restaurant review #234 – We have visited Hashtag Food ( or #Food) in Bruges several times the last couple of years. Previous reviews, both from the old location in the city center, and the new location at Scheepsdale, can be seen here.
restaurant review #192 – Récollets is a new vegan restaurant in Antwerp (est. September 2017). It is in the city center, just a 5 minute walk from the Cathedral. (Note: see update below) Récollets has a very nice variety on the menu, and lots of options to choose from. It was difficult to make a decision! The wines were also said to be vegan. We choose the cheese platter (19€, came with bread on the side) and the cheeze croquettes (12€), with additional fries on the side (2€). The vegan cheeses are from Serotonina, a Polish company. The cheeses can also be bought at Récollets, but onfortunately we still had a show to go to that evening (Paul Simon’s farewell tour). And it was a very hot day, and we didn’t have any cooler in the car neither. For dessert we shared a coupe brésilienne (7,50€). It was ages since I had eaten a coupe brésilienne at a restaurant (well, propably since going vegan)! The icecream is homemade by Récollets. Definitely one of the best …
restaurant review #178 – H&K’s is burger bar in the city center of Brussels. It opened in June 2017. It is about a 7-8 minute walk from La Bourse. We were here a couple of weeks ago, after we had been to a concert at the Ancienne Belgique the night before (and stayed overnight in Brussels). It is not a vegan restaurant, but there are several vegan options, clearly labelled. The waiter asked whether we had been there before (no, it was our first visit) and then came to explain how it works. He placed a selection of vegan buns on our table that we had to choose from, and further explained that we should choose our vegan burger, the sauce for the burger, garnish, vegan cheese, and sauce on the side. The vegan burger (everything included) is 15,90€. This was our lunch: The defender juice (apple, carrot, ginger) and Virgin Mohjito (note: no alchol served at H&K’s) Potiron, foccacia, fume cheese, piment veganise, rode ui, gemarineerde paprikas, and tomatoes and steakhouse fries, piment mayonaise L’oriental …
Cheese croquettes! I have eaten a lot of these in the old days, but since going vegan have only had a couple of occassions where I could eat vegan cheese croquettes. Vegan cheese croquettes are not so easily found in shops (at least not around here). I had bought some at vegan shop SHAVT (now only webshop) and also eaten these at a bistro in Louvain, but the SHAVT webshop doesn’t sell these cheese croquettes any more. DIY it is! And yes, I call these cheese croquettes! Even if there are no animal ingredients involved. I simply consider ‘cheese’ to be a processed product, that just as well can be made from cashews, coconut or other plantbased materials! Up till now, we have always used cheese from the brand Wilmersburger to make these, but any other firm cheese, with a neutral taste, will probably do. Wilmersburger can be bought in most organic shops around here.
A couple of weeks ago on a Sunday, there was a vegan market in Lille (Rijsel, France). Lille is just across the border with Belgium, and for us that is just an hour’s drive, so we were eager to go check it out! The vegan market was organised by Végétal & Vous, a vegan shop in Lille. We could park not too far from the Community center. A bit of a bummer that the elevator was out of order, although the organisor had mentionned and warned about this the day before on the facebook page, and offered help to anyone needing assistance. But we managed 🙂 The market was not really that big (certainly not when compared to other vegan fairs or festivals we’ve been to, like Veggieworld, VegfestUK, vegfestNL or Vegan Summerfest). But nonetheless with a nice variety of shops, products and organisations. And since it was in France, also some new brands that we had never heard of. But also some products that I personally don’t really associate with veganism (like dream cathers and …
Restaurant review #137 – Le Potager du Marais is a vegan restaurant in Paris. It is located – as the name says – in the Marais, which is a lively and cosy (but also quite touristic) neighbourhood. There are plenty of restaurants, cafés and trendy shops in the area. Marais is French for swamp, which refers to the region’s original state, and potager stands for vegetable gardener. So that makes Le Potager du marais the vegetable gardener of the swamp 😉 It’s a rather small place, and tables are closely together, but yet there’s still a cosy atmosphere. There’s also a small terrace in front. We were here for lunch during our city trip in Paris in June. We didn’t have a reservation, and were lucky that there was a table available (we were quite late for lunch, so people already started to leave). Service was very friendly, and we immediately felt welcome! There was tap water on the table (and was refilled), which we appreciated immensly, as it was a very hot couple of …
Restaurant review #112 – Bistro Piazza in Louvain (Leuven) is a traditional brasserie style restaurant just opposite the train station of Louvain (So a 15 minute walk from the city center). It is large spacious place (high ceiling) and has a stylish atmosphere. We were here a couple of months ago in December 2016, and there were Christmas decorations up. UPDATE: the Place is now called ‘Grand Café Industrie‘, and has been renovated since. Bistro Piazza is regular (non-vegan) bistro with the usual suspects on the menu: croques, croquettes, spaghetti etc. Since a couple of months, there is also a seperate vegan menu, which is clearly indicated. Even with mention that it is served with vegan bread. I telephone beforehand to make a reservation and inquired about the vegan options. Unfortunately the vegan burger was no longer available (the burger they had used was from Boni – Colruyt and Colruyt changed it and made it non-vegan – so they were still looking for an alternative). The vegan gyros was also not available that evening. Bummer! They did mention …
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 …
Shop review #16 – Mordan is an organic shop in Ostend (at the Belgian coast) and has two locations: the oldest shop is the city center (right next to the main shopping street) and has been there for decades (see shop review #33 here). The other one is at the edge of Ostend, on the Torhoutsesteenweg. The latter one is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. As I grew up in Ostend, I know Mordan in the city center of Ostend quite well. I was recently in Ostend and wanted to check out the other one on the Torhoutsteenweg. So this blog is about the Mordan shop at the edge of Ostend, although of course their offer is similar in both shops. There’s a large parking outside shop Mordan 2, which for some people will be a big advantage as to the shop in the city center (where there’s no parking, as it is also in a no-traffic zone). When I entered the shop, I immediately noticed the shop is really packed with rows and rows …
Shop review #11 – V|edge is an all vegan shop in Ghent. It is located at the edge of the city center, near Sint-Annasquare. The concept store in Ghent is only open in the weekend, but you can also order online and have your shopping delivered at home. V|edge also delivers your shopping to delivery points in several cities, among which Bruges. Check their website for details. UPDATE: see below V|edge offers a variety of vegan products: vegan shoes, handbags, books, vegan cheeses, cookies, candy, energy bars, burgers, chocolate, and other goodies. It is a rather small shop, but they have many items that are otherwise no so easy to find in Belgium. We are not really into ‘meat or fish substitutes’ (the vegan scampis or burgers type of things). But because we hadn’t tasted Tofurky nor the sausages from File Roast yet, we bought some of those (the jury is still out on those, more about them later). Also some products from Gardein. We were very eager to try out the vegan cheese croquette’s from YASAI! V|edge’s homebrand though. Already tasted and much approved, …
The Bruges Vegan 