Restaurant in Berlin, Germany
Michelin-recognised vegan dining at €€ value.
Lucky Leek holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and a 4.7 Google rating from over 1,000 reviews — rare credentials for a fully vegan room at the €€ price point. Chef Josita Hartanto's three- and five-course seasonal menus are the reason to book, with à la carte as a lighter option. The summer terrace in Prenzlauer Berg is worth planning around specifically.
Lucky Leek earns its Michelin Bib Gourmand at the €€ price point, which makes it one of the stronger value arguments in Berlin's fine-dining-adjacent scene. Josita Hartanto's tasting menus — available in three- and five-course formats, with à la carte as an option — are the reason to book. If you want to understand what serious plant-based cooking looks like without the four-figure bill, this is where to come. Book ahead: the room is not large, and the terrace seats in summer disappear fast.
Lucky Leek has been running since 2011 on Kollwitzstraße in Prenzlauer Berg, long enough to have shaped what Berlin's vegan dining scene looks like today rather than simply follow it. Hartanto trained in the classical tradition at the Steigenberger Hotel in Berlin and cut her teeth at La Mano Verde, the city's first dedicated vegan hotel restaurant, before opening Lucky Leek. That classical grounding shows in the precision of the cooking: dishes like Jerusalem artichoke salad with smoked carrots, cucumber, tarragon mayonnaise, and pumpkin seeds, or stewed eggplant with polenta, hazelnut and olive salsa, and corn cream, are built with the same logic as French-trained fine dining, just without the animal proteins.
The Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition , awarded in 2025 , confirms what regulars have known for years: the kitchen is operating at a level that competes with much more expensive rooms. The Bib Gourmand designation specifically signals good cooking at a moderate price, which at Lucky Leek's €€ tier makes this one of the more honest value signals in the Berlin Michelin portfolio. For context, the city's starred rooms at [Rutz](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/rutz-berlin-restaurant) or [Restaurant Tim Raue](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/restaurant-tim-raue-berlin-restaurant) will cost you considerably more per head.
Hartanto is also the author of two cookbooks on plant-based cooking, which is worth knowing because it reflects the degree of methodological seriousness behind the menu. The food here is not a collection of substitutions for meat dishes , it is cooking designed from the ground up around vegetables, with technique applied to extract flavour at every stage. That distinction matters when you are deciding whether this is worth a special booking or a casual drop-in.
This is where the editorial angle matters for your decision. Lucky Leek's terrace on Kollwitzstraße operates in summer and is, according to Michelin, the preferred spot when the weather cooperates. The terrace dynamic changes the experience: daytime on the terrace in Prenzlauer Berg is a quieter, more neighbourhood-paced meal, well suited to two people working through the five-course menu without the evening's compressed energy. If atmosphere and lingering matter to you, a summer lunch reservation on the terrace is the version to target.
Evening service brings a different room. Prenzlauer Berg is a residential neighbourhood with a local dining culture, and Lucky Leek draws both international visitors and regulars, according to Michelin's own description. Dinner here is more formal in feel , not dress-code formal, but focused. The room is small, the tasting menu format naturally slows the pace, and the noise level reflects a full service rather than a quiet lunch. For groups or occasions where conversation is central, an early dinner slot or a weekday booking will give you more room to breathe than a Saturday evening.
On value grounds, lunch and dinner are comparable since the menu format is the same. But the terrace lunch in summer is a distinctive experience that justifies the reservation specifically for that slot, rather than treating any available table as equivalent. If you are visiting Berlin between May and September and the terrace matters to you, book early in the week rather than waiting for a weekend window.
Booking difficulty is rated Easy for Lucky Leek, which is notable for a Michelin-recognised room. That said, easy does not mean walk-in-ready, especially for terrace seats in summer or weekend dinner. Book one to two weeks out for a standard weekday slot; go further out for Saturday evenings or if you want the terrace in high summer. The à la carte option means you are not locked into the full tasting menu if you want a shorter meal, which also makes this more accessible for solo diners or anyone on a tighter schedule. For comparison, securing a table at [CODA Dessert Dining](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/coda-dessert-dining-berlin-restaurant) or [Nobelhart & Schmutzig](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/nobelhart-schmutzig) typically requires more lead time and commitment to a set format.
Lucky Leek sits in a different price tier from most of Berlin's Michelin-listed rooms, and that gap is the most useful framing for your decision. [Rutz](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/rutz-berlin-restaurant), [FACIL](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/facil), [Horváth](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/horvath), and [Nobelhart & Schmutzig](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/nobelhart-schmutzig) all operate at €€€€ with starred recognition. Lucky Leek at €€ with a Bib Gourmand delivers Michelin-acknowledged cooking at roughly half the outlay. If your primary goal is a serious tasting menu experience in Berlin without a starred price tag, Lucky Leek is the clearest recommendation in that category.
Within the plant-based space specifically, [FREA](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/frea-berlin-restaurant) is the other Berlin name worth knowing, positioned as a zero-waste vegan restaurant. FREA's approach is more concept-led; Lucky Leek's is more classically culinary. If the cooking technique and menu refinement matter more to you than the sustainability narrative, Lucky Leek is the call. If you want to explore further afield, [KLE in Zurich](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/kle-zurich-restaurant) and [Légume in Seoul](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/lgume-seoul-restaurant) represent the international peer set for plant-based fine dining at a comparable level of ambition.
[CODA Dessert Dining](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/coda-dessert-dining-berlin-restaurant) is the only Berlin room that operates in a fully analogous creative-menu format, though its dessert-forward concept and €€€€ pricing make it a complement to Lucky Leek rather than a direct substitute. Book Lucky Leek if you want a full savoury progression with serious vegetable cookery at a fair price. Book CODA if you want the most experimental format in the city and budget is secondary.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lucky Leek | Vegan | €€ | Josita Hartanto is a famous vegan chef. She received a classical education at the Steigenberger Hotel in Berlin, worked as a chef in various restaurants including La Mano Verde, the first vegan hotel in Berlin. She is the author of two cookbooks on the vegan kitchen. The Lucky Leek opened them in 2011. It is one of the few vegan restaurants that is also recommended by the Michelin Guide. Her food is very refined and full of taste sensations. The five-course menu is an interesting introduction to her kitchen with dishes such as Jerusalem artichoke salad with smoked carrots, cucumber, tarragon mayonnaise and pumpkin seeds and also stewed eggplant with polenta, salsa of hazelnut and olives and corn cream.; Michelin Bib Gourmand (2025); "Fine Natural Dining" is the concept here at this pleasant restaurant. Charming staff serve up fully vegan cuisine in the form of a three- to five-course tasting menu – it's also possible to order à la carte. Made with seasonal vegetables, the creative, plant-based dishes are packed with flavour, and they are just as popular with international visitors as they are with locals. In summer, the best place to dine is on the terrace out front. | Easy | — |
| CODA Dessert Dining | Creative | €€€€ | Michelin 2 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Rutz | Modern European, Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Michelin 3 Star | Unknown | — |
| Nobelhart & Schmutzig | Modern German, Creative | €€€€ | Michelin 1 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| FACIL | Contemporary European, Creative | €€€€ | Michelin 2 Star | Unknown | — |
| Horváth | Modern Austrian, Creative | €€€€ | Michelin 2 Star | Unknown | — |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
Go with the five-course tasting menu — it is the format the kitchen is built around and the clearest case for the Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition at this price point. Standout dishes documented from the menu include Jerusalem artichoke salad with smoked carrots, tarragon mayonnaise and pumpkin seeds, and stewed eggplant with polenta, hazelnut and olive salsa, and corn cream. À la carte is available if you want to keep things lighter, but the tasting menu shows Josita Hartanto's cooking in full.
Lucky Leek has been running since 2011, which gives it a track record few Berlin vegan restaurants can match — and the Michelin Bib Gourmand (2025) is a meaningful signal that the quality has held. Format is a three- to five-course tasting menu with à la carte available, and in summer the terrace on Kollwitzstraße is the seat to request. Booking is rated Easy, but do not treat that as an invitation to walk in without a reservation, particularly on weekends.
Lucky Leek holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and sits at the €€ price tier, which points to a relaxed but considered atmosphere rather than a formal dress code. Prenzlauer Berg as a neighbourhood trends casual-creative, so clean, put-together clothing is appropriate without needing to dress for a full fine-dining room. Nothing in the venue data suggests a jacket requirement.
Lucky Leek is a neighbourhood restaurant on Kollwitzstraße, which typically means a room sized for small parties rather than large groups. For a table of two to four, booking through normal channels should be straightforward given the Easy booking difficulty rating. For larger groups, check the venue's official channels — the venue data does not confirm private dining or group menu options, so confirming in advance is the practical step.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
