the vicinity: To the Trattoria Ponte Verde.
A vegetarian/vegan Pizzeria
The Trattoria Ponte Verde, located right opposite the vegan Café Vux, also offers vegetarian dishes, i.e. with real cheese, but most pizzas can also be ordered in a vegan variation. The atmosphere and the design are pleasant, more or less a modern pizzeria style. There are quite a number of guests, from 16 up to 70, and only two of them have kept their woolen hats on. The attentive but not intrusive staff talk in Italian amongst each other, making for an authentic pizza environment.
We try the potato lasagna and the vegan Pizza Diavolo, with spicy vegan “salami” and a vegan cheese imitation called “Pizzaschmelz” (pizza melt). The base is crunchy and thin, the “salami” convincing enough for our taste, but then we haven’t eaten the real thing for decades. The vegan cheese imitation, though, still requires some improvement, we feel. Similarly, the potato lasagna is a decent enough and very yummy dish, but doesn’t have much in common with Italian lasagna. It’s more like a heavy, dense slab of Greek Moussaka without the meat.
Apart from soft drinks and a good selection of fairly-priced organic wines, the Trattoria also offers beer and some non-alcoholic beers.
Dessert, dessert!
The vegan mousse au chocolat again has a texture issue: It’s a nice dessert, and quite chocolaty for a dairy-free dish, but neither the chocolate flan nor the soy milk-based cream is fluffy enough to pass off as “mousse au chocolat”. The espresso, though, is perfect and comes with a just right-sized tasty cookie.
Our verdict on the Trattoria Ponte Verde
The Ponte Verde is a nice restaurant with a good selection of food and beverages. Staff is nice and attentive, the prices fair. If you do eat cheese sometimes, the taste of the “Pizzaschmelz” might be too different from the real thing. We would go back to cheese next time.
More information: www.ponteverde.de The Ponte Verde has closed down.
