KAROOT — Restaurant in Ghent

Funny Story! So I went today for the first time and ordered dish of the day. The waiter handed me a pen, a paper, and a little price description, then asked, “Do you know how it works?” I confidently said, “Don’t worry, I’ll translate and understand it!”

After a quick scan, I saw a spot for the price and—being the genius I am—wrote down €4 (I thought it was some kind of donation thing 🤭). The food was amazing—honestly, worth at least €15 without drinks.

When I went to pay, the waiter smiled and said, “That’ll be €4.” I was so confused until she added, “You wrote €4, so you pay €4.” I paid, thanked her, and ran away in embarrassment🫢.

Best €4 meal...

I was rather disappointed with Karoot. Food can be experimental but this just didn't work for me. Starters were actually quite difficult to eat, various vegan spreads served with baguette which had oddly been baked by the slice, it just meant everything was so dry, even the hummus difficult to swallow. Main was ok but just an odd selection of cold and warm elements on a piece of slate, standout was the "onion steak" which was tasty. Service was painfully slow, we were there for 3 hours and received 2 drinks. Overall I get the chill and organic vibe they're going for but it's very expensive for essentially home cooked...

Delicious honest food, 100% vegan. Really nice concept with the pay what you want principle for the meal of the day (other dishes have fixed prices). Been here two times and was not disappointed. First time I had the polenta with cabbage and butternut, it was exquisite.

Second time I had the “hutsepot”, (hotchpotch), a typical Flemish dish with lots of vegetables, potatoes and a source of protein (in this case tofu instead of meat). Once again it was really good food. Maybe the tofu could’ve been a bit more spiced up, but that’s only a minor...