Vegan dining at the Watsons
Until recently, anyone who was vegan and wanted to enjoy a nice meal out didn’t get very far in our country. And that’s putting it mildly. But in 2017, everything changed. Vegan food definitively broke through in the hospitality industry.
Snack bars with a vegan offering in particular sprang up like the mushrooms that regularly end up on the plate. Now frying makes everything delicious, so those establishments were an obvious choice. Vegan bitterballen, vegan pulled papaya burgers, vegan tacos, you name it.
Vegan snacking
They put vegan food firmly on the map. But also somewhat one-dimensionally. Because snacking is fun, but you don’t always feel like it when you want to go out for dinner.
But the door was ajar, so others could open it a little further. Chefs who – often still self-taught, because for now there is no vegan chef training programme in the Netherlands – began experimenting with more refined food than sweet potato fries. Delicious as those are.
At vegan food bar Mr. & Mrs. Watson, not everything goes into the deep fryer.
For example, at the charming Mr. and Mrs. Watson, named after the ‘inventors’ of the vegan lifestyle. But the great thing about this place is that you certainly don’t have to walk in wearing pineapple-leather shoes and nothing but cotton clothing. Everything – including the interior – is vegan. Indeed, even the pineapple-leather bar stools. But you’re just as welcome in those calfskin motorcycle boots.
Raw cheesecake
And what you get here is certainly not yet the refined fare you might eat, for example, at the rather plant-based restaurant BAK, but it is clearly a step above a snack bar. From the drinks snack to the raw cheesecake dessert.
The signature dish at this establishment in Amsterdam-Oost is cheese. Yes, cheese. Vegan cheese. Made in-house from cashew nuts, including varieties with blue mould. They even have a cashew fondue! The cheese alone is worth a trip to this plant-based food bar.
