Leaf Vegetarian review

Leaf Vegetarian is an Asian plant-based restaurant in Rotterdam. The majority of the menu is vegan and every dish is completely free of onion and garlic. All the more reason for us to visit this place.

The menu had a long list of side and main dishes from China, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia. All of them sounded very fancy and made us excited. We had a hard time deciding, because it’s rather rare for us to be able to select almost everything from the menu. It would’ve been easier if photos were provided. Though the names of the dishes described what it was, we were still clueless what it was made of and what it contained.

Satay with peanut sauce

As you might have noticed from our previous posts, we’re totally addicted to satays. So, that was the first dish we ordered. The chunks were made of soy protein and they had a crispy outside with a good chewy bite. The peanut sauce looked slightly different than usual. It had a redder and oilier look, but it goes well with the satays. However, more sauce would be greatly appreciated!

Vietnamese spring rolls

The spring rolls were wrapped in rice paper and filled with lettuce, parsley, carrots, peanuts, sesame and some kind of soy bits. Though we are both not fond of parsley, we felt it really added some freshness to the spring rolls. And served with a vinegary sauce, they are great as a starter.

Soyribs in Beijing sauce

At first sight, this dish looked like a classic sweet and sour with soyribs, cucumber and pineapple. But we were pleasantly surprised by its taste. The soyribs were well-seasoned and very tasty. We were also happy to see pineapple in this, because we know it’s a good match with the sweet and sour sauce.

Malaysian curry with lamb

When we saw the selection of different curries on the menu, we were hesitating whether we should go for the Thai or Malaysian curry. And to be honest, we didn’t quite know what the difference was. But because the Thai curry was spicier, we eventually went for the Malaysian curry. We expected to see a yellow/ brown thick curry paste, but what was served, looked more like a sweet and sour sauce. For a second, we thought we got the wrong dish.

The curry had the right amount of spiciness and is served with aubergine, snow peas, paprika, exactly one piece of tofu and one piece of potato, but plenty of lamb. The lamb is again made of soy protein and had a meaty/ stringy texture. Very flavourful and great with rice!

Glutinous rice with mango and coconut

After we took multiple shots of the main dishes, the lens of our camera couldn’t autofocus all of a sudden. This camera had been Wing M’s best friend for 8 years, so the devastation was enormous. But luckily the desserts arrived just in time!

The green rice with sweet peanut filling was nicely presented on a banana leaf, surrounded by mangoes, coconut milk and sago. Even the table next to us ordered this after seeing how much we enjoyed ours.

Sweet coconut soup with mango and sago

This tiny bowl of coconut soup was sort of an anti-climax. It was literally coconut milk with a few bits of mango, sago and goji berry. Definitely not bad, but they could have been more generous with the sago.

Overall impression

The food is delicious, rich in flavours and very divers. We felt the desserts could use some improvements though. But all in all, Leaf Vegetarian really suits our taste buds! Furthermore the restaurant is very spacious and service was friendly. If we find ourselves in Rotterdam again, we would love to go back to try the other dishes.