#28 Cultuur Café De Grote Post, Oostende ***

Restaurant review #28 – CultuurCafé De Grote Post is a new addition to Ostend (on the Belgian Coast, 27km from Bruges). It is located in the city center, near the Leopoldpark, where you can find the ‘Floral Clock‘ and Ostends famous statue ‘Dikke Matille‘. CultuurCafé De Grote Post is about a 2 minute walk from the main shopping street (Kapellestraat) and 5 minutes from the casino Kursaal.

De Grote Post, Ostend

CultuurCafé De Grote Post, Oostende

Fresh orange juice, 4€

De Grote Post is the former main postal building of Ostend and was built in 1953, and protected as a monument in 1981. The Post closed in 1999, but the building reopened as a Culture Center in 2012, with many exhibitions, performances, workshops, and other cultural activities. The Cultuur Café opened in september 2014.

I didn’t really know whether I could get a vegan meal at Cultuur Café De Grote Post, but I had heard they did serve some vegetarian dishes. I hadn’t checked or called in advance to ask, but just decided to go check it out. To my surprise, the two suggested plats du jour were both vegetarian (with cheese) but could easlily be veganised. The waitress made no problem to go check with the kitchen staff if the dishes didn’t contain any other animal ingredients.
The two dishes were a salad with figs, red beet, pumpkin seeds (and blue cheese), and quinoa with vegetables, rucola salad and olives (and cheese), both 13,50€. I went for the latter.

Quinoa with vegetables, rucola, tomatoes, and olives, 13,50€

A nice salad, and a more than enough portion for me. The dish won’t win any points on a gastronomical scale, but everything was fresh, and the accompanying olive oil made it agreeable.
The waitress told me there will always something on the menu that can be fitted to the needs of vegans.
The Cultuur Café is very spacious, and very nicely renovated. Being a large hall, with many hard materials, there’s bad acoustics though. When I was there, there were just a couple of other patrons in the Café, and service was very swift. My company told me that when the Café is full, it can be a long wait before food is being served.

Eating out options for vegans in Ostend are rather scarce. So it’s very nice that Cultuur Café De Grote Post is making an effort for vegans!