All posts tagged: Thai

#223 Nice but spicy lunch at Than Thai, Kortrijk

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restaurant review #223 – Than Thai is a Thai (obviously!) restaurant in the city center of Kortrijk. We were here for lunch on a weekday, a couple of weeks ago. The restaurant is divided into two rooms, bot facing the street, adjacent to each other. The interior is quite nice, comfortable and colourful. Staff were very friendly and welcoming. Vegetarian dishes are mentioned seperately on the menu. A lot of them contain oystersauce though. We inquired about the possibility of vegan oystersauce, but it ws said not to be available that day. Two dishes were said to be vegan: the tofu red curry with coconut milk (18,50€) and the garlic ‘black pepper’ tofu (17,50€). The dishes came with white rice (with fried onions on top). The food was nice, big portions. The red curry is very (VERY) spicy though. The restaurant room is accessible, but the toilets are with stairs (very dark!) going up, and are not accessible. Toilets were clean and tidy. We had a nice lunch at Than Thai, good food, enjoyable atmosphere, …

#84 Lunch on the beach promenade at Bottarga, Ostend **

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Restaurant review #84 – Bottarga is a traditional restaurant in city center of Ostend, on the beach promenade, near the Casino Kursaal. I had seen Bottarga mentioned on social media as one of the restaurants where one can have a vegan meal, and on their website I could see there are two vegetarian dishes on their menu – which seemed possibly vegan or easy to veganise. I telephoned to inquire and received confirmation that the dishes did not contain any egg, dairy. So I made the reservation for lunch later that week and specified again that we are both vegan. We were quickly seated and inquired again about the vegan options. The waitress said the noodles contain egg, so they would serve the vegetable ragout with rice. The other dish was a Thai red curry with vegetables. We did not spot any vegan appetizers on the menu, or any dishes that could easily be veganised, nor were given any suggestions, so we just ordered a main dish. For drinks we had a tonic (2,80€) and a fresh orange juice (4,50€). Our drinks and lunch were …

Finding vegan goodies at Asian Supermarket Chow Chun, Ostend

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Shop review #24 – Chow Chun is an Asian supermarket in the city center of Ostend. It is located in between the Casino Kursaal and the Kapellestraat (Ostend’s main shopping street). It is not a vegan shop, but we did see a selection of vegan goodies that are not so commonly found in regular shops in Belgium. And also some rather rare fresh vegetables. These photos give you an impression of the size of the store and what’s for sale. Note that not all items on the photos are necessarily vegan, since it’s not a vegan shop.   Here are some items that caught our eye (I didn’t have time to check all of them for ingredients, but at first glance they looked vegan): This is what we bought: mock duck and mock chicken, soybean pudding, crackers and fried gluted with peanuts (seitan). (11,30€). Chow Chun, location Van Iseghemlaan 50 8400 Oostende +32 (0)59 80 13 68 website: https://www.hetwinkelweb.be/handelaar/detail/chow-chun-supermarkt

#52 Our lunch at Little Asia in Brussels ***

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Restaurant review #52 – Little Asia is well known Asian restaurant in the center of Brussels. Owner and chef is Quyên Truong Thi, who is reportedly famous for participating in several TV-cooking programs (I say reportedly, because I never watch these shows myself! – the day they become vegan, I just might 😉  ). The restaurant is just a 5 minutes walk from the stock market (La Bourse) and the concert hall Ancienne Belgique. Brussels is 100km from Bruges, and is the capital of Belgium. Little Asia has a vegetarian menu standardly available, so I mailed them with the question whether we could get a vegan menu (explaining what we do and don’t eat), and if conformed, we would like to make a reservation. The reply was that this was no problem and that we should mention it again to the staff when ordering. We were there one a Friday for lunch, with two friends (non-vegans) and the place was soon packed (full house). We asked the waitress about the use of eggs, dairy and oyster sauce or fish sauce and she …

#31 Restaurant Buddhasia, Bruges **

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Restaurant review #31 – Buddhasia is a new Vietnamese restaurant in the city center of Bruges (opened Fall 2014). It is located at the back of the Sint-Salvator Cathedral and near the main shopping street (a 5 min walk from ‘t Zand). NOTE: see update below.  Thai or Vietnamese restaurants often have a selection of vegetarian dishes that seem to be vegan (sometimes seperately listed as vegetarian or vegetable dishes on the menu), But restaurant Buddhasia takes it up to the next level and has a seperate vegan category on their menu card! Yeah! The vegan section lists five main dishes, ranging from 9€ to 14€. Upon ordering, we got an appetizer with noodles and bean sprouts (taugé). Our drinks followed quickly: a mango juice (4€) and a freshly squeezed orange juice (4,5€). We asked whether they also could suggest us some vegan entrees, and were suggested the Pho – noodlesoup (9€) (unfortunately no other vegan entrees possible). As a main dish, I asked the tofu with morning glory (water spinach) and garlic 14€) and my partner went for the noodles with vegetables …

#29 Fanny Thai, Brussels *

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Restaurant review #29 – A bad restaurant experience. Every vegan has had one or will encounter one at one point. At least if you go out for dinner every once in a while (I know there are vegans who don’t, precisely because they have had such bad experiences, or they just want to avoid any risk of eating non vegan items). So before you read on, just know that we are not recommending this place. Fanny Thai is – obviously – a Thai restaurant in the city center of Brussels. It is located near the Stock Market (Beurs/Bourse) and the concert Hall Ancienne Belgique. There are several Eastern style restaurants in this area (Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai). We had been at Fanny Thai a couple of years ago, before going to a show at the Ancienne Belgique. I remember it stood out because they had a large variety of vegetarian dishes with tofu and with seitan (the latter not being so commonly served in Asian restaurants in Belgium). We didn’t remember the name of the restaurant anymore, but …

#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) …