All posts tagged: The Netherlands

#225 Lunch at vegetarian restaurant De Vleesch Lobby, The Hague (NL)

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restaurant review #225  – De Vleesch Lobby is the restaurant from De Vegetarische Slager (‘the vegetarian butcher’), a Dutch brand of vegetarian and vegan products. We were at their restaurant in The Hague for lunch a couple of months ago, with friends. The restaurant is a little bit outside of the city center of The Hague. I was a bit disappointed that the lunch menu only seemed to have rather simple fastfood snack items, as opposed to the dinner menu (with more elaborate dishes). But on the other hand, we were glad to at least be able to have lunch at this restaurant, as many other restaurants seem to be closed for lunch in the Netherlands. As it is the restaurant of De Vegetarische Slager brand, all of their dish contain their products, like ‘kipstuckjes’ (‘chicken’ pieces) or ‘visvrije Mackreel’ (fishfree mackerel). Although I do like to eat their vegan range of products, I have my reservations about naming vegan products as animals or animal parts, as it consolidates an objectifying view on animals (this …

#222 Dinner at vegan resto SNCKBR (Waku Waku), Utrecht (NL)

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restaurant review #222 – SNCKBR is a vegan restaurant in the city center of Utrecht, just next to the concert hall Tivoli Vredenburg. We were here a couple of months ago, before going to show at the Tivoli. A couple of weeks ago, SNCKBR has been renamed into Waku Waku. At the time of our visit, the opening hours were not correctly noted on the website. We already passed by at 4PM – expecting it to be open – but they were still setting up tables and told us it would be open at 5PM. So we returned. Although it was still early, the place soon filled up. SNCKBR (Waku Waku) is a spacious place with a nice, newly renovated decor. We had several reviews that service could be slow at SNCKBR (Waku Waku), so we decided not to take an entree or soup. We ordered two mains, a the SNCKBR burger with fries on the side and a BBQ Peking Luck pizza. Luckily, the main dishes came relatively quickly. The pizza was very spicy …

#210 Loved the vegan pizzas at Bancale 61, Maastricht (NL)

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restaurant review #210 Bancale 61 is a pizza restaurant at the edge of Maastricht. It is across the street from where vegan restaurant the Loving Hut used to be. It’s a rather small restaurant, which also offers takeaway. There are not that many seating places. There’s also a small terrace in front (with two tables). A very informal atmosphere, with benches made from wooden pallets. This is from a visit at the beginning of Summer. There are several vegan pizzas standardly available. With homemade vegan cheese (from cashews). The pizzas are ovenbaked in a woodfire oven. You can see the flames from in the restaurant. We ordered the Al Bosco and Allure pizza, each 15€. We did not have to wait long for the pizzas to be served. The crust was very nicely baked, and the pizzas tasted great. We had some leftovers and it was no problem to take the remaining piece of pizza with home with us. Service was very friendly. Toilet in the back. Through the kitchen. Was clean and tidy (no photo this time!). The only …

#204 Light vegan lunch at organic vegetarian resto Imagine, Middelburg (NL)

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restaurant review #204 – Imagine is an organic vegetarian restaurant in the city center of Middelburg (NL). We were here in the Summer of 2018, and had lunch on the terrace. It was a blooming hot day, and we were happy to take a seat under the big umbrellas on the large terrace in front, offering shade, with a nice view on the church. The lunch menu at Imagine is mainly snack items, like paninis and wraps. Vegan options are clearly indicated on the menu. There is also a small shop area inside, with nuts and seeds etc in dispensers (waste free). We ordered a vegan toasti with pesto, mushrooms, parsley and walnut (5,8€) and a wrap with cannelini spread, mushrooms, peanut, crunched onion and pickled red onion (8,5€). The food combinations were a bit odd and felt strange to our taste buds. Not really our cup of tea. There were several vegan cakes and pies on offer. We had a piece of strawberry and a piece of banana cake, and an ice coffee, which were …

#196 Will not visit again. A vegan bite at pub The Lab, Maastricht

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restaurant review #196 – The Lab is a restaurant in the city center of Maastricht, with some vegan options. Actually, it is more a pub/cocktail bar, than a real restaurant, with loud music and a dark, hipster pub atmosphere. It seemed very popular with students. We visited at the end of June, when we were on a holiday in the area. I doubted whether I would post this review on my blog, as The Lab is not a place that I recommend. But then again, I think it is also important to share less favourable experiences (see this blogpost: a critical note on vegan friendly places? don’t you dare) It is very rare that I am thoroughly disappointed about a place. As is the case here. When we came in, the first thing we noticed was a very strong ‘toilet’ odour (and not in a favourable way). There were still plenty of tables available and we could choose a table to sit. You can compose your bowl or choose from one of the available options. The …

#191 Mango avocado salad at burgerbar Pistache, Valkenburg (NL)

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restaurant review #191 – Valkenburg is a small town in the south of the Netherlands, near the Belgian border. We were here a couple of weeks ago, and also visited several restaurants in Maastricht at the time. The city center of Valkenburg is very touristic. Valkenburg is well known among cycling fans, as it is the place where the Amstel Gold race finishes. De ‘Grote Straat’ (the main street) is one restaurant next to the other, with all more or less the same – very traditional – menus (‘seafood, steak, lobsters, etc …). Very disappointing 😦 Also spotted this sign in one of the tourist shops). Beforehand, we had found references of two other places in Valkenburg with vegan options (El Castillo, and Eten bij Ziza), but both are closed for lunch. We suddenly saw a sign at the wall of a restaurant with ‘vegan wine’ written on it, so that was a pleasant surprise. We asked the waitress if they had any vegan options on the menu, and they have one: a salad with …

Yield

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Pinnacle of speciesism: when an animal is reduced to her function or yield   Animals are not ‘egg’, ‘bacon’, ‘wool’ or ‘milk’, but each and every one sentient feeling beings, who can suffer pain, each with their own individuality. Spotted in a shop in Valkenburg (the Netherlands)

#141 Nice lunch at station diner Stoom, Middelburg (NL)

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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 …

Cake at the terrace of Heavenly Cupcakes, Rotterdam

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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 …

#128 Lovely dinner at vegetarian resto Leaf, Rotterdam (NL)

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Restaurant review #128 – Leaf is a vegetarian restaurant in Rotterdam (the Netherlands). Most of the menu is vegan, there are only a handful of options which are non-vegan. The restaurant used to be in Scheveningen, but moved to Rotterdam recently. The food at Leaf seems to be a mixture of Asian inspired recipes (Indonesian, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc). We visited a couple of weeks ago, with friends. We had made a reservation, but that didn’t seem to be necessary, as there was still plenty of space available (it was a Friday evening). Restaurant Leaf is a spacious place, with a large terrace out front. Although it was a nice Summer evening, it was too windy to sit outside. Inside there’s a downstairs section and some more seating on the balcony upstairs. It was hard to choose from the extensive menu! We’re not used to having so many options 😉 The non-vegan items are clearly indicated as such on the menu card, and the spicy ones are marked with stars. Restaurant Leaf offers a lot of ‘faux’ …