Restaurant review #108 – De KleinKeuken is a new place in Kortrijk (Courtrai), at the edge of the city (north side). It literally means: The Small Kitchen. We were here for lunch a couple of weeks ago. EDIT (see note below)

It is a vegetarian restaurant with vegan options clearly indicated on the menu.
We ordered the soup, and inquired whether the bread with the soup is vegan. The waitress clearly did not know and seemed quite baflled with our question and replied ‘it’s just bread bought from the bakery!‘.
So Jim just ordered the mushroom soup, without bread. For main dishes we ordered the oven dish (13€) and the vegan burger (8€).

The soup was quite waterish. The burger and oven dish were nice, although the latter was a bit monotone after a while. It is also a pity that the vegan option is just ‘without the feta’, but nothing vegan added in return. The desserts were nice (from Madame Bakster).
Afterward our visit, it occured to me that if they did not know whether the bread with the soup was vegan or not, they might possible not know about the burger bun too. I asked twice on their facebook page (one public message and one personal message), but to this day, did not get a reply. I expect a restaurant specifically offerering and labelling vegan options to be able to shed some light on this (and in that respect, the reply from the waitress about the bread was very disappointing).

We were seated at the large window in front of the restaurant and the midday sun came beaming in in full bright. After a while it was getting really hot, but after a couple of dark Winter weeks, the sunshine was quite enjoyable. I do wonder how they cope with the bright sun coming in in Summer time, as even now it was getting pretty hot at the window seats.
Service was a bit slow and rather ‘short’ in communication. Chairs were not really comfortable, and don’t invite for long dining (and we were there for about an hour and a half, quite long considering).

All in all we had a nice small lunch (fitting the name of the restaurant), for a quite moderate price (except for the pies and coffee, which were13€!). But I do wish they would check up their bread being vegan or not. And to the waitress: It wouldn’t hurt to smile once in a while …

 

 

EDIT: Since our visit at the end of 2016, restaurant De Kleinkeuken has changed owners (beginning 2017), and the new owners assured me that they pay notice to the bread being vegan now, and they have changed the menu. So next time we are in Kortrijk, we definitely want to check it out again! EDIT

De KleinKeuken, location
Budastraat 8
8500 Kortrijk – Courtrai
no tel found

website: http://www.dekleinkeuken.be/

See our lists of restaurants where vegans are welcome in the menu section of The Bruges vegan! List restaurants in Bruges and outside  Bruges.

Toilet was clean, although not looking very tidy with all the plumbing everywhere. Only one (wet) towel to dry one’s hands, which I don’t find hygienic. I rather keep my hands wet then….