I recently took a trip to Rouen, which is a city certainly not known for its veganity. That said, we did still manage to find some good meals during our couple of days there.
There were two highlights for me: A Tantôt and Payiz.
Payiz
First up, Payiz. It's a Lebanese place that serves clearly marked vegan options, including this very fancy, very tasty combo - you can find it on the menu as the Vegan Variety:
You've got hummus, falafel, vine leaves, salad, tabbouleh, rice, moutabel, and moussaka - that delightful mix of aubergines and tomatoes up there. Every last bit of it was amazing. Not pictured was a basket of flatbread that would get refilled whenever we'd finished it off. It was glorious, and I'd eat it again in a heartbeat.
A Tantôt
A Tantôt is a tiny, lovely little patisserie in the centre of town. It's got a tiny, lovely menu: a croque, a quiche or a salad, as well as sweet items too - cakes, biscuits, gateaux and all manner of other delights.
I chose the croque, a vegan version of the French classic, the croque monsieur. Instead of the traditional cheese and ham, the A Tantôt croque has a plant-based bechamel, as well as mushrooms, leeks, and vegan ham.
Was it an exact replica of the croque monsieur? No. Did it hit all the right notes? Yes. Did it trigger some Proustian reflex that made me feel like I had climbed into the lunch equivalent of a warm bath? Absolutely. Sometimes, you just need a simple meal made really, really well.
We took a few slices of A Tantôt's cake and cookies with us for the rest of the day and weren't disappointed.
A Tantôt
La Table de Flore
Mr Flickingthevs' favourite place in Rouen was La Table de Flore. I've got mixed opinions on the place.
The good: there's a whole vegan menu. You want a starter, main or dessert, they're yours, and that's something to be celebrated in Rouen, especially in an omnivorous place. The food is really simple and gently treated, and you get to sample different things - our plate had a dish of lentils, one of fried shiitakes, one of leeks and beans, a salad of courgette ribbons and poppy seeds, and some really, really good tempeh with Indian spices. We were offered bread as well, which we declined. This seemed like a good idea when you see the amount of food we had:
The bad: Don't get me wrong, everything was tasty, but it did feel like a lot of side dishes on a plate - a situation I feel like a lot of vegans will be familiar with when they've been dragged to an omni restaurant for a distant relative's birthday - rather than a coherent dish. Dessert didn't quite come together. According to the menu, the plate was of four elements, one of which was 'a surprise from the chef'. Sadly, the surprise was it wasn't there at all. The promised crumble turned out to be raw - a layer of sweetened fruit with oats on top that seemed more like a healthy breakfast than afters. Did I still enjoy it all? Of course I did.
The ugly: We were the only people there for most of our visit on a Saturday night. We found our seats after negotiating climbing over boxes of fresh produce in the passage to the tables, and when we took our seats on the patio, it looked a bit on the neglected side, with abandoned and gently disintegrating posters and leaves that looked like they hadn't been swept for a good while. It gave the whole place a bit of an unloved vibe.
La Table de Flore
58 rue Cauchoise, 76000, Rouen France
+33 6 76 30 20 79
Komagene
Komagene is a Turkisk restaurant that dishes up wraps of a few different types - falafel, çiğ köfte, and vegan nuggets. There's some debate on Happy Cow or similar as to whether it's all vegan or not. Sadly, I can confirm it's just veggie - there was some sauces that aren't vegan, as well as products that contain honey.
And onto the good stuff: the çiğ köfte wrap was one of those meals that feels like it's jacking up your vitamin levels with every bite. After all the rich food I'd been enjoying in Rouen, something filled with fresh veggies and spices felt both healthful and delicious. I'd stick with the çiğ köfte though - after having properly lush falafel at Payiz, the falafel at Komagene - which came out of a packet and into the air fryer - felt a bit lacking.
Komagene
107 Rue Saint-Hilaire, Rouen, France, 76000
+33 2 76 00 81 67
Market
There's a Saturday food market in Rouen. There wasn't much marked vegan but there was an Iranian food stall with a few options, including this mix of veggies in tomato sauce (sorry, I didn't get the name of the dish!) a couple of other choices.
I didn't go to Rouen for the vegan food, but haven't gone there, I'd happily go back to eat my way around the city again.
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