Café Cultures

A new diner in Berlin's Mitte offers an appetisingly harmonious juxtaposition of Asian and Western worlds

- By Sheila Lam. Photographs by Caroline Knihar and Nguyen

a sort of cross between an American diner and a Chinese cha chaan teng café, Dashi, in Berlin's Mitte, offers contemporary twists on retro Asian-Western fusion comfort eating

A recently opened Asian diner in Berlin's Mitte district, designed by Danish studio Mentze Ottenstein, creates a new community framework by looking at the diverse identities that exist in the city today.

Dashi is the creation of Thu Thuy Pham and Thao Westphal, Vietnamese-born childhood friends who were raised in Germany. For many families that emigrate from their motherland, a career in the food and hospitality industry is often the most straightforward route. ‘Dashi is about coming to terms with who we were as kids and being proud of our upbringing,' says Pham.