SOIL Vegan Café — Restaurant in Amsterdam

When I was researching for my first trip to Amsterdam, I came across an article for "the 10 best vegetarian restaurants in Amsterdam". One of them was Soil Cafe. And though I haven't been to every vegetarian restaurant in Amsterdam, I am prepared to declare with certainly that Soil is THE BEST vegetarian restaurant in Amsterdam. I went to this all plant-based cafe on my second to last night in the city and had a meal so good that I ALSO went on my last night in the city, just so I could try more of their food.

Before I get to the food, I have to say the entire staff was absolutely delightful. I am terrible with names, but there were two waitstaff, originally from Egypt and Greece, and then a lovely man cooking all of the food. All of them were so kind to me. And when I came back on the second night, they treated me like a longtime regular.

The food in this place is INSANELY good. The layering of flavors in every dish is incredible. The vegetarian seitan ribs come in a sauce that will leave you scraping your knife across the plate so you can lick more of it up, a perfect blend of sticky sweet and bristling spiciness. The laksa will tickle your nose with a good punch of spice, and you'll want to drink up every drop of broth before letting them take the bowl away.

But it is the Ben Ben noodles that I will dream about until I can return to Amsterdam again. Noodles in a creamy sesame sauce. topped with vegetarian meatballs, pak choi, chili crisp, and...diced pickles. When I saw "pickles" on the menu, I assumed it was a language barrier issue, and maybe it was pickled chilies or something similar. But no, these were diced up dill gherkins. Never in my life would I have thought to put dill pickles on spicy noodles. But I am sure going to do that many times in the future. I am going to try to come up with some version of this I can make at home to hold me over until I can go back. But I can't imagine making a bowl of noodles that good on my own.

Do yourself a favor and go eat at this ridiculously delicious place. Whenever I make it back to Amsterdam, you will...

I arrived a few minutes late for my booking and on arrival went to the bar and waited to see where I could sit since there was no one working there, it seemed, apart from the chef, he noticed me after a while and said I could just sit down as I waited for my partner to arrive. A few minutes later I noticed the staff member working on the floor return to the restaurant from the store and after a while he came to wipe down my table and say hello. My partner arrived and we checked out the menu and ordered at our table. The menu was greatly reduced and items we would have liked to order were simply not there. We took ribs and tacos to start and then Ben Ben noodles and the chicken burger with fries (which were not on the menu and also charged as an extra) a soft drink and a flat white. Our food came fairly quickly and the starters were delicious. Ben Ben noodles were the safe option and were as always, yummy. However my burger was extremely sad looking, absolutely not the same burger as in the picture on the menu, the burger I received was in some sort of crisp coating and not the batter I had expected. Honestly I was very disappointed with it and felt it was over priced at almost 16 euros for only the burger, the fries were good though. Also charged for tape water.. I think this should be listed on the menu if you wanna charge for it. All in all really disappointed in this visit, music was quite loud and the service seemed off somehow, some people were ordering at the bar and some had table service. Important to note that we used a voucher through the fork, had there been no discount I'd have been livid. We usually visit the east location and its one of our favourite places to eat but thought to try the other one this time, but it will definitely be the last time...

🇳🇱 Went to try SOIL Vegan Café, a small vegan restaurant in Amsterdam.

The restaurant has a really cozy vibe, and they prepare a lot in house, including making their own kimchi. And they also source their ingredients from carefully selected suppliers.

I can very highly recommend the starters. We had the mushroom bitterballen, which were fantastic, and came with a deliciously strong mustard, which I believe is also home made. We also had the Yukas Bravas, which had vegan feta and an Asian-style chili oil that was a really interesting Asian take on Patatas Bravas. I could easily go and have only a couple of starters for a meal. The portions were generous and the food delicious.

For mains, we tried both the noodle bowls, which weren’t at the level of starters, but had quite some redeeming features. The Ben Ben Noodles: udon noodles in sesame sauce with vegan meatballs, which had tiny bits of pickles which gave the dish a really interesting taste. And the mushroom and vegan ribs ramen, which came with a coriander oil that really elevated a dish that would otherwise be potentially a bit bland.

Also, shoutout to @oedipusbrewing for making some of the best and most interesting craft beer in the world.

I would definitely love to come back to Soil and try the rest of the menu, which includes kimchi fried rice which I love, and an amazing looking vegan baked cheesecake that I was too full to order this time.

🏅 Overall: 7/10 🌱 Fully Vegan!

What we ate: 🧆 Mushroom Bitterballen ⭐️ 🍟 Yukas Bravas ⭐️ 🍜 Ben Ben Noodles 🍜...