#426 Nice lunch, cosy vegan place, CLO, Antwerp
restaurant review #426 – Another vegan restaurant! 🌿🌿😊 This one in Antwerp, not so far from the central train station.
All posts tagged: Antwerp
#202 Quick vegan bite on the terrace at Greenway, Antwerp (2)
restaurant review #202 – Greenway is a Belgian vegetarian brand (restaurants and products) and was founded in the mid nineties. There are three Greenway restaurants in Belgium: in Ghent (it’s been ages since I was there!), in Louvain and in Antwerp. There’s also a Greenway foodstall at the train station of Gare du Midi, where we had a nice lunch before boarding on the Eurostar to London (previous reviews of Greenway here). In 2018, Greenway announced that all it’s restaurants would become fully vegan! This is from a visit to Greenway in Antwerp, at the beginning of Summer. The menu is on a board above the counter. One goes order at the counter, and then the food is brough to your table. We had a kebab wrap and a meat lovers burger. The potato wedges were sold out, so we got some tortilla chips. Afterwards we had a brownie with coffee. To my surprise, there was still an option for cow milk (although Greenway announced that all restos are vegan since April 2018). The food was nice, although I didn’t really fancy the …
#192 Vegan cheese platter and homemade croquettes at Récollets, Antwerp
restaurant review #192 – Récollets is a new vegan restaurant in Antwerp (est. September 2017). It is in the city center, just a 5 minute walk from the Cathedral. (Note: see update below) Récollets has a very nice variety on the menu, and lots of options to choose from. It was difficult to make a decision! The wines were also said to be vegan. We choose the cheese platter (19€, came with bread on the side) and the cheeze croquettes (12€), with additional fries on the side (2€). The vegan cheeses are from Serotonina, a Polish company. The cheeses can also be bought at Récollets, but onfortunately we still had a show to go to that evening (Paul Simon’s farewell tour). And it was a very hot day, and we didn’t have any cooler in the car neither. For dessert we shared a coupe brésilienne (7,50€). It was ages since I had eaten a coupe brésilienne at a restaurant (well, propably since going vegan)! The icecream is homemade by Récollets. Definitely one of the best …
Shopping at organic store Het Natuurhuis, Antwerp
Shop review #26 – Het Natuurhuis is an organic shop in Antwerp, and exists since the seventies. It translates as ‘Nature home‘. Natuurhuis now has three locations in the Antwerp area: one in the city center (Otto Veniusstraat), one at Zuid (Verlatstraat) and one in Merksem (Eethuisstraat). These photos are from my recent visit to Het Natuurhuis in the city center. It is located close to Antwerps main shopping street the Meir, and about 10 minutes from the central train station. It is a fairly large shop (not as big as the shops from organic chain Bioplanet, but about the same size as Biovita in Bruges and Mordan in Ostend). As my visits to Het Natuurhuis are most often on my way back to the train station, I am mostly pressed for time, or too exhausted after some city dwelling to have a relaxed look around in the shop. I have however spotted several vegan items that I would love to take with me, but the vegan icecream from Professor Grunschnabel or the frozen items from De Vegetarische Slager (The Vegetarian Butcher) would not last …
#81 – Light lunch at new veggie resto Funky Jungle, Mechelen ***
Restaurant review #81 – Funky Jungle is a new vegetarian restaurant (bistro style) in the center of Mechelen (in between Antwerp and Brussels). It is located at the foot of St Rumbold’s cathedral. I visited Funky Jungle a couple of weeks ago for lunch with a friend. On the other side of the road, there’s a nice terrace (with robust chairs with armrests, hurray!) at the foot of the St Rumboldtower . The vegan options are clearly marked on menu, although there was some uncertainty about the burger buns being vegan or not (so we didn’t choose that). We shared a bowl of beet hummus as a starter (4,50€), it came with crackers and sourdough bread. The waitress wasn’t sure about the crackers being vegan, so we didn’t eat those (afterwards she did show us the ingredient list of the crackers, and they are vegan!). For drinks we had virgin mojitos (4,50€). The beet hummus was really nice (my photo failed miserably, I was trying to get the restaurant in the background in the photo, and as such lost focus on …
#76 – Light lunch at Wild Project, Antwerp ***
Restaurant review #76 – Wild Project is a new vegetarian Bistro in the center of Antwerpen, close to the city hall and Het Steen (the castle at the river Scheldt). I went here for lunch a couple of weeks ago with a friend. It’s a cosy little place, with a handful of seating places inside (I later discovered there is also room upstairs, but we didn’t see that). There’s also a sunny terrace in front. This what we had for lunch: fresh made juice and a hot ginger drink (3€ each). A vegan burger sandwich (9,5€) and a tofu sandwich (7€). Food was very nice. The burger didn’t really have a burger texture, but was more a patty of grains and vegs. 7,5€ and 9,5€ for the sandwich and burger is cheap for a main dish, but take into account they are not large portions (a lot of bread and not so much filling). This light lunch was more than enough for us, but If you have a big appetite though, I would suggest you maybe order two things. Atmosphere was relaxed, it’s …
#75 – A piece of cake (or three!) at Greenway, Antwerp ***
Restaurant review #75 – Greenway is a Belgian vegetarian brand (restaurants and products) and was founded by Paul Florizoone in the mid nineties. The first Greenway restaurant opened in Ghent in 1996 and I vividly remember it opening at that time (I worked nearby and was thrilled!). Meanwhile there are three Greenway restaurants in Belgium (Ghent, Louvain and Antwerp) and a take-away at the railway station of Brussels-Midi. It’s been a while since I’ve been in the one in Ghent, but I have visited the Greenway in Louvain again recently for lunch (blog is coming up soon). On my visit to Antwerp a couple of weeks ago (where my friend and I also went on board one of Sea Shepherd’s ships that was docked in the harbor for a couple of days, see the blog here), we visited Greenway in Antwerp for some cakes. The Greenway is at de Groenplaats, which is in the city center, close to the cathedral and the city hall. There were three vegan cakes on offer, all made by Julie from Flockfoods, a new company making vegan pies, muffins and …
Sea Shepherd in Antwerp: a look on board the Sam Simon
One of Sea Shepherd’s ships docked in Antwerp a couple of weeks ago. The Sam Simon anchored near Antwerp’s city museum MAS and during that couple of days crew offered guided tours on the ship. Sea Shepherd is international marine wildlife conservation organization. They use direct action tactics to protect marine life, for example disturbing whale vessels and seizure and destruction of drift nets. I visited the ship with a Dutch friend. It was fascinating! Some information that was shared during the tour: there are a lot of signposts with Japanese language on board the ship, that’s because the ship was originally a Japanese vessel new volunteers start out as sailors, cleaning, doing the simple on board tasks and can later on take on more responsibilities life on board is taken very seriously, no fooling around, and no alcohol on board. If you fool around you leave at the next harbour! The Sam Simon has participated in several operations (see the stickers) The Sam Simon is named after American television producer and writer Sam Simon (co creator of the Simpsons), who donated the money …
I won the lottery! Dinner with Sea Shepherd crew and Tom Waes on board Sam Simon, Antwerp
Sea Shepherd is international marine wildlife conservation organization. They use direct action tactics to protect marine life, for example disturbing whale vessels and seizure and destruction of drift nets. One of their ships, the Sam Simon, embarked in Antwerp for a couple of days and was open for public visits. I visited the ship with a Dutch friend earlier in the week (review with many more pics of the Sam Simon will follow here). On that visit, I gave a donation to Sea Shepherd, and as such entered the lottery to win a dinner for two on Saturday evening on board the ship, with the crew and Tom Waes. As it is with lotteries, one never expects to win … But this time, I did! 🙂 I got a call on Saturday afternoon and of course I gladly accepted the dinner invitation for two. We had the opportunity to talk to the crew and some volunteers from Sea Shepherd Belgium. And we also met Tom Waes (Belgian actor, director and TV-presentor), who is an ambassador for Sea Shepherd and Captain Alex Cornelissen (CEO …
#22 Restaurant Bali, Wommelgem ****
Restaurant review #22 – Bali is an Indonesian restaurant (obviously) in Wommelgem (about 7 km east of Antwerp). It had been on our ‘to visit list’ for many years (we love Indonesian food!), but for many reasons we never managed to get there before. One of those reasons being the restaurant not being open for lunch (usually the time we are in the area). There are plenty of Indonesian restaurants in The Netherlands (given the historical link with the country), but they are a rarity in Belgium. So we were glad we finally managed to get to restaurant Bali in Wommelgem. Besides other vegan items on the menu, there’s also a vegetarian rice table for 25€ per person (minimum of 2 persons), which can be veganised. We asked to leave the item with egg out of the rice table, which was no problem. We also checked whether the ‘fried banana’ (often included in Indonesian rice tables) didn’t contain any egg. The waiter was very friendly and made no problem to go check in the kitchen. As a …
The Bruges Vegan 