restaurant review #314 – Het Slachthuis is a vegan restaurant in Leiden (the Netherlands). We were here for lunch with friends a couple of months ago. ‘Slachthuis’ is the Dutch word for slaughterhouse, so that’s a peculiar name for a vegan restaurant! It is located a little bit outside of the city center, in a former flower/wheat factory, and cohouses with a communal sewing atelier.
Veggieworld is an international vegan fair, that has been organised since 2011, in 8 different European countries. In October 2017, it was organised in Brussels for the first time. Veggieworld was located in Tour and Taxis. Nicely renovated old industrial buildings on the north side of Brussels. Parking just next door (a bit expensive, 7 euro, whether one was there for half an hour of half a day didn’t matter), good facilities (accessible toilets). Bright place, with high ceilings. It was unclear to us at first – going by the name – whether this was a vegan or vegetarian fair (it is vegan). We feel “Veganworld” would be a much more appropriate, clearer and better name. Veggie usually refers to vegetarianism, not veganism, so that is confusing. And using the word veggie instead of vegan makes ‘vegan’ less known and even sound more extreme (see our post: just say the word: vegan!). Admission was 8euro pp (10 euro on the day itself), which we felt was a reasonable price. Of course a free festival like …
Restaurant review #141 – Stoom is a restaurant next to the railway station of Middelburg, which is in Zeeland, the Netherlands. Zeeland is the closest Dutch province to Bruges, and we went cycling in the area a couple of weeks ago, on a lovely Indian Summer day. To get at Middelburg, which is across the mouth of the river Schelde, we took the ferry from Breskens to Vlissingen, with our tandem (no cars on the ferry). I had seen Stoom mentionned in a vegan facekookgroup as a place with vegan options. Arriving at the station dinner, we were a bit hesitant to go in. From the outside, it did not look like they have many vegan options*, and we did not see a menu. From our experience with station diners in Belgium, serving only snacks, we could not imagine there would be any vegan options for lunch here! But we decided to check it out anyway. And so glad we did! What a pleasant surprise looking at the menu: several vegan options clearly mentioned! And not …
restaurant review #130 – shop review#37 Heavenly Cupcakes is a vegan patisserie and lunch bistro (sandwiches and Dutch weedburger) in the city center of Rotterdam. It is located just outside the city center of Rotterdam, on the West side of town. There is a small terrace in front of Heavenly Cupcakes, and at the back of the bistro there is a seating area with some tables for two. It is bright and spacious, and nicely decorated, with a sort of a ‘modern but vintage’ feel. Heavenly Cupcakes also has a small selection of vegan products for sale: We had already eaten nice cupcakes from Heavenly Cupcakes during our visit to VegfestNL in Utrecht in 2015 and they were also at the latest Vegan Summerfest in Belgium (blog will follow). Must say that at that latter opportunity, I was not inclined to line up to buy a cupcake from them again, as the middle aged lady at their stall was again a bit grumpy and not welcoming (let me take this opportunity to say it wouldn’t hurt to smile …
A couple of weeks ago, Belgian organisation BE Vegan organised the second edition of Vegan Summerfest. We went to the first edition in 2015 (see our post here) and surely did not want to miss it! This year, the festival was in the Artcube in Ghent, where BE Vegan had also hosted a talk by Jo-An McArthur last Winter (see blogpost here). A more spacious venue than last year, with more room inside and outside. We went early to avoid the big crowd as much as possible and to secure a parking spot nearby (by the time we left early afternoon, people were already parked several blocks away from the venue). The foodtrucks were outside and inside were two halls with stalls of organisations like Bite Back, Animal Rights, and also several shops selling shoes, books, food and cosmetics. With benches to sit down and relax a while. During the afternoon, there were some talks in yet another hall. Would have loved to hear Ruby Roth‘s ‘Vegan is Love‘ talk (via Skype), but that was scheduled for the late …
Ieperfest is a 3-day hardcore music festival, just outside Ypres (Ieper, 75km from Bruges, Belgium). Since day one, more than 20 years ago, all the food at Ieperfest is vegan! It was two years ago that we went to Ieperfest (see our blogpost here), and it was a wet edition in 2014. This time, it was a beautiful Summer weekend, and we went again one afternoon to try out the vegan goodies and enjoy the atmosphere. We tried to taste something from each foodstall, but by the end of the afternoon were too stuffed to accomplish that plan 😉 Payment for food and drinks was with tokens: we paid 66 euros for 30 tokens in total. Our plan was to start our food trip with the Flemish stew with seitan and potatoes from the Ieperfest Hardcore Foodstall, but it was announced it was only available from 5PM onwards. Bummer! So we started with a Dutch weedburger and some ‘Wish ‘n Chips’, that latter being a new ‘algae’ based dish from TDW. Nice! Here’s an overview of the food and drinks we had: …
Restaurant review #69 – A couple of weeks ago, we went for dinner to the restaurant of the Novotel hotel in Bruges. Since a couple of months, most (or maybe all?) Novotel restaurants in Belgium serves the famous Dutch weedburger (no it has nothing to do with that ‘weed’, it is made from seaweeds ;-). Yeah! We have tasted the Dutch weedburger before on several occasions (see for example here in Texel) and are very happy that this specialty is now also available in Bruges! EDIT (2017): The Dutch Weedburger is no longer available at Novotel! I inquired beforehand with the reception of Novotel to be sure that the Dutch Weedburger is indeed available, and if we could get a vegan menu for two (explaining what we do and don’t eat). No problem. So a couple of weeks ago, we headed out to the Novotel. The restaurant is downstairs in the lobby of the hotel. It’s a very spacious place, with the hotel bar situated in the middle. It looks very modern and stylish, but it didn’t really give us …
Restaurant review #61 – We were in Utrecht for the vegan festival VegfestNL (see our review here), and the day afterwards, we went for lunch to Bagels & Beans in the city center. Utrecht is not that far from Bruges, only about 220 km. Bagels & Beans is a chain with several locations throughout the Netherlands. There’s always something vegan available, and on our visits staff has always been very friendly to check for ingredients (see previous review of Bagles & Beans in Alkmaar). Since mid October 2015, they also have two vegan burgers standardly available: the Dutch Weedburger and the Chili burger from Just like your mom. Yeah! The burgers do not come in a burger bun though, but in a bagel – of course! (there are about five bagels to choose from). The weather was exceptionally mild for a Fall day, and we choose to sit outside on the terrace, which was quite nice. The Bagels & Beans in thye city center of Utrecht is located on a nice quiet square, close to the music …
Restaurant review #44 – Yes, there is a place on Texel* where you can get a vegan burger! It’s the famous Dutch weedburger and it’s being served at beachpaviljoen number 9, near Den Hoorn. Obviously, we did not want to miss this! The Beach house is located in the dunes on the south west shore of the island Texel. We were there for lunch on a Saturday, and could easily get a spot outlooking the North Sea. There was a fierce western wind coming straight from the North Sea, and there are gently glowing dunes one each side of the road. So it was quite an effort peddling up there on our tandem! There seems to be only one vegan option on the menu (maybe the vegetable croquets are also vegan, but we didn’t verify). So beware it is not a vegan restaurant, there are many meat options on the menu. This was actually the first restaurant we saw croquettes of geese (ganzenkroketten) on the menu. We ordered the Dutch weedburger with fries, and it was yummie! And …
The Bruges Vegan 