Kato Gateaux — Restaurant in Mechelen

When we saw on social media that Kato Gateaux was going vegan we thought, great, we need to go and test it out. Today we made the trip to Mechelen. We ordered 3 different meals we ate in the shop and got 3 desserts to go. € 13 Cauliflowercouscous € 12.5 Sweet potatoes waffles € 11 Bowl of "egg salad' The presentation of the plates was ok. The taste and quantity not so: The cauliflowercouscous with sweet potato, apple, chickpeas, mint, ciboulette, pumpkin seeds, almond shavings was ok but grossly overpriced and not inspiring at all, we can serve you this at home any day of the week. The € bowl of "egg salad' was half a bowl of spinach leaves, some roasted sweet potatoes, tomatoes, the 'eggsalad' and 2 half pieces of bread. Again grossly overpriced and not at all what we expected to find. The best thing on the plate, the sweet potato, that seems to be the major theme in this place. The Sweet potatoes waffles with avocado cashewcreme, chili flakes, pomegranate seeds and cilantro. This was the biggest disappointment of them all, not the freshly baked waffles you would expect, but stone hard bricks with 8 pieces of non ripe avocado on it and some cashewcreme in the middle with yes a beautiful flower on top and some pomegranate seeds and chili flakes. When trying to cut some waffle a lot of brute force was needed and some pieces ended on the floor. This plate costs you € 12.5, and leaves you with a bad taste due to the poor amount and even worse quality. This is so not what we where looking for when going out for a vegan lunch.

We told ourselves it's "Kato Gateaux" so maybe we did the wrong thing ordering a meal, thus we decided to choose 3 pieces of cake to take home and taste. Our choice € 4.5 lemon cake € 5.5 carrotcake € 6.5 speculoos cheesecake topped with a raspberry coulis -The lemon cake was nicely topped with sugary edible flowers and a crunchy sugary topping. But other than being beautiful it could not tantalize our taste buds and left us with a strange doughy taste in the mouth. The carrot cake topping was the worse I ever ate, it was as if licking sugary butter , the cake itself was uninspiring the nutty parts where the best. the cheesecake with the raspberry coulis, as big cheesecake lovers we looked forward to this one... but here too we unfortunately ended up disappointed. The coulis was nice and the best part of the cake! The cheesecake part had a strange granulated consistency that left a bad taste in the mouth, and the speculoos bottom was just revolting. This was overall such a big disappointment, I usually try to find as many positive points even if a meal doesn't measure up to our expectations. But this time even that is difficult. We loved the little flower table pieces and the flowery plates. But when going out to lunch we would like the food to be up to our expectations more...

The place is really cozy and appealing,the background music really suited the calm vibes of the place.Me and my mom ordered two mango and passionfruit juices:we could clearly tell that the fruits were fresh,it was so sweet and flavorful!!i also ordered a red velvet cake,simple but delicious,it tasted just like my mom's homemade one.This place was fantastic,I'd give 10 stars if it was possible.My mom also came yesterday to buy pastries and bread next to the main cafe,still delicious!!i really reccomend this place if you're searching for vegan goods...

The food wasn’t bad, and the service was fine. However, I found it quite pricey for what it was. I ordered a bagel with pesto and avocado, and my partner had some toast with pesto, caramelised onions and a cashew sauce. While their dish was more flavourful, mine was rather bland. What I enjoyed the most was the side salad and the Earl Grey and hibiscus tea – both were full of flavour.

Overall, it wasn’t a bad experience, but given the price, I expected a lot more in terms of taste...