restaurant review #329 – Plant Dragon opened earlier this year and I have visited a couple of times! The bakery was previously located in Rotselaar, but now relocated to the city center of Leuven, near Ladeuzeplein and the university library, and is now also a coffeebar where you can enjoy drinks and cake and cookies!
Shop review #64 – Royal Donuts is a German chain of donut shops, and has several locations in Belgium. This is from a visit to the shop in Leuven a couple of months ago.
shop review#63 – De Broodenier is a vegan bakery in Leuven and opened in the Summer of 2020. Finally a vegan bakery in Belgium that offers and vegan pastry ánd vegan bread! There are already several traditional bakeries offering vegan options like Danish pastry (see Frimout in Ghent, Filip and Liraz in Kuurne) and many bakeries that offer cakes and pies (see Peas in Hasselt), but a traditional vegan bakery with bread and pastry is still a rarity in Belgium. De Broodenier is a run by brother and sister Michiel and Hilke. Hilke previously ran tea house T&Ko in Leuven, which I wrote about here.
restaurant review #288 – Hawaiian Poké Bowl is a chain of restaurants with about a dozen locations throughout Belgium. This is from a visit to Hawaiian Poké Bowl in Leuven a couple of weeks ago. At that time (and now still), restaurants were only allowed to offer take away.
restaurant review #276 – Het Strand (‘the beach’) is a vegetarian restaurant in the city center of Leuven (Louvain, near Brussels). We have already visited Het Strand in Leuven before (review here). We visited again in July 2020, this time not for dinner, but simply for an afternoon drink. Had a fresh juice, coffee, and the two available desserts: chocolate mousse with speculoos crumble (4,5€) and mokka chocolate pie (4€). Both were nice, although a bit heavy (would not be able to eat this immediately after having lunch or dinner, too much!).
restaurant review #275 – Alfalfa is a vegetarian restaurant in the city center of Leuven, not far from the central train station. We were here a couple of weeks ago, and had a light lunch.
restaurant review #270 – Kingslize is chain of pizza restaurants (take away) in Belgium. It has currenty seven locations. This is from a visit to the one in Louvain, at the end of 2019.
restaurant review #266 – Otomat is a chain of restaurants in Belgium (5 locations). We have been to various locations of Otomat before: the ones in Bruges and Brussels. The menu is the same in all locations (at least for the vegan pizzas). This was our first visit to the Otomat in Leuven, a couple of weeks ago. There are 3 vegan pizzas standardly available (and they have been the same for quite a while now, some change would be nice ;-). The Dirty Vegan, The Mega Vega and the Las Vega. We had the Dirty Vegan (with cabbage and seitan, 14,9€) and the Las Vega (with spinach and espuma of soy yoghurt espuma and coconut flakes, 13,9€). Which were again great. Crispy crust and enough topping.
restaurant review #220 – Greenway is a Belgian vegetarian brand (restaurants and products) and was founded in the mid nineties. There are three Greenway restaurants in Belgium: in Ghent (it’s been ages since I was there!), in Louvain and in Antwerp. There’s also a Greenway foodstall at the train station of Gare du Midi, where we had a nice lunch before boarding on the Eurostar to London (previous reviews of Greenway here). In 2018, Greenway announced that all it’s restaurants would become fully vegan! This is from a visit at the Greenway in Louvain a couple of months ago (end of 2018). We’ve been to the Greenway in Louvain several times before, but on this occassion, we went to try the Beyond Meat burger, a new vegan burger that has been getting quite a few headlines lately for its supposedly ‘meaty’ taste and texture. Greenway in Louvain is in the city center, next to the Oude Markt (Parijsstraat). The Beyond Meat burger does live up to its reputation: it does taste really meaty! For some vegans this might be a deterrent, …
LEO pancakes is a coffee/lunch house in the city center of Leuven. And as the name suggests: they serve pancakes! We were here a couple of months ago, in the Fall of 2018. It was a nice sunny afternoon, and we could sit outside (small terrace in front). The menu mainly consists of pancakes, and a handful of lunch options (one vegan bagel available). Vegan options are clearly labelled. We had the Chocolate drops pancake (8€) and the Fruit circle pancake (9€) and some tea and lemonade. Unfortunately it took a very long while for our pancakes to be served (more than half an hour), which was a real bummer. Especially since the outdoor chairs are not really comfortable. The pancakes eventually came, and they were great! Loved it! Huge portions and as we already had lunch shortly before, we could not finish all of it. Note: Interior is wheelchair accessible (ramp to go in – didn’t see an accessible toilet though). LEO Pancakes, location Mechelsestraat 45 3000 Leuven 0484/46.04.66 no website facebookpage: https://www.facebook.com/LEOpancakesleuven/
The Bruges Vegan 