vegetarian

A trip to Germany is always a party! We really experience the holiday vibe: another language, passing the border (less noticable then in the past) and a different kind of architecture despite the fact that Germany is our neighbour country. This time we visited Düsseldorf. When we go on a trip like this, there will be searching for vegan food in Düsseldorf of course! Before we left we did some research online. In this blogpost you can read about our food adventures and tips. Spoiler: plenty to eat for these 2 foodies!

Vegan food in Düsseldorf

Our 1st foodstop was Frucht & Genuss in the center. This is an organic shop with a couple of tables and chairs inside  to enjoy a vegetarian or vegan breakfast or lunch. We thought it might be a bit weird to have lunch in a shop, but actually it turned out to be quite nice. Most of the visitors looked like business people. We enjoyed beetroot spaghetti with a creamy vegan sauce and a gnocchi salad to go with freshly pressed ginger-carrot juice and a maté iced tea. The food was incredibly tasty with simple and fresh ingredients.

Flingern

Vegan buffet restaurant Sattgrün was tipped to us by the lovely lady from the Tourist Information. There are 3 Sattgrün locations in Düsseldorf (and one in Essen). We chose the one in the upcoming quarter of Flingern. It has a nice interior, simple, with a chalk board where you can see all the drinks they have to offer. There’s also quite a large terrace with wooden seats outside and as the street is very quiet, it’s a good location. We chose to enjoy our meal outside, because the weather was great. At Sattgrün’s you pick the size of your plate (3 different sizes) and you just choose which dishes you like to try from the buffet. Everything on our plates tasted just as great as it looked.

In Flingern there are lots more hipster places to visit. For example Oma Erika: a great place for coffee and a sweet treat. We would have loved to try it but when we arrived they were already closing up. And Veganerie (in the Ackerstrasse) was closed during our stay in Düsseldorf.

Center

After we enjoyed breakfast in our hotel, we decided to explore part of the city center the next morning. We were adviced to go to Laura’s deli in the city center. It was still too early for lunch when we arrived at 10.30 am. At Carlsplatz you can also get your health shot: there’s a great juice bar at the market and the vegan food stall in the picture above.

Bilk

After quite a long walk and a visit to a museum, we ended up in the Bilk quarter, where we had a drink at Greeny in a bottle: a vegan place where you can order delicious juices, smoothies and salads. Janet ordered a golden milk smoothie and I had some kind of detox juice with lots of veggies and fresh herbs, delish!

On our 2nd day all we could think of was a ‘greasy dinner’ at night: a divine burger and fries. Online we found What’s Beef in the center, a real American hamburger joint. And… they actually had a vegetarian and a vegan option on the menu! So our expectations were sky high, of course… What a dissapointment: cold, greasy food, burned fries and very unfriendly personel. What a big difference with all the other restaurants we visited so far. Later on we discovered Düsseldorf has a Hans im Glück burger restaurant. We visited this chain before and it’s amazing. Please go here if you have burger and fries cravings. It’s also very vegan friendly!

Pempelfort

Saturday was our 3rd day already. We hoped to explore the Pempelfort neighbourhood this morning.
Don’t you just love trying sweet treats and pies? We do! In Pempelfort there’s a place called Carrot Cake that offers vegan pies and drinks. From experience we know vegan baking can be quite a challenge though, so it’s always a surprise if it’s any good. And guess what: we loved the pies, really! The pineapple coconut pie and mango pie were both delicious. The homemade drinks (home made iced tea and lemonade) are also really good (especially when mixed together…).

We enjoyed a late lunch at Shari’s Kitchen. Unfortunaly this great place shut down in 2017.
Düsseldorf took us by suprise: what a great city! So many great vegetarian/ vegan places, quite a lot of fair fashion and vintage stores. Also if you like street art, Düsseldorf is the place to be. Check out our streetart blogpost as well. We didn’t even have time to explore everything … so we hope to visit this city again soon.

Info about the cafes we visited for vegan food in Düsseldorf:
– Carrot Cake: Moltkestrasse 75, 40479 Düsseldorf
– Frucht & Genuss: Stresemannstraße 29, 40210 Düsseldorf
– Greeny in a bottle: Konkordiastrasse 109, 40219 Düsseldorf
– Sattgrün: Hoffeldstraße 18, 40235 Düsseldorf
–  Ignore What’s Beef: Immermannstraße 24. Go to Hans im Glück, Hammerstraße 38, 40219 Düsseldorf