Maoz Falafel, Rotterdam, Netherlands
If you’re a vegan or vegetarian travelling in Europe, there’s a darn good chance you’ll end up having at least one meal at Maoz, the popular vegetarian falafel joint. They’ve got locations in major cities across eastern Europe, including Paris, London, Amsterdam and Barcelona. They’ve also opened a few franchises in the US and you can now find them in Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, Florida and New Jersey. A few years ago, we enjoyed several visits to Maoz in Paris and Barcelona and were excited to have a chance to eat there again while visiting Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Maoz Falafel
Maoz Falafe
We took the train from Utrecht to Rotterdam and arrived at the central station. About 15 minutes after we arrived, John was placing his order for a small falafel and fries. The Maoz dude stuffed his pita with falafel, lettuce and tomato. Once he handed it over, John filled it to the maximum with extra veggies and couscous from the salad bar. He was super excited about having a chance to fill up on Maoz once more, but was kind enough to let me snag a few bites. I’m happy to report it was as good as we remembered!
Fries and Curry Sauce at Maoz
The fries were basic, but the curry sauce on the side kept things interesting.
Maoz Vegetarian Falafel Menu
A meal at Maoz requires no thinking for vegetarians and vegans. You don’t have to ask if the bread, sauce or falafels contain animal ingreidents. Everything else is a vegetable so you know it’s safe. It’s cheap, about €5.00 or €6.00 Euros ($6.53-7.84 USD), depending on what you order. Definitely less expensive than any meal you’d get at a sit-down restaurant, but there are cheaper falafels to be found. But at cheap falafel stands it’s hard to be sure about ingredients and there’s always potential for cross contamination with animal products.
Maoz Vegetarian
www.maozusa.com
Coolsingel 87-A
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Tel: 06 14283283
Spirit
Spirit, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Spirit is a pay-by-weight restaurant that’s attached to the city’s biggest health food store, the Gimsel natural food supermarket. Gimsel is really big, and well stocked with lots of vegan food and body products. It’s actually comparable in size to a Whole Foods.
Spirit Vegetarian Buffet
All of the food at Spirit is vegetarian, and most of it’s vegan. To keep things simple, they identify all of the vegan options with a ‘v’ symbol. The hot food is more gourmet than what you’d expect to find at such a place.
Lentil Salad
Grilled Zucchini
Tempeh and Green Beans
Our Spirit Buffet Picks
We filled up a takeout box with some tempeh, grilled asparagus, lentil salad, chickpea curry, fried mushrooms, and roasted potatoes. All of the food was great, albeit a bit pricey with our small box ringing in at €8.00 Euros ($10.45 USD).
Spirit Cafe
www.degroenepassage.nl/spirit.php
De Groene Passage Shopping Center
Mariniersweg 9
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Te: 010-4116356
Ijssalon Venezia
Ijssalon Venezia Ice Cream Shop, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Soja Vanille Ice Cream
Our Couch Surfing hosts in Rotterdam tipped us off on a vegan dessert option located close to the city center. At Ijssalon Venezia, an old school ice cream parlor, they regularly serve up a vegan soy-based ice cream. During our visit they had vanilla, but not boring plain vanilla, vanilla with wheat bran. I know it sounds a little weird but it was a good combo that’s definitely worth a try. Scoops are just €1.00 Euro ($1.31 USD) each, so why not opt for two!
Soy Vanilla with Wheat Bran
Ijssalon Venezia
Oude Binnenweg 125b
Rotterdam, Netherlands
If you happen to visit Rotterdam, I’d recommend stopping at all of these three places for a bite to eat. Enjoy!
7 Comments »
I don’t go to Rotterdam alot, although it is a really great city! And I have also many relatives living there, but for some reason I don’t go into town a lot there. But I will definitely take the train to Rotterdam just for these restaurants/shops!
The restaurants all look so good, especially Spirit. I ate at a Maoz franchise at a shopping center in South Florida, and was pleasantly surprised by the quality and taste. I’d love to have a Maoz where we live.
Thanks for the heads up! I was looking for a decent salad bar near work and spirit seems to just what i was looking for!
We have just been to Spirit but we ended up eating there everyday. The food is excellent and the fact that you pay by weight is quite good as you can make a selection of what you want to eat or try, if only there were more places like that.
Highly recommended.
Hello,
Unfortunately, Maoz vegetarian restaurant is closed in Rotterdam.
Further, call Spirit restaurant for opening timings before going there. Currently, they are open till 20:00 (Mon-Fri) and 18:00 (Sat).
The above information is as per my today’s visit.
They re-build spirit to a much better place now. And It is open till 23.00 .
Moaz indeed closed a while ago.
My favourite falafel place is De Falafel at Binnenwegplein (in the city center near the Media Markt megastore). There are no seats, but the nearby square has lots of benches.
You could get fries a few yards away at Binnenwegplein at Rotterdam´s best known fastfood place, Bram Ladage.
However, I personally prefer the fries at Kalok (50 yards away around the corner at Lijnbaan), because they have a delicious sweet&spicy peanut sauce (though I think it´s vegetarian, not vegan). They have a take-away counter and a seated area. Do ask them to go easy on the salt because they have a habit of putting a bit much on…
If you´re in the mood for Chinese and don´t mind leaving the city center, I recommend De Oude Plek, a vegetarian/vegan restaurant.
(http://www.deoudeplek.nl/entree.html)
Except for a few egg dishes, all their other dishes are vegan. They also have a take-out counter. They are located close to train station Lombardijen in the southern part of Rotterdam.
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