All posts tagged: 3stars

#123 Three course menu at La Divina Commedia, Louvain

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Restaurant review #123 – La Divina Commedia is an Italian restaurant in the city center of Leuven (Louvain), just a step away from the city hall. It’s not an ordinary pasta and pizza place, but offers a more gastronomic and stylish dining experience. La Divina Commedia does not have a vegan menu standardly available. So unfortunately it’s not a place where you can just walk in and order a vegan menu. But I had seen it mentionned in a vegan facebook group as a restaurant where one can order a vegan menu, if requested in advance. I had tried to make a reservation on a previous visit to Louvain at La Divina Commedia, but when I phoned a couple of days in advance, I was told that that would not be possible, and that I should request it at least a week in advance (so they can go buy vegan products). So well before our next visit to Louvain, that’s what I did! This review is from our visit a few weeks ago (Spring 2017). …

#110 Wok with vegs and seitan at De Twijfelaar, Bruges

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restaurant review #110 – De Twijfelaar is a bistro in the city center of Bruges, near the Dyver. It is a family run bistro: the lady of the house serves the restaurant and her partner operates the kitchen. De Twijfelaar literally means ‘a person who is always in doubt’. It can also refer to a type of bed that is a bit larger than a one person bed, but too small for two persons. Maybe that refers to the size of the restaurant, as it is (as is the case with so many old buildings in Bruges) a bit of a peculiar shape, wider in front and more narrow in the back (not really a small dining room, but not really a big space too). We went here for dinner a couple of weeks ago. I had e-mailed them some months ago and had gotten confirmation that they have a dish with vegetables that can be made vegan. I asked again for vegan when making the reservation and it was said to be no problem. De …

#109 Small lunch at Nomad, Bruges

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restaurant review #109 – Nomad is a new place in the city center of Bruges. It is located at ‘t Zand, near the Noordzandstraat (hence, on the north side of the square). NOMAD stands for No Ordinary Meals And Drinks, and the vegetables they use come from their organic farm just outside of Bruges. I had inquired a couple of months ago whether they have vegan options, and got a positive reply (the vegetarian burger was said to be vegan, but not the bun). I telephoned to make a reservation for lunch and checked again to be sure we could have something vegan. No problem. We were seated at the back of the restaurant, near the toilets, on a small table next to a demi wall, seperating the restaurant from the kitchen. We were there for lunch on a Friday and the place was fully packed (this was shortly after New Year and there seemed to be a large table with a group of colleagues having a New Year’s lunch). Accoustics were very bad and the noise was loud! We …

#108 Light lunch at De KleinKeuken, Kortrijk

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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 …

Adding stars to my restaurant reviews

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I have been contemplating this for a while, but decided to finally add stars to the restaurant reviews on The Bruges Vegan. (update Fall 2017: I stopped doing this – see below). In favour of adding stars: It is an easy way to give an ‘overall’ impression of a restaurant I can add it to the title of the restaurant review, so that immediately gives you an indication of our experience (either good or bad). Against adding stars: I find it difficult to score on a 5 star scale (but halves would complicate it too much) I feel al lot of places will fall in the 3 to 4 category People might only judge by the given star, and not read the review anymore (if they ever did 😉 ) A score is a medium of different aspects: food, comfort, service, hygiene, opening hours, etc. Foodwise it might be a 5 star, but comfortwise it might only be a 1 star, so that levels the score. My rating may change over time, as my assessment also evolves the more …

#104 Vegan fine dining at Lof, Ghent

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restaurant review #104 – Lof is the restaurant in Sandton Grand Hotel Reylof, in the center of Ghent (about 10 min walk from Korenmarkt). We were here a couple of weeks ago with vegan friends. I had seen this place mentioned a couple of times online, and also knew of a vegan friend who had been here before, that restaurant Lof serves a vegan menu. It is also advertised on Lof’s website. I made an online reservation and specified that we all wanted a vegan menu. Before visiting, I telephoned to check whether the reservation was noted (vegan menu?) and it was said to be no problem! The restaurant is situated in a lovely spacious dining room, nicely decorated. It feels trendy and hip, but stylish at the same time. Adjacent is a nice lounge bar. The restaurant is quite big though, and as more and more people came in, the accoustics were a bit ‘loud’. We were seated at a round table, with two of us having comfortable chairs, the other two sitting on a bench, which was …

#102 Light lunch at the new Le Pain Quotidien, Bruges

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Restaurant review #102 – A couple of weeks ago, we visited the new restaurant of Le Pain Quotidien in Bruges, which opened in 2016. Le Pain Quotidien (LPQ) is a world wide chain of organic bistros, founded by Belgian Alain Coumont. We already wrote some reviews of our visits to several LPQ restaurants (the first LPQ in Bruges, Hasselt and Louvain). Alain Coumont has also started a vegan branch of bistros, Le Botaniste, of which we visited the one in Ghent (see our review here). The second restaurant of LPQ is located in a nice building at Simon Stevinplein, just next to the shopping street (Zuidzandstraat). There used to be a weaving factory, and the building is nicely rearranged, with seperate dining rooms and a large terrace at the back. This second location of LPQ in Bruges is much bigger than the other one, and we found it much more enjoyable to have lunch here. As in all Le Pain Quotidien restaurants, vegan options are clearly indicated with a carrot on the menu. This is what we ordered: Toast champignons (11,50€), olives tapenade …

#99 Nice quick lunch at EXKi in Brussels

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Restaurant review #99 – The Exki restaurants are part of an international chain. There are several EXKi restaurants in Belgium, most are in Brussels though (27 of them). There’s also an EXKi in the train station of Bruges. Contrary to common belief, it is not an full organic chain (the FAQ on their website states about 30% of their products are organic). The EXKi restaurants have a couple of vegan options standardly available, which are clearly indicated on the labels: sandwiches, salads, soup. Unfortunately no vegan desserts though (except for some fruit). The Exki restaurants are not for elaborate wining and dining, but more of a fastfood ‘self service’ place: you take your food from the fridges, pay at the counter, and then afterwards clean up the table. There’s also a microwave to heat your dish. You can of course also buy to take-away. A couple of weeks ao, we went to one in Brussels, Exki Agora. It is near the train station of Brussels Central (Grasmarkt – near shopping center Agora). This what we had: a mushroom soup (3,75€), a bread …

#98 Casual vegan dinner at De Republiek, Bruges

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Restaurant review #98 – De Republiek is a brasserie in the city center of Bruges, close to the market square (north west of market). It’s a spacious place, with a larger terrace on an inner court yard. Inside, the tables for dining are on an elevated level. De Republiek is also a cultural hub with rooms for art exhibitions, socio-cultural events and a movie theater. De Republiek has changed owners and I enquired again whether it was possible to get a vegan meal (before I never got a reply). The new owner replied promptly and said there are no vegan dishes standardly available, but there are possiblities to easlily adapt the dishes (preferably ask it in advance when making the reservation). So I telephoned to make a reservation for dinner, and also asked whether we could get a vegan starter or soup, which was said to be no problem. The food was very nice. As a starter we were served a dish with a red beet burger. We had a sneeky suspicion it was the …

#95 Seitan stew and portobello burger at Mosquito Coast, Ghent

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Restaurant review #95 – Mosquito Coast is a travel restaurant in the city center of Ghent (in between the Korenmarkt and Vrijdagmarkt – close to the city hall). It is actually very close to Japanese restaurant Amatsu, which we also visited recently (see review here). I had seen it mentionned several times in some of the Belgian vegan facebookgroups, as a place where vegans also can have a meal. I wanted to go there with a friend and phoned to inquire. The guy at the telephone said they have one vegan dish standardly available (the seitan stew with croquettes) and several vegetarian dishes (turns out some of them can easlily be veganised). I had the seitan stew (17,75€). My friend had the portobello burger (13,75€) . We checked with the kitchen staff to know whether the bun of the portobello burger was vegan too (whether it didn’t contain dairy or eggs). Staff seemed to be taken by surprise by this question. After a while, one of the kitchen staff returned to say it was, that it ‘didn’t …