Cocoro, Japanese Cafe, Kreuzberg
April 25, 2013 1 Comment
I feel like we are starting to have real choice in Berlin. Gone are the days where lunch options were limited to schnitzel, ungainly maultaschen or the abiding curry wurst. We have a street food market, how San Francisco of us! We’ve got so many pop ups it’s like that video game with the moles or rabbits or whatever. On Sunday I went to Gourmandise 3rd pop up at the Beta House where there were at least a hundred people queing with their Tupperware (as requested by the organizers) to buy cake. I can’t afford to throw away a half hour to line up for cake when I’ve got a babysitter on the clock at home. Instead, I went round the corner to the adorable Ganz Wien and had coffee on a silver tray and found the lopsided home-made Sacher Torte endearing.
Something else is happening. The bubble tea shops are closing en masse, leaving plenty of well-appointed store fronts for rent. On Mehringdamm strasse a Japanese Kitchen named Cocoro has opened. I nipped in on that first sunny Sunday to grab coffees on the way to our maiden visit to Tempelhof Freiheit (I know! It’s taken me 3 years to visit!).
I was dubious about the extensive menu of beverages on the wall. Listing everything from coffees, to matcha soya latte (€3.60 -had it, not for me) or that David Rio Chai brand I would sooner associate with the Balzac chain then someplace I might want to eat. I saw cakes from Nazuna, organic power bars from Foodloose and macarons from Makrönchen. 
I’m suspicious of too much choice. Often, the more choice there is, the poorer the quality is. This is true for fashion and for food. But then I saw a copy of Oh, The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss and that made me decide on the spot to have lunch there. Read more of this post
