we only spent a day in brussels on our recent european vacation, but it was definitely one of the best days of the trip. we got the train over from london, toured an amazing brewery in the morning, did some sightseeing, and spent much of the afternoon in holed up in delirium cafe, a bar with a 200 page beer list. in between all that, we also managed to grab a lovely meal at den teepot, one of only 3 vegan restaurants in brussels.

fresh off a tour of the cantillon brewery and a few lambics in their taproom (an experience i’d HIGHLY recommend if you ever visit brussels), we hit the streets looking for food. thanks to the happy cow app, we discovered that den teepot was only a short walk away. the small vegan restaurant located on the top floor of a health food store is open for lunch monday through saturday from 12-2pm, and when we arrived at around 12:10, it was already starting to get busy…

there was one waitress taking care of the restaurant, and when she saw us walk in she made the universal hand gesture/wave that means, “sit anywhere you like.” we grabbed a seat by the window and began to look over the menu.

french and dutch [UPDATE: I originally incorrectly stated that german was one of the main languages] are the two main languages spoken in brussels, so the menu was printed in both. i know neither. in fact, the only words i could understand on this thing were “take away” and “desserts”. my husband knows a little bit of french, being a brit and all, but we still needed some help figuring this out.

when our waitress came to take our order and realized we didn’t speak the language, she was super nice and helpful, and did her best to translate for us. her english wasn’t great, but it was a hell of a lot better than my french or dutch…so i’m not complaining. she explained that there was a soup of the day, as well as a plate of the day which came with vegetables, beans, and “cereals” (grains?!). not wanting to give her any more hassle, we blindly ordered two plates and i prayed that they wouldn’t arrive covered in bell peppers (which i HATE).

after we ordered, it took at least 30 minutes for the food to arrive…which is a long time, but reasonable considering it was made fresh to order and the place was pretty short-staffed. it was okay though, because den teepot has a comfy atmosphere and we had we had a nice view of a busy street and pretty graffiti.

when our meals finally did arrive, i immediately knew it was worth the wait. two massive dishes stacked with all kinds of colorful foods.

plat du jour / dagschotel 8.80€

each plate cost 8.80€, which i think works out to around 12 bucks, a pretty good deal for such a big portion! lentils, barley, sticky rice, salad, dark greens, and squash…it was all phenomenal. the stand outs for me were the barley mixed with marinated mushrooms and the yellow lentil dal. everything was extremely fresh and perfectly seasoned, and none of it was oily. this is probably the best tasting pure “healthy” food i’ve ever eaten. there was such a wide variety of tastes and flavors.

although the plates were huge, we managed to eat absolutely everything. and that’s good, because we needed plenty of fuel for the epic drinking session that was about to take place at delirium.

there's a health food store on the ground floor, go up one to find the restaurant!

when in brussels, i can highly recommend den teepot for a damn good and healthy vegan meal. no fake meat or processed greasiness…just fresh and wholesome food that will make you feel good. i know i will be back!

den teepot
Rue des Chartreux 66
02-5119402
open monday – saturday noon-2pm