Whilst working as a demontage assistant, I spent some time working near the Black Forest in Germany, right on the French border in Steniach. I’d been craving a good, hearty vegan meal in a nice restaurant and luckily for me there was one close by! The Happy Cow app answered my plant based prayers and Pete (my boyf) and I spent our day off in Offenburg. The city was a 25 minute train ride from the campsite where we were staying and our first port of call super close to Offenburg’s central station.
Seven minutes walk from the station in a calm area is Gasthaus Windeck. From the outside it looks like a pub and not really like your typical vegan restaurant yet this place is big, modern and welcoming. Despite there being no other diners (it was 2pm on a Monday) we both found the atmosphere warm and the service friendly. I loved the wooden furniture and quirky artwork and they used recycled wine bottles and coffee cups for lamp shades.
Unfortunately there were no menus printed in English but as we were both really hungry and we knew the place was fully vegan; we just randomly chose a different main course each, skipping a starter. The main courses ranged from €11-€15 each which I thought initially was pretty expensive, but that’s before I saw the food… My gosh, the servings are HUGE! And amazing! I had Tempeh with semolina deep fried dumplings served on a bed of fried broccoli with the most incredible red wine gravy jus. It was sprinkled with sunflower seeds and fresh parsley and the whole dish was soooo good. I’m not one for small portions and clean eating when it comes to dining out and Windeck did not disappoint. The broccoli still had a crunch to it which I love and the dumplings dipped in the gravy was a delicious combo. We were both SO full after eating and were super satisfied with our meals. Two mains, a soya cappucino and a small beer came to €35 which I think was very reasonable.
After a chilled wander around Offenburg city we stumbled upon Cafe Zauberflöte. I found this place using Happy Cow too and was actually stood right outside whilst browsing the app looking for potential cake options. We wanted cakes to take back to the campsite with us for dinner (healthy or what?! ha) and this was the perfect place. I had the vegan coconut cake and Pete had the (vegetarian) baked chocolate brownie and raspberry cheesecake.
This cafe was really cool and had a nice vibe inside. The staff were super friendly and my only wish was that I wasn’t so full from lunch that I could have sat in here and enjoyed my cake with a coffee. I also spotted Gälriwli vegetarian restaurant which looked good, but it will have to wait for another visit to Offenburg.
This day trip coincided with me celebrating a belated World Vegan Day and being 11 months plant based. I have had very occasional slip ups but they mostly happened within the first few months transitioning from a vegetarian diet to a vegan one. Over the next 12 months I plan to travel as much as possible and visit as many vegetarian and vegan eateries as my stomach and bank balance can handle! I welcome any awesome veggie/vegan restaurant recommendations around Europe.
Living The Veggie Life 
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