restaurant review #355 – Sattgrün is a chain of vegan restaurants with locations in Cologne and Dusseldorf. We visited two of them in Cologne last year. This one in ‘Mitte’ (now called Kolumba Viertel) and the one at Neumarkt (now closed unfortunately).
True! 😄 At least with respect to non-vegan restaurants. In vegan restaurants, I’m often overwhelmed by the menu, and don’t know what to choose! 🤤🙈 #choiceoverload Credit: Catana Comics
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’ …
Yes, they do exist. Restaurants that do not want to prepare a vegan menu. I have yet to encounter a sign on a restaurant’s door that explicitly says so, but there are certainly chefs and many in the catering bussiness who share this view. Over the years, I have contacted dozens of restaurants with the question if they can make us a vegan menu. I have had many positive replies, but onfortunately also many restaurants letting me know they cannot or will not make a vegan menu. Sometimes it’s just a straightforward and simple ‘no we don’t do that‘. Sometimes they add some explanation like ‘it’s not our specialty‘, ‘we don’t work with such products‘ or ‘we don’t think we can give you a satisfying culinary experience‘ or even ‘because it requires a total reorganisation of our kitchen‘. Sometimes they even refer me to vegan friendly places in town. I appreciate restaurants taking the time to reply to my request, even if they answer they cannot or will not provide a vegan menu. Rather they are honest about it, than …
Restaurant review #58 – Het Stadhuis is a traditional restaurant in the south of the Netherlands, in the province of Zeeland. That’s very close to the Belgian border, and very close to Bruges (only about 30km = 20 miles). Restaurant and coffeehouse Het Stadhuis is in the center of Oostburg, a small town in the south of Zeeland. Every year in the beginning of October, Het Stadhuis participates in De Vegetarische restaurantweek, a campaign of the Dutch Vegetarian Association. During this week, you can have a vegetarian dinner in the participating restaurants for only 25€. Some restaurants offer a vegan menu, or you can have the menu veganised upon request, which is the case in Het Stadhuis (preferably ask it at least one day in advance to have it veganised). We already went to Het Stadhuis in 2013, also during the ‘Vegetarische restaurantweek‘, and we liked it a lot (see our review of that visit here, it was one of the first reviews on our blog!). This was the menu for De Vegetarische restaurantweek in October 2015 (we got a …
As you can tell by the number of restaurant reviews on our blog, we have visited quite a lot of restaurants over the years. Yes, even as vegans (I stress this because some people think that is impossible) and even in restaurants where at first glance this may not be so obvious. Yes, we have had some bad experiences. I’m not referring to the the rabbitfood that we’ve sometimes been served, but to dishes that are not vegan. For example a dish containg oystersauce, although explicitly labelled on the menu as vegetarian (and yes, also having checked whether it didn’t contain any eggs or dairy). But on most occasions, we have enjoyed a vegan menu. At least that is what we think (and hope)! Dining out always involves a risk. One can try to minimise that risk, for example by clearly informing the restaurant beforehand on what vegan means, explaining what you do and do not eat. But nevertheless, the risk that some dishes may contain animal ingredients cannot be taken away completely. Although we realise that dining out always involves some …
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 …
A couple of weeks ago, we were in Texel for a couple of days. Texel is an island in the Netherlands, north west of Amsterdam. There are only a handfull of small villages on Texel, but the island is very touristic, so there are quite a lot of hotels and restaurants. Not that much options for vegans though. In previous blogposts with restaurant reviews, I promised I would give an overview of places where you can have a vegan meal (and also some restaurants that replied they cannot fullfill our vegan needs). You can see this overview below. First, some other impressions from Texel, from our vegan point of view. sheep, sheep and more sheep E-ve-ry-where you look on Texel, you see sheep. Thousands and thousands of them. Not that Texel is a sanctuary for sheep of course. They are raised for economic purposes: for their meat and milk, and also for wool. Hence sheep products like sheep meat, cheese and wool (and even sheep skins) are a common feature in restaurants and shops in Texel. We read online …
Restaurant review #43 – Texel is an island north west of Amsterdam (NL). There are only a handfull of small villages on Texel, but the island is very touristic, so there are quite a lot of hotels and restaurants. Not that much options for vegans though. In another blogpost, I’ll give our vegan view on Texel, and places where you can have a vegan meal (and also some restaurants that replied they can’t fullfill our vegan needs). We were at Texel for the weekend, and we dined at restaurant De Kroontjes in De Koog, a very small town on the west side of the island. I had noticed on the website of De Kroontjes they have a vegetarian curry risotto as a vegetarian option, and so I e-mailed them if we could get a vegan meal (explaining what we do and don’t eat). After receiving confirmation, I made a reservation. The front of the restaurant looks more like a pub or brasserie, but the inside is more resaturant style. After arriving at the restaurant, I asked whether everything was ok …
Restaurant review #39 – A couple of weeks ago, we were invited to a banquet for a communion feast, at de Baronie in Lovendegem. Lovendegem is a small village just outside Ghent. The host had specifically asked for a vegan menu for the both of us and had communicated with me about the menu (thank you!). Still, on such occasions we’re always a bit anxious about what we’ll be served, and whether the kitchen has understood what vegan actually means! Especially in a place where there’s nothing vegan available, and the standard menu is full of fish and meat dishes and lots of dairy. When I arrived at the restaurant, I quickly inquired whether our vegan wishes were noted and the head of the restaurant confirmed it was taken care of. This is what we got. Two appetizers (on the first photo you can only see part of it, I had already eaten half before I remembered to take a photo! 😉 ) The starter was with white asparagus, radish, tomatoes and scallions. Nice and fresh. Main course with dark pasta, …
The Bruges Vegan 