Deshima
Restaurant, Grocery/Bakery/Deli
Profile
$ - inexpensive
Raw Food, Eclectic (Varied)
Cafeteria style macrobiotic lunch, and organic grocery
Deshima serves a cafeteria style macrobiotic lunch from noon until 2PM. All the food is vegan and you can fill up your tray with anything from their salad bar and their 5-6 main dishes and stews for €8.50.
Outside of lunchtime, Deshima offers sandwiches and other light fare for take-away only.
They have a selection of pies and cakes, all vegan, for €2.50.
Downstairs is an organic grocery store with produce and packaged goods, including some vegan specialty items like soy milk and meat analogs.
Just a few blocks south east of Leidseplein along Weteringschans near the corner of Spiegelgracht.
The 7 and 10 trams let off a block away, and any public transit to Leidseplein will get you close enough.
- (Mostly) Organic
- Macrobiotic
- Quiet
Added by phavardel on Dec 26 07 (updated Dec 26 07)
Deshima is close to Leidseplein so it's easy to find.
Macrobiotic restaurants, in my experience, always treat flavor as a secondary concern, and the Dutch palate is accustomed to bland food to begin with, so I wasn't surprised that most of the dishes tasted like subtle variations of the same bean and vegetable mush.
I had a few of the stews, one was an earthy black bean concoction, another reminded me of an Ethiopian wat, but a bit more liquidy, and a third supposedly had seitan in it although I saw no evidence of this.
They also had some fried, breaded balls which may have been an attempt at vegan bitterballen.
But, what the place lacks in flavor it makes up for in volume. The €8.50 plate is cheap by Amsterdam standards and the food is hearty and will fill you up much more than dishes at most restaurants here.
And, the chocolate tofu cheesecake I had for desert was remarkably good and was a sizable chunk for €2.50, which I thought was a great deal.