All posts tagged: 4stars

#136 Gastronomic dining at The Gate, London

Published by

restaurant review #136 – The Gate is vegetarian restaurant in London. It has three locations: one in Islington, one in Hammersmith, and one in Marylebone, which is the one we went to. View this post on Instagram Very nice dinner at The Gate! #london Vegetarian restaurant with vegan options. Review will follow on 🌿🌿 brugesvegan.com 🌿🌿 #veganlondon #london #gastronomic #vegansofig #vegansofbelgium #gastronomical #culinairy #seymourplace #restaurant #vegan #vegetarianrestaurant #thegatelondon @gaterestaurant A post shared by trudi_brugesvegan (@trudi_brugesvegan) on Aug 13, 2017 at 2:01am PDT The Gate in Marylebone is located in a calm street, quite a contrast with the hustle and bustle of nearby Oxford Street. It has a large terrace in front, and two restaurants rooms (one on ground floor, and one in basement). It is a more fancy, ‘restaurant like’ place, with gastronomic creations. Vegan options are clearly indicated on the menu. The winelist also mentions which drinks are vegan. This is what we had for dinner: Artichoke terrine, £8, truffle & hazelnut infused artichoke, homemade sundried tomato & basil salsa, crispy bread  Tofu Tikka, …

#134 Nice Lebanese dinner at Karamna, Louvain

Published by

Restaurant review #134 – Karamna is a Lebanese restaurant in Louvain. It is located in the city center, in a corner of the Oude Markt (old market). It is not a really big place, but does have a terrace in front. A couple of months ago, I already received confirmation through e-mail that vegan dishes are possible, and which dishes we could choose from the menu. I telephoned to make a reservation for dinner and inquired again whether they had vegan options, and it was said to be no problem. Upon arrival, we repeated that we are vegan, and do not eat any animal products. The lady of the house immediately went through the menu, and showed which dishes are suitable. We ordered a variety of smaller plates, some listed as cold or hot dishes (nearly all listed as appetizers), and asked for them to be served together: Falafel (4 pieces, 1,25/piece) Fatayer Sabanekh = baked dough stuffed with spinach, onion and lemon (4 pieces, 1,25€/piece) Modardara = lentils with onions and rice (4,50€) Hummus (5€) …

#133 Lunch at vegan brasserie 2eme Art, Paris

Published by

Restaurant review #133 – Brasserie 2eme Art is a vegan brasserie in the city center of Paris, in between the Louvre and the Centre Pompidou. We were here in June, when we were in Paris for a couple of days, before heading to Normandy. There is a large terrace in front of the brasserie. Tables are close next to each other though. Luckily, we were rather late for lunch, and there were not so many people on the terrace. It was blooming hot in Paris (nearly 40°C) and we were happy there were some umbrellas offering shade (inside was rather full when we arrived). UPDATE — see below This is part of the menu at Brasserie 2ème Art (there are also pizza’s available): PS: the red glow is because we were sitting underneath a red umbrella 😉 For drinks we had fresh juice: one can choose fresh juices with different ingredientes, and I ordered carrot and apple (4,90€). A beer was 3,90€. Glass of wine 5€. We also were served free tap water (refilled even). …

#131 Great buffet at Noordoever, Louvain (2)

Published by

restaurant review #131 – Noordoever is a new vegetarian restaurant in Louvain (opened in 2015). It is at the edge of the city, close to the docks and the old factories of beer brewing company Stella Artois. Noordoever actually means the North Shore, as it is indeed on the north shore of the docks. We already wrote a review about Noordoever here. This review is from a visit in Spring of 2017, when we visited for lunch. The buffet is not all you can eat, but one pays per weight (if once compares that with other all you can eat buffet restaurants, that does make it more expensive). The buffet has a nice variety of dishes, some are vegetarian, but most are vegan, and the ingredients are clearly indicated. This was our lunch: We paid a total of 47,44€ for lunch. All in all soemwhat expensive (also considering it is self service). But we do like restaurant Noordoever a lot: it’s spacious, clean, nicely renovated and has a relaxed atmosphere, and the food is very nice. …

Cake at the terrace of Heavenly Cupcakes, Rotterdam

Published by

restaurant review #130 – shop review#37 Heavenly Cupcakes is a vegan patisserie and lunch bistro (sandwiches and Dutch weedburger) in the city center of Rotterdam. It is located just outside the city center of Rotterdam, on the West side of town. There is a small terrace in front of Heavenly Cupcakes, and at the back of the bistro there is a seating area with some tables for two. It is bright and spacious, and nicely decorated, with a sort of a ‘modern but vintage’ feel. Heavenly Cupcakes also has a small selection of vegan products for sale: We had already eaten nice cupcakes from Heavenly Cupcakes during our visit to VegfestNL in Utrecht in 2015 and they were also at the latest Vegan Summerfest in Belgium (blog will follow). Must say that at that latter opportunity, I was not inclined to line up to buy a cupcake from them again, as the middle aged lady at their stall was again a bit grumpy and not welcoming (let me take this opportunity to say it wouldn’t hurt to smile …

#129 Nice gastronomic dinner at Foodstorms, Ghent

Published by

restaurant review #129 – Foodstorms is the catering business of chef Kevin Storms. He hosts a popup restaurant on various locations throughout the year (for example also during the Gentse Feesten, festivities all over the city of Ghent in the Summer). In the Spring of 2017, Foodstorms held a popup restaurant in the city center of Ghent for a couple of weeks, where they also organised gastronomical dinners on selected dates. We went to one of the last gastronomical events on that location, in the St Jacobsnieuwstraat. The popup restaurant was in a place where there used to be cooking workshops. It was now set up with a large communal table in the middle, with barstools, and also a handful of tables for 2 or 4 people on the side. The gastronomic dinner was 50€ for a 5 course menu, prepaid when making the online reservation. This was the menu (see photo) beech muchrooms, avocado, tomato salad ravioli of portobello mushrooms, asparagus, cashews kohlrabi, roasted garlic, garden herbs carrots, blond lentils, fregola, spinach and burnt …

#128 Lovely dinner at vegetarian resto Leaf, Rotterdam (NL)

Published by

Restaurant review #128 – Leaf is a vegetarian restaurant in Rotterdam (the Netherlands). Most of the menu is vegan, there are only a handful of options which are non-vegan. The restaurant used to be in Scheveningen, but moved to Rotterdam recently. The food at Leaf seems to be a mixture of Asian inspired recipes (Indonesian, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc). We visited a couple of weeks ago, with friends. We had made a reservation, but that didn’t seem to be necessary, as there was still plenty of space available (it was a Friday evening). Restaurant Leaf is a spacious place, with a large terrace out front. Although it was a nice Summer evening, it was too windy to sit outside. Inside there’s a downstairs section and some more seating on the balcony upstairs. It was hard to choose from the extensive menu! We’re not used to having so many options 😉 The non-vegan items are clearly indicated as such on the menu card, and the spicy ones are marked with stars. Restaurant Leaf offers a lot of ‘faux’ …

#126 In Flanders Fields: Water en Vuur, Diksmuide (2)

Published by

Restaurant review #126 – Water & Vuur in Diksmuide is a restaurant at the foot of the IJzertoren (Flemish peace monument) in Diksmuide (48km from Bruges). The restaurant is situated in a renovated cargo boat, on the banks of the IJzer (Yser). During World War I, the front was mainly situated along the banks of the Yser. 2km from the restaurant, you can visit the ‘Dodengang‘ (Trenches of Death), with galleries and trenches in which soldiers fought during WWI. Water & Vuur is 23km from Ypres. We’ve been to Water & Vuur several times over the years, and there’s already a previous review on our blog here. This review is from a recent visit in Spring of 2017. Water en Vuur literally translates as ‘Water and Fire’. It is not a vegan restaurant, but standardly has some vegan options, like seitan stew. The fries are baked in plant based oil. We know from previous visits that portions are rather big, so we didn’t order an appetizer. We were served this amuse gueule with our drinks, which was nice: The food was great. Always nicely presented, with …

#124 Fancy a double burger? Vegan Junk Food Bar, Amsterdam

Published by

restaurant review #124 – Vegan Junk Food Bar is a new place in Amsterdam (opened Spring 2017). It is located just north of the Vondelpark, overlooking a quiet square. Well the name says it all! It’s all vegan and it’s junkfood! 🙂 There’s a small terrace in front of the restaurant and some beach chairs. When we arrived, all seats were taken, but soon after, some people left from the terrace, and we could sit outside (it was a very hot day in Amsterdam and we were glad to be sitting on the shady terrace!). It is semi self service: one orders at the counter and then the food is brought to your table. This is what we had: a double sumo burger (9,50€, with two burgers, cheese, fried onion rings, lettuce, baked onions and sauce) and the shoama sandwich (8,50€). Two portions of fries on the side, one with mayo and one with garlic sauce (3€ + sauce 0,75€, each). For drinks we had several lemonades and a coke (ranging between 2,50 and 3€) …

#121 Lunch at Vegan bistro Gare du Nord, Rotterdam

Published by

restaurant review #121 – Gare du Nord is a vegan bistro in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) not so far from the main train station. The restaurant is in an old restaurant train coach, with plenty of outdoor seating in front. For those not so fluent in French: Gare du Nord literally means ‘the train station of the north side‘. Gare du Nord was closed for a while in the passed year, but has reopened again in Spring of 2017. We were here a couple of weeks ago for lunch. It was a blooming hot day, and we were relieved to see there were large parasols outside so we could sit in the shade. It would have been impossible to have lunch inside the train coach, as it seemed even hotter inside than outside (I went in to have a look and take some pics). The train coach is permanently stationned on a town square, with a herb garden next to it. Although it is not so far from the busy city center, it was very quiet and …