All posts tagged: Netherlands

#58 Lovely dinner at Het Stadhuis (2), Oostburg (NL) ***

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Restaurant review #58 – Het Stadhuis is a traditional restaurant in the south of the Netherlands, in the province of Zeeland. That’s very close to the Belgian border, and very close to Bruges (only about 30km = 20 miles). Restaurant and coffeehouse Het Stadhuis is in the center of Oostburg, a small town in the south of Zeeland. Every year in the beginning of October, Het Stadhuis participates in De Vegetarische restaurantweek, a campaign of the Dutch Vegetarian Association. During this week, you can have a vegetarian dinner in the participating restaurants for only 25€. Some restaurants offer a vegan menu, or you can have the menu veganised upon request, which is the case in Het Stadhuis (preferably ask it at least one day in advance to have it veganised). We already went to Het Stadhuis in 2013, also during the ‘Vegetarische restaurantweek‘, and we liked it a lot (see our review of that visit here, it was one of the first reviews on our blog!). This was the menu for De Vegetarische restaurantweek in October 2015 (we got a …

#55 Nice vegan dinner at De Zakkendrager in Utrecht, NL ***

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Restaurant review #55 – De Zakkendrager is a traditional style restaurant in the city center of Utrecht (The Netherlands). It is just around the corner of the music temple Tivoli/Vredenburg. We were in Utrecht a couple of weeks ago, to visit VegfestNL, a vegan festival (see our review about that here). When we looked into the possibilities for dining out in Utrecht, Dutch friends mentionned De zakkendrager, as there are several vegetarian dishes available – veganisable, and they have had a vegan dinner there before. So I inquired beforehand by e-mail whether a vegan menu was possible, and it was no problem. But, we could not make a reservation, as they only accept reservations for parties bigger than five persons. Taking our chances, we went on a Sunday evening, and arrived about 6pm. We were lucky there were still some tables available, and the restaurant soon filled up! The restaurant is located in a small alley in between the canal and the market, and was a meeting point and café for “zakkendragers” for many centuries. “Zakkendrager” means bag carrier or …

A visit to cooking shop Bianca Bonte, Oostburg (Nl)

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Shop review #14 – We found shop Bianca Bonte in Oostburg a couple of years ago, when looking for a juicer. Although across the border in the Netherlands, it was at that time the closest shop where we found a Versapers slowjuicer (= a Hurom juicer).  Oostburg is only 29km from Bruges. On a previous visit to Oostburg, we had a vegan dinner at restaurant Het Stadhuis. There’s also a Chinese restaurant in Oostburg (Ocean city) with some items on the menu card which may be vegan. Want to check it out next time! Cooking shop Bianca Bonte is located in the main shopping street of Oostburg (and Oostburg is not that big, so it’s easy to find). The store has all kinds of kitchen tools and machines, pots and pans, juicers and mixers. They also hold workshops, but haven’t seen anything on the agenda specifically focused on vegan cooking. There’s also a selection of bulk tea available, and some olive oils. A large selection of cooking books, but the only vegan one I could find was ‘De dunne vegan’. And …

#25 Restaurant Erawan, Haarlem (NL) **

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Restaurant review #25 – Erawan is a Thai restaurant in the center of Haarlem (the Netherlands). We were there early on a Saturday evening. We didn’t make a reservation, but as the evening progressed the place soon filled up, so it is advisable to make a reservation if you want to be sure. The menu card lists several vegetarian dishes seperately, of which most appear to be vegan. We specifically checked whether the dishes didn’t contain any egg, and asked which sauce was used to prepare the dishes, and specifically mentioned that we didn’t want anything prepared with oyster sauce. The waitress replied she would give our message to the kitchen. The soup, Tom Kha Tahoe phak (coconut mushroom soup, 6,95€) was quite nice. As main dishes, we ordered tofu with ginger and black mushrooms & tofu with cashew nuts and mushrooms (12,95€ each). The dishes were served with plain white rice, and crisps that conspicuously looked like kroepoek (prawn crackers). I asked the lady serving us what they were, and she did (with an ‘of course’ tone) …

#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 …

#14 – Restaurant Gember & Sereh, Tilburg (Nl) ****

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Restaurant review #14 – Gember & Sereh is an Indonesian restaurant in the center of Tilburg. It is located just around the corner from the concert hall 013. Tilburg is a small but vibrant university city in the south of the Netherlands. It’s 166 km from Bruges. We went to Gember & Sereh in the late afternoon, before going to a concert at the 013.  They have several vegetarian options available, and we explicitly asked to have any items with eggs or dairy (or any other animal ingredients) be left out. No problem. We had the sates with tofu (tahu) at 17,50€ and the nasi rames veg (15,75€), a kind of mini rice table dish with different preparations. Both came with plain white rice (one of us asked for rice noodles, but some time after ordering someone from the kitchen said the rice noodles weren’t available at that point yet). It took some time, nearly an hour (I guess the kicthen had just started up) but we enjoyed the food. Typical Indonesian style (eg. peanut sauce) which we both like a …

#2 Restaurant het Stadhuis, Oostburg (Nl) ***

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Restaurant review #2 – Every year, in the beginning of October, there’s a Vegetarian restaurantweek in the Netherlands, a campaign from the Nederlandse Vegetariërsbond (Dutch Vegetarian Union). During that week, participating restaurants offer a vegetarian menu for 25 or 40 euro. We found three participating restaurants in Zeeland (the most southern province of the Netherlands), of which one on ‘our side’ of the water (the Scheldt)! Restaurant het Stadhuis in Oostburg, not too far from Bruges (29km).