Deer Mama

If you ask me, Saturdays are made for drinking, laughing and food that your trainer tells you to avoid. So are Sundays. And Friday evenings. Occasionally Tuesdays? However, last Saturday I ended up at a vegan restaurant. This was my first time at a vegan restaurant. Yay to new experiences! Deer Mama happened to be fairly close to the bowling alley my friends and I were heading to, and my one and only vegan friend strongly recommended their guilt free burgers.

First of all, the place is just incredibly cute and I regret forgetting to take a pic of the interior. It’s all soft pink and it looks like…Disneyland?

Now, this guilt free food does not necessarily attract me much as I don’t feel…you know, much guilt. I only eat meat about twice a week, but that’s only because I happen to love a lot of vegetarian dishes and I don’t have meat cravings or anything. Therefore, the idea of a vegan restaurant made me go “ehhh, whyyyy?!”. Shortly after, my friend mentioned boozy milkshakes and I went to “oh yay, let’s go!” real quick.

Hayden and I had the Dirty Banana “I have the stuff that you want” (ah, the one MJ song I actually like), a boozy (non)milkshake with rum, banana and salted caramel. It was delicious and sadly gone too quick.

Our friends had the Mama Said Knock You Out, a whiskey, espresso and chocolate (non)milkshake. Tasted fairly similar to an Espresso Martini.

As a starter, we shared the Fried Boneless No Chicken with Chipotle Mayonnaise. I really wish they would mention what the no chicken actually is. None of us had a clue. However, I devoured my part of it, absolutely loved it. So…if anyone recognizes whatever this is below, hola at me. I want it.

Aaaand here comes the main attraction of the night – the burgers! My friend recommended The Beyond BBQ Bash. She said this is up there with the best no meat burger she’s had in the past years. I was not super impressed, but in all honestly I think the BBQ sauce did not really do it for me. In general, I find fake meat to be…strange. She said that if you had not actually tasted any beef in ages, this is vegan paradise – and I believe her.

I chose The Green Monster, so my burger was mainly made of beans and green peas. I definitely liked my choice better, but I totally understand why actual vegans would prefer something that comes close to the taste of meat rather than just veggies.

The most important thing I have to admit: I highly underestimated how full vegan burgers (and fries…and a starter…and a boozy milkshake) can make you feel. I struggled with moving and breathing in general for a couple of hours after. This was an early dinner, at 17:30 – bearing in mind that my usual dinner time is 21:00, I thought I’d starve by 22:00. It definitely did not happen, even after all that bowling effort!

I have no complaints about the food, but to me, paying more for vegan burgers than for the standard ones…it kind of hurts. I’m sure trying to recreate the taste of meat is harder thus more costly, but the value for money was not Deer Mama’s strongest point, I believe.

All in all, I have to give it to Deer Mama for having filling, tasty burgers that I enjoyed just as much as I would enjoy “the real deal”.

While vegan restaurants will probably not be on my list if I am alone or with Hayden, I would be more than happy to return here and try more of their menu. For example, their bowls sounded pretty amazing, they have vegan bitterballen, and I do need more of that not chicken in my life. A pleasant experience at Deer Mama!

Value for money: 7

Food Quality: 9

Location: 8 (Ceintuurbaan 71)

Service: 8

Website: https://www.deermama.nl/

Have a suggestion, question, or just want to hola at me? Find me here: sayhello.eatandtell@gmail.com