Vevay – Vegan at the heart of the financial district

Me and my wife currently honor a couple of New Year resolutions. Two are related to our eating and drinking habits. For one, January will be our dry month – meaning no alcohol for the first 31 days of 2018. The other one is to adjust our eating habits towards more vegetable, less fat and sweets. At least for January, I am therefore trying a bit of a diet by reducing my meat intake, albeit not canceling it for good of course. This however does not mean one cannot eat well and go out dining. Also in Frankfurt, there are plenty of good healthy food options and the vegetarian/vegan trend did not go unnoticed in our city – even though it might not be as hyped as in Berlin.

One great place to eat and stay in our January diet is Vevay. This is a contemporary vegan/vegetarian restaurant right at the heart of Frankfurt’s financial district. It is located directly at Willy-Brandt-Platz in downtown, administratively still belonging to the Altstadt. I have to admit that I never really noticed it despite its prominent location and me passing by there many times. It is a small place, but has two floors. It seems popular and thus crowded. One is definitely advised to reserve beforehand. We went spontaneously though and were lucky to get a seat, not upstairs, but fair enough.

The interior is modern and has been decorated with a great attention to detail. The menu is written with chalk on a blackboard and offers innovative dishes – salads, noodles, falafel burgers – featuring classic ingredients of the healthy lifestyle cuisine: beet roots, hummus, avocado, lentils and so on. They also have a few breakfast options, but I am sure their main business is during lunch time as the blue-collar people descent from the bank towers surrounding nearby Taunusanlage. Vevay has smoothies and coffee – to take-away – as well.

We chose to go for a quinoa wild rice dish and the Vevay platter. The first was rice – refined with plenty of small vegetable cuts – below some delicious pieces of avocado, sweat potato, beet root and parsnip. The other was an assortment of salads and lentils with a falafel ball, hummus, guacamole and couscous. So overall, it was a wild mix of everything healthy and trendy. But it worked well and was delicious. Importantly, each ingredient was prepared with great care. For example, the lentils were not overcooked, the falafel not too fatty, the rice refined with nice extra ingredients. To sum up, it was a tasty visit that left not only my stomach satisfied but also my mind, because I know that I respected my diet while still enjoying eating.

Style: Casual eatery/Dinner

Cuisine: International

Location: Altstadt

Website: http://www.vevay.net/

Happy New Year – My favorite reviewed restaurants in 2017

The year 2018 just started and I thought I take this opportunity to look back on the previous year and all the places I have visited and wrote about here on this blog. It was another fantastic culinary time in Frankfurt. I tremendously enjoyed discovering new places, revisiting old ones, devouring lots of good food and having a glass of wine or two together with my wife, my friends and my family. I hope this new year will be interesting as well and that Frankfurt’s food scene may continue to expand in order to give me plenty of material to write about and reasons to eat more.

I visited and covered so many different places that it is hard to really compare them and stack them in a list. However, I hereby attempt to recall my 10 favorite Frankfurt restaurants visited in 2017 (and wrote about it). It of course shall not be a statement of that one place is actually better than the other, they are all fantastic.

Let me start with Nr. 10, who just made the list. For me, this is Takumi (link). This great Japanese Ramen place in the middle of Westend was a surprising discovery. The quality of their Ramen, one of my favorite foods in the world, is so high that they really add some value to the already large Japanese food family in Frankfurt. Nr. 9 also belongs to the Japanese cuisine and is taken by Bento Boutique (link). This tiny restaurant in the Bahnhofsviertel served probably the best and prettiest sushi I had in 2017. Surprisingly, these two top Japanese restaurants had to give way to a pizza place for Nr. 8. This is odd because I am not a huge pizza eater. But Super Bro’s (link) was for me anyway a great discovery. Likely the place where everyone living in Frankfurt has had their most authentic Italian pizza experience, including me. And for Nr. 7 – my god, I just realize it now that I write the text – is another Italian place: the steak house Vaivai (link). This is a more upmarket address for a fine Italian experience, not necessarily better than the previous one, just different.

Next, on Nr. 6 we find EatDOORI (link). The Indian street food place on Kaiserstraße charms everyone and brings a new concept to the city. It is innovative, cool, atmospheric, good food. Definitely, it is a great addition to Frankfurt’s culinary world and I yet have to find an Indian I like better. Nr. 5 is taken by Chalet 18 (link), which is an upscale French bistro in Bockenheim, where me and my wife had a fantastic time for last year’s Valentines day. The small place is hidden in a side street and serves absolute top-notch food creations. Most importantly though, we just had a really great time. Another place, I have frequently a good time in, is Langosch am Main (link), which therefore takes Nr. 4. I think, I brought already multiple visitors there, friends and family. Me and my wife, we both love it even though, or because, it is just very down-to-earth. The food has an innovative style without being fancy. In the end, it is also just a homey place to have a beer.

Now come the top 3 and they all deserved it very much. Let’s start with the one on Nr. 3: Ginnheimer Wirtshaus (link). This cozy tavern, a bit further outside but not too much, must be one of the restaurants I have visited the most since I live in Frankfurt – each year, a couple of times at least. My favorite beer garden is not only great during summer, the inside is also very much inviting. The highlight is clearly the Frankfurter Schnitzel, so much, that I cannot remember to ever have ordered anything else?

Nr. 2 is a super star in Frankfurt’s gastro scene and I have to say that I agree and understand why it is so hyped. For me, La Cevi (link) was one of the great visits I made in Frankfurt in 2017. It might be that my judgement got clouded by the outstanding Pisco Sour served. But I just had a great time (and it was only three, or maybe four drinks). Their food is great. Sure, the Peruvian Ceviche is the super trendy food right now, but they really pull it off. The fish dishes are greatly decorated and the different variations seem innovative.

Finally, it is time to disclose Nr. 1. This was for me The Legacy Bar & Grill (link), where me and my wife celebrated our anniversary dinner together. The experience was much better than I even hoped for. The service was so sweet to us and made it one of the best days of the year. Having had a kick-off drink at the bar, we could go to one of the cozy tables. We ordered some outstanding meat served with nice sides. Obviously, we had good wine and finally also had a massive dessert. This hidden gem of a restaurant seems to be off the beaten path for many Frankfurters. It is a not on the main streets of the Bahnhofsviertel, but in fact is one of it’s fines additions.