Lowlander Restaurant – vegan food options, botanical beer pairing and great location

lowlander amsterdam

The story of Lowlander beer starts when Frederik Kampman is working for a gin distiller in England. Traditionally gin producers are using so called botanicals to give flavour to their gins – deriving from herbs, spices, fruits and plants. He is wondering how the use of botanicals would influence the flavour of beer, and discovers there used to be a rich tradition of using botanicals in beer brewing in the Netherlands. This finally leads him to start Lowlander brewery in 2015.

Throughout the years they also experiment with how beer and food can reinforce eachother. In April 2023 Lowlander Botanical Bar & Restaurant opens as the next step in this! Read more

Kool Food – new vegan restaurant offering vegetable-focused comfortfood

kool food amsterdam

Inspired by the vegan shift at his workplace De Groene Afslag, a sustainable hub in Laren, Max Mol started thinking about setting up his own vegan restaurant. Through common friends, he met Joost van Hout, who was working as a strategic consultant at the time, but thinking of the same idea. They opened Kool Food July 2023. Initially as a pop-up, to allow for some testing of the concept. But they are here for long-term.

Their aim is to make vegan food more accessible for a wider audience, including non-vegans. They are offering plant-based comfortfood, but don’t advertise with the fact they are fully vegan.

The name is a reference to cool, as well as the Dutch word for cabbage (‘kool’), to refer to the fact their dishes are made starting from local vegetables, rather than using meat alternatives. The menu is created by Bastiaan van der Staak, who is also the chef at De Groene Afslag. Read more

Vegan people’s kitchen every Friday at ADM Noord / Het Groene Veld

het groene veld amsterdam

Het Groene Veld started out in 2019 but its origins go back way further. In 1997 a piece of land in the western harbour of Amsterdam (Westpoort) got squatted. This evolved into a flourishing community of people known as ADM, a legendary place with over a 100 residents. It lasted until 2019 when they got evicted. The city of Amsterdam proposed a new temporary location for them, at what is now known as Het Groene Veld, or ADM Noord.

At the restaurant space (established in 2022) there’s vegan people’s kitchen every Friday night. Three course meal prepared by volunteers, because community is important! No choice of menu, you just eat what is made, for the modest price of €10. Read more

Asian bowls and burgers at foodcourt restaurant Vegan Bamboo Bar

vegan bamboo bar amsterdam

Not the first location of Vegan Bamboo Bar, they had a restaurant before in Utrecht. But they started out just before covid happened, which was certainly not good for business, so Vegan Bamboo Bar closed again October 2020.

But entrepreneurs Yung Fu and Kwok Hung Yip didn’t give up. In June 2023 they opened as a modest restaurant in foodcourt Market 27, Amsterdam Noord.

The idea for Vegan Bamboo Bar arose after Yung Fu’s wife got diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a rare disease. When the doctors said there was no further treatment possible, Yung and his wife researched medical literature for years and learned alot about the relationship between food and diseases. Eventually, due to a change in diet she was able to diminish her medical complaints by 90 percent.

This inspired Yung to quit his job in IT and together with his wife open up a food business, to offer healthy food to people and to share the knowledge they gathered. They partnered up with Kwok Hung Yip, owner of fastfood chain Wok To Go, which has many locations in the Netherlands. Read more

All vegan comfort food bowls and meal subscriptions at Second Nature

second nature amsterdam

Second Nature started with the question owner Ibrahim asked himself: “How can I build a model that can make food consumption more sustainable?” Previously working in consulting, he desired to start his own business but also make a positive impact with it. He figured there was still a big impact to be made regarding food carbon emissions.

Second Nature opened in april 2023. Set up as a neighbourhood kitchen, they intend to limit food waste by using ingredients which don’t have the perfect uniform looks up to supermarket standards, but nonetheless totally fine to use. They get these veggies directly from the farms. Read more