All posts tagged: restaurant

New additions to our lists of restaurants (2014/11)

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Here are some new entries in the list of restaurants, which we’ve added recently (2014/11): Books and Brunch (Bruges) Buddhasia (Bruges) review follows: here CultuurCafé De Grote Post (Ostend) review here Fanny Thai (Brussels) review follows: here  Hashtag Food (Bruges) Mykene (Leuven) Nectar (Kortrijk) Rock Fort (Bruges) ‘t Gulden Vlies (Bruges) Vegan not available, or no reply: Bistro Mathilda (Ostend) Hete Patat (Mechelen) Phare de Vie (Bruges) Uilenspiegel (Bruges) For more info: see our lists of restaurants where vegans are welcome in the menu section of The Bruges vegan! List restaurants in Bruges and around Bruges.

Shop SHAVT, Leuven (Simply Healthy And Vegan Things)

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Shop review #8 – SHAVT is a new vegan shop in Leuven. SHAVT is the acronym for “Simply Healthy And Vegan Things“. It’s located in the city center of Leuven/Louvain, and opened in 2014. Leuven is a university city near Brussels (30km) and about 130 km from Bruges. UPDATE 2017: see below! The Loving Hut (vegan restaurant part of a worldwide chain) is just across the street and newly open vegan sandwich bar Vegaverso is just around the corner (see our blog). Being so close to one another, these 3 places are easy to combine on a visit to Leuven. I think SHAVT is currently only one of three all vegan shops in Belgium (the others being Vedge in Ghent and Veggieshop in Ostend, see our review). Not taking into account some grocery shops who only sell fruits and vegetables that is. It’s a small shop (not supermarket style), but has a large variety of vegan items nonetheless: from ice cream to body and care products, chocolate to cleaning products. Owner Kobe has made quite a name for himself with his homemade vegan cheeses! And we were very eager to …

#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 …

#26 – Restaurant Water en Vuur, Diksmuide ****

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Restaurant review #26 – Water & Vuur 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 (see photos below). Water & Vuur is 23km from Ypres. The restaurant is well know among vegans in the area, because it is one of the few restaurants (or actually maybe the only restaurant) in the area that standardly has vegan options available. The menu also explicitly states that fries are baked in vegetable oil (beware, in Belgian restaurants and fast food stalls, fries are often baked in animal fat, see our page with general tips). It’s nice Water & Vuur offers a variety of fresh juices. On this visit, we ordered a Water & Vuur juice (6,5€), which is with apple, pear, red berrie, orange, elderberry syrup 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 …

#21 Le Pain Quotidien, Bruges **

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Restaurant review #21 – Chances are you’ve probably been in one of the many establishments worldwide of Le Pain Quotidien. Or at least you’ve seen one of them! There is also one in the heart of Bruges, near the central market place and the Burg. Pain Quotidien is French for Daily Bread. They sell a wide variety of bread over the counter, and you can also sit down for breakfast, lunch or just a coffee with some baked goodies. The restaurant always has one large communal table (for 10 people or more), but also other tables for 2 if you want to have a more private conversation. There’s always something vegan available and vegan items are clearly marked on the menu card. Le Pain Quotidien confirmed to us that the bread served at the table is always vegan. Most of the breads sold over the counter are also vegan, but the raisin bread (kramiek), sugar bread and brioche are non-vegan. UPDATE – see below We were at Le Pain Quotidien in Bruges for lunch on a Friday, and the …

#20 Restaurant Lan Na Thai, Mechelen **

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Restaurant review #20 – Lan Na Thai is a Thai restaurant in the center of Mechelen (Malines). It’s about a big 5 minute walk from the market place. (** See NOTE at bottom of post) We made a reservation for a Saturday evening, at 7PM. Good thing we made a reservation, because the restaurant soon filled, and the owner had to refuse several patrons. It’s not a big restaurant (I’m guessing about 20 to 25 seats) and tables are placed pretty close to each other. Update  – see below –  The menu on their website mentions several vegetarian dishes separately, of which most seem to be vegan. We asked whether the vegetarian dishes we ordered did not contain any dairy or egg, and the waitress confirmed – although seemingly a bit confused by our question at first – that they didn’t. Nonetheless we did get a bowl of prawn crackers as a free appetizer, not really reassuring. Let’s hope the staff in the kitchen was more knowledgeable (one is of course never 100% sure when dining out that everything served is vegan). We …

#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, …