All posts tagged: 3stars

#32 Vegan dining at restaurant Mykene, Leuven ***

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Restaurant review #32 Mykene is a traditional restaurant in the city center of Leuven (Louvain). But unlike most other traditional restaurants, it has several vegan options standardly available! Leuven is about 15 minutes away from Europe’s capital. Mykene is a very large restaurant, with a terrace in front on the street and a spacious private terrace at the back. The photos below give you an impression of the interior. We had been at restaurant Mykene a couple of years ago, but at that time their vegan options were still rather limited (adjusting the vegetarian options, e.g. by leaving out the cheese), but now they have a seperate vegan category on the menu card (and yes, the “Belgian cheese” mentioned in one of the vegan dishes is vegan cheese, we asked 😉 ). Our vegan lunch at Mykene It’s nice they have freshly squeezed orange juice, although it was quite expensive for this little glass: 6€. For starters we had the soup of the day (leek soup, 5€) and the vegan salad caprese, with mozzarella and rucola (11,50€). Both were very …

#30 Di Coylde, Beernem ***

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Restaurant review #30 – Di Coylde is a more upstyle restaurant in Beernem, with a traditional cuisine (meat and fish menus). Beernem is about 13km from Bruges. In 2013, we asked whether a vegan menu is possible for two persons, but got a negative reply. Hence, restaurant Di Coylde is not included in our list of restos outside Bruges where vegans are welcome. A couple of weeks ago, we had a brainstorm day at work, with lunch for all of us planned at restaurant Di Coylde. The organisers listed everyone’s preferences for lunch (fish, meat, vegetarian or vegan – that’s for me, since I’m the only vegan at work 😉 ) and forwarded this list to the restaurant. This is the vegan menu that I got at Di Coylde: tomato and courgette crisp green herb soup (unspecified) butternut soup with fennel and mushrooms couscous with grilled vegetables lemon sorbet with mandarines, nuts, raisins and apricots     The food was nice, but it was no gastronomical masterpiece. It started promising, with the appetizer and the soup, although these were very small portions. The waitress …

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

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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 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 …

#24 Restaurant De lachende Javaan, Haarlem (NL) ***

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Restaurant review #24 – De lachende Javaan translates as ‘the laughing Javanese’, and is – obviously – an Indonesian restaurant in the city center of Haarlem (close to Amsterdam, the Netherlands). We went dining at De lachende Javaan on a Sunday evening in June 2014. Being a Sunday evening, we really didn’t think a reservation would be necessary. Wrong! Whereas restaurants in Belgium are usually fully booked for lunch on Sundays and rather quiet on Sunday evening, it’s the other way around in the Netherlands. Many restaurants are not even open for lunch! So the waiter proposed us to come back in an hour or two, near 9PM. Which we did. By that time we were starving (and cold!) and didn’t fancy having a look at the menucard. We just ordered a vegetarian rice table for the two of us (which is normally always available at Indonesian restaurants), checked whether they didn’t use dairy in any of the dishes (they normally don’t in Indonesian dishes), and asked for any items with egg to be left out. The waiter was …

#23 Restaurant Flamboyant, Haarlem (NL) ***

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Restaurant review #23 – Flamboyant is an Indonesian restaurant in the city center of Haarlem (the Netherlands), not far from the market place. There are several vegetarian dishes standardly available, of which most seem to be vegan. We were there a couple of weeks ago, and made a reservation. We were asked to come early in the evening (at 6PM), since the restaurant was going to close at 8PM because of the football World Cup (The Netherlands were playing that night). And so we did. Because of the early hour, there was just one other table occupied in the restaurant. We ordered the vegetarian rice table (19,5€) and asked not to include any dishes with egg or dairy. This is what we got: Service was swift and very friendly (with some minor hickups from the student boy serving us). The food was nice, although the side dishes (eg the sweet and sour vegs) were not as tasty and varied as in other Indonesian restaurants that we have visited over the years. Comfortable and relaxed seating. All in all a nice restaurant …

#18 – Restaurant Jinso, Amsterdam (Nl) ***

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Restaurant review #18 – Restaurant and loungebar Jinso is located outside the city center of Amsterdam, in the area around the Amsterdam Arena, The Heineken Music Hall and the Ziggo Dome. The restaurant is only open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but whenever there are special events in the area (eg concerts), the restaurant also offers an all you can eat buffet and a restricted ‘event menu‘ to choose from. The special event menulist also mentions a vegetarian dish with tofu. We e-mailed in advance to check whether this dish was baked in vegetable oil and if it didn’t contain any animal ingredients, got an affirmative reply and made a reservation for 5PM. Pretty early for dinner, but we didn’t want to be late for the concert in nextdoor Ziggo Dome! Jinso is situated in a very big and spacious round-shaped building in the center of the Amsterdam Boulevard, just across Mediamarkt and Decathlon. You cannot miss it. We were seated in the upstairs area, which gives you a nice overview of the restaurant and the boulevard. Our meal followed quickly, …

#16 Restaurant De Bron, Bruges ***

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Restaurant review #16 – De Bron is the only vegetarian restaurant in Bruges. It is located in the south of the city center, near the Beguinage and the Minnewaterpark . It is only open during weekdays for lunch, and offers a soup of the day and a plat du jour, which can be ordered in different sizes: baby, mini, medium and super size. Main dishes are veganized upon request. Desserts are mainly non-vegan, except for the soy vanilla pudding. There are also fresly pressed juices available. Most of what’s served in De Bron is organic. They also offer take-away lunch (orders must be placed before 11.30). Lunch We have been to the Bron several times over the last couple of years. On our last visit in March 2014, we had the soup of the day (2€), which happened to be vegan that day (carrot and chard). I went for the mini-size plat du jour (10,5€), my partner had the medium size dish (11€), which is already a fairly big portion. The plat du jour mostly consists of grains and a selection …

#15 Restaurant Rosenobel, Antwerp ***

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Restaurant review #15 – Rosenobel just opened a couple of months ago. It was announced in several media as being a vegetarian restaurant, although they also serve non-veg items. On their website they state to have a ‘vegetarian inspired kitchen’. We had already emailed to ask whether they also have vegan items standardly available and got an affirmative reply. Great! The restaurant is located at the foot of the cathedral in Antwerp, and although we knew this, we walked by several times in search for this restaurant. There is no sign on the front wall with the name of the restaurant, and given the lounge seatings behind the front windows it’s not really apparent this is a restaurant. To be clear and prevent you from wandering in the cold like we did: if you are facing the front entrance of the cathedral, restaurant Rosenobel is located on your left. We were there for lunch on a Saturday and the restaurant was remarkably quiet (just one other table besides us). Vegan items are not indicated on the menu …

#12 restaurant ‘t Jong Gerecht, Bruges ***

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Restaurant review #12 – ‘t Jong Gerecht is located in the Langestraat near the Kruispoort. The restaurant is run by staff who are all in their early twenties (hence their name ‘Jong’ = young). The restaurant’s name also refers to the Court House (= Het Gerecht) opposite to the restaurant and ‘gerecht’ also means ‘a dish’. (2019: SEE UPDATE BELOW) I mailed ‘t Jong Gerecht a couple of weeks before, to ask whether we could get a vegan menu (explaining what we do and don’t eat). They swiftly replied that this was not a problem, since they also for example use algae (agar agar) as a binding agent. They do advise to make the reservation two days in advance, so they can take our vegan wishes into account. And so we did. We were there on a Thursday evening. At 7 o’ clock, we were standing with two other parties at the entrance of the restaurant (it was a bit chilly, so not so pleasant). We waited a bit at the closed door, and when I saw the …

#11 Salade Folle, Bruges ***

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Restaurant review #11Salade Folle is located near the Beguinage (Begijnhof) and the brewery De Halve Maan. We had already inquired via e-mail whether we could get a vegan menu at Salade Folle (specifying what we do and don’t eat) and got an affirmative reply: ‘we can prepare something to meet everyone’s wishes‘. When we made the reservation, I asked again about the possibility of a vegan menu, and it was no problem, we could go the same evening. We were there on a Thursday evening and it was pretty quiet. Salade Folle is a spacious place, with high ceilings and seating upstairs as well. It is more a bistro-style type of place, with pastas, quiches and salades (obviously) on offer. Our waiter was very friendly and knowledgable about animal ingredients in certain dishes. He also did not have a problem to go double check for animal ingredients for some items, which gave us a reassuring feeling. All in all, our menu options were quite limited, but at least we each could get a different main …