All posts tagged: vegan wine

#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 …

Vegan products at organic shop Luzerne, Beernem

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Shop review #43 – Luzerne is an organic shop in Beernem, about 15 km from Bruges. Luzerne means lucerne or alfalfa. The shop was founded more than 25 years ago and although Beernem is a rather small town, organic shop Luzerne is quite well stocked with a wide variety of products (food, but also cleaning products and body and care products). Luzerne is also only 5 minutes from the exit on the E40 highway, so this is also a handy stop for vegans travelling through Belgium and looking for vegan products for on the road. There is always parking space available, as Luzerne is situated in a quiet street (and there are also some parking places in front of the shop on the pavement). And it is open on Sunday morning! When entering the shop, one is always warmly welcomed by Gerda who runs the shop, and she enthousiastically gives advice or helps out when looking for a specific product or brand. This is not a vegan shop, but there are many vegan products and organic brands …

#139 Hustle and bustle in Soho. Dinner at Mildreds, London

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Restaurant review #139 – Mildreds is a vegetarian restaurant in London, and has four locations: Soho, Camden, Kings Cross and Dalston. We went to the one in Soho during our short trip to London this Summer. It is in the south side of Soho, near the very busy Piccadilly Circus. We could not make a reservation, as the restaurant has a no booking policy (which we do find quite annoying, and has left us avoiding certain places in the past). But we had no other dinner plans for that first evening in London, and the restaurant was not too far from out hotel, so we headed there early hoping to get a spot. We arrived a bit before 6PM, and luckily, there was still space. Vegan options are clearly indicated on the menu and the wine list also clearly indicates the vegan wines (I think they were all vegan). We were served free water, which was nice! Glass of wine was £5,5. This what we had for dinner: Gyoza dumplings, £6 Hummus, £6 Wood roasted …

#122 Another fabulous dinner at Réliva, Bruges (5)

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Restaurant review #122 – Restaurant Réliva is one of the few places in Bruges that standardly offers a vegan menu. It is not an all vegan restaurant, but since the start (2012) they have served vegan dishes. We’ve been here several times over the years, and it is always a delight to go dining here. Previous reviews of Réliva on The Bruges Vegan are here. (see updates below!) The interior has changed a bit over the years, and there’s also a large terrace in the back. We’ve never had the chance to dine on the terrace, as it was always cold or rainy when we visited. Definitely will try to visit on a nice Summer evening in the coming months, so we can enjoy the terrace! This review is from our last visit, a couple of weeks ago (Spring 2017). The vegan menu is still 35€ (starter, main dish and dessert). When ordering a la carte it is a bit more expensive (see prices listed, total of 43€ for 3 courses). For starters we had the …

#121 Lunch at Vegan bistro Gare du Nord, Rotterdam

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restaurant review #121 – Gare du Nord is a vegan bistro in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) not so far from the main train station. The restaurant is in an old restaurant train coach, with plenty of outdoor seating in front. For those not so fluent in French: Gare du Nord literally means ‘the train station of the north side‘. Gare du Nord was closed for a while in the passed year, but has reopened again in Spring of 2017. We were here a couple of weeks ago for lunch. It was a blooming hot day, and we were relieved to see there were large parasols outside so we could sit in the shade. It would have been impossible to have lunch inside the train coach, as it seemed even hotter inside than outside (I went in to have a look and take some pics). The train coach is permanently stationned on a town square, with a herb garden next to it. Although it is not so far from the busy city center, it was very quiet and …

#100 Vegan fine dining at Vanilla Black, London (UK)

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Restaurant review #100 – Reminder – GIVEAWAY to celebrate 100 restaurant reviews & 3 years The Bruges Vegan. Vanilla Black is a vegetarian restaurant in city center of London, near the Royal Courts of Justice. It is located in a small quiet alley. It is one of the more expensive vegetarian restaurants in London, and offers fine gastronomical dining. We telephoned to make a reservation for the same evening and that was no problem, although we had to be early (6PM all later hours were fully booked). We received a vegan menu card and also a vegan wine list. Nice! We ordered the 3 course vegan menu and could each choose different meals, even nicer! The 3 course dinner was £41,50. We started with a glass of champagne (drapier, £9,75). Water was £3,95, glass of wine was £9,75 (quite expensive drinks!). Here’s what we had for dinner. It was too much too take notes of all the ingredients, but every dish was very nice. Service was also very swift and friendly. Toilets downstairs were clean, although a bit unorderly. …

#94 Nice lunch at I love Veggie Burger, Vienna

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Restaurant review #94 – I love Veggieburger is vegan burgerplace in the city center of Vienna. It is a 2 minutes walk from the Swedenplatz (where the boat excursions start) and a 5 to 10 minute walk from the Stephanschurch. We went to I Love Veggie Burger for lunch during our city trip to Vienna this Summer (see other reviews from our trip to Vienna). It was a very hot day and we sat on the front terrace (inside the restaurant was very hot!). There is some traffic in the street passing the terrace, but despite being close to the historical center, it is a quiet area. The menu is quite extensive, and we are not used to having so much choice! 😉 You can also ‘pimp’ your own burger (choose the bread, a patty, extra vegetables or leave some out, …). What a relief though to have a full vegan menu. Wines are also clearly labelled as vegan (see photo). This is what we had for lunch: Service was very friendly. The interior looked pretty …

#92 – All vegan evening at traditional restaurant Guillaume, Bruges

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Restaurant review #92 – Guillaume is a traditional restaurant in the city center of Bruges. It is just a 5 minute walk from ‘t Zand. I had contacted Guillaume several times over the years to ask whether we could dine there (vegan menu), but always received a negative (albeit very polite and friendly) response. So I was quite surprised to see the anouncement last Summer of a ‘no meat no fish’ dinner evening announced. I asked whether the evening was vegan, and quickly got confirmation. Exciting! It was a lovely Summer evening and we choose to be seated on the terrace in the back. It was quite a relaxed atmosphere, the restaurant cat came to check in on the terrace wall (although unfortunately she wasn’t allowed on the terrace itself). When it went dark one big umbrella covered the the whole terrace and brought a nice glow of reflecting light on the ceiling. Cosy. As we were outside all evening, we didn’t really get a feeling of the atmosphere inside, but it seemed quite charming as well. This was our …

A look inside vegan shop Veganz in Vienna, Austria

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Shop review #25 – A couple of weeks ago, we went to Vienna for a couple of days (see other reviews from our trip to Vienna). Upon arriving in Austria’s capital, the first thing we did was head to vegan shop Veganz. I had not packed any toiletries for our citytrip (toothpaste, deo, body lotion, …) so needed some supplies to get us through the holiday. And I was also hoping to discover some new brands! (UPDATE 2017 – see below) Veganz is about a 10 minute walk from the Opera (walk down south on the Operngasse and you walk stray up to it). We were also quite hungry (it was already afternoon and we hadn’t had any lunch), so we bought a drink, a wrap and sushi from the Vreshtogo fridge and ate them on the bench just outside of Veganz. Lovely! Veganz is sometimes referred to as a ‘supermarket’, which led me to expect a bigger store. It’s not as big as the supermarkets like Delhaize, Carrefour or even Bioplanet (BE) and Ekoplaza (NL). But Veganz is a reasonably sized store, comparable …

#74 Nice dinner at vegan restaurant Markies de Salade, Deurle ***

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Restaurant review #74 – Markies de Salade opened in the Fall of 2015. It started out as a raw vegan restaurant, but now also serves regular ‘hot’ vegan dishes. Their dishes are ‘plantbased’ and glutenfree, without wheat, lactose, dairy and free from refined sugars (their FB page states they don’t serve soy, but there are now dishes with soy). All ingredients of each dish are listed on the menu. Markies de Salade is in Deurle, which is a 10 minute car ride from Ghent (and 45 km from Bruges). The restaurant is along the road between Ghent and Deinze, so it’s an easy ride and not hard to find. It is a bit of a peculiar ride though, as sections of this road are also well know for its ‘red lights’, which can also be spotted from the restaurant itself. — Update — see below We went to Markies de Salade a couple of weeks ago, to celebrate our 26th anniversary. We were there on a weekday evening, but to be sure we made a reservation. When we arrived there, there was only one other couple dining …