All posts tagged: Antwerpen

Shopping at organic store Het Natuurhuis, Antwerp

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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 …

#76 – Light lunch at Wild Project, Antwerp ***

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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 ***

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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

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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

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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 ****

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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 …

#19 Restaurant Lombardia, Antwerp **

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Restaurant review #19 – Restaurant Lombardia is a well know place in Antwerp. (Update – SEE NOTE BELOW) Despite the announcement on their website (“Our menu card is more than 80% vegetarian, so we can proudly call ourselves a vegetarian restaurant“), Lombardia is not a vegetarian restaurant, since they also serve fish (tuna) and meat. They do have vegan and gluten free options standardly available. It is only open till 6 PM, so no dinner. There’s also the option of take-away. We’ve been here a couple of times over the years. Last time was some weeks ago. We actually wanted to try out raw food restaurant Eten Vol Leven, but unfortunately that was closed. The Lombardia experience Least that can be said is that Lombardia’s interior is very colourful. The walls are decorated with scraps and clippings from magazines and newspapers, often boasting about the restaurant or its owner, and enlarged printed tweets from (pseudo-) famous people mentioning their visit to wonderful Lombardia. It’s a chaotic patchwork of different bits and pieces glued together. The place is jammed packed with different types of …

#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 …