Jan 10, 2016

In Den Rustwat, Rotterdam

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April 8, 2015, dinner at In Den Rustwat in Rotterdam. Do I even remember much about this dinner? Of course not, it was ages ago. But I have badly lit pictures and I even took notes, so let’s give it a shot. Subscribed readers may have noticed that the inebriated pig became the silent pig for a few months. But the pig is back. And the pig has a lot to share about restaurants in New York, Nashville, the Dordogne area of France (this will feature a lot of foie gras), and of course lots of things in Rotterdam. So let’s start with an oldie… In Den Rustwat. (more…)

Aug 10, 2015

Lof der Zoetheid, Rotterdam

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Lof der Zoetheid is a well-known lunch spot in the North of Rotterdam. We had passed it several times on our way to markets or the giant kitchenware shop, Kookpunt, next door. We finally got around to trying it after being seated with the owners during Yama and Dertien’s Bday celebration. They insisted we stop by soon, and promised they would make room for us even if it was full. So we cashed in on that promise and headed over there on a Sunday. We called ahead to see if there were tables free as they don’t take reservations unless it’s for high tea or large groups. The lady on the phone paused, I’m assuming she did a quick scan of the shop, and told us there were still a few tables available, so we made our way over. (more…)

Jun 6, 2015

SET Noodle & Hotpot, Rotterdam

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I was still coming down from my ramen-high in Amstelveen when we noticed a new restaurant on the West-Kruiskade in Rotterdam, SET Noodle & Hotpot it is called. A ramen shop! Could it be? We were standing out front sharing a Johnny cake and kroket from Toko Nobo (across the road), looking in, and thought, why not, let’s try this new place. (more…)

Apr 1, 2015

Dertien and Yama 1 year celebration, Rotterdam

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When I heard that two of my favorite places in town were getting together to organize a birthday party, I made sure to keep an eye out for reservations to become available, and when they did, I hesitated not.
So this all played out about a month ago when Dertien and the eponymous Japanese cuisine Yama organized their first birthday party. As I’ve written before, Dertien and Japanese cuisine Yama have a history together, since Dertien’s chef/owner Pepijn Schmijnk used to own Eendracht, which closed in 2013. Pepijn’s friend Yama subsequently took over that space about a year ago to open his own place, and Pepijn and his team opened Dertien around the same time, further down the road.
Dertien and Yama have joined forces for one-off events before. Most recently ‘Ramen night’, during the international film festival with their showing of the Japanese culinary classic ‘Tampopo’. And even earlier, they organised ‘Eendracht goes Japan’, where they did a kaiseki style dinner. This time around, it was going to be izakaya style, of course heavily influenced by local ingredients.

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Mar 28, 2015

Sugo, Rotterdam

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You may be thinking, what? More pizza? Well yes… more pizza. What can I say, we like pizza. Last summer we were in Naples, the birthplace of pizza, and went on a two day pizza binge. Anyway, we walked past Sugo when we were on our way to Grand Garden for dim sum. We weren’t looking for pizza, but pizza found us. The Roman pizza al taglio style square cut pieces of pizza lured us away from the dim sum and into Sugo. (more…)

Mar 19, 2015

Ontbijtbar, Rotterdam

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Last Sunday we finally got around to trying Ontbijtbar, which translates to Breakfast bar. This hipster joint near central station opened up a year or so ago and serves breakfast 7 days a week, open from early in the morning till late afternoon. We had walked by several times before but it was usually coming from, on our way to, a restaurant. Last time one of the chefs was standing outside having a smoke as we perused the menu in the window, and he proudly told us we should come in and try it, “it’s really good!” We had just had burgers and fries so we promised next time, next time… (more…)

Feb 28, 2015

Restaurant De Jong, Rotterdam

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Restaurant De Jong, where the chef works exclusively with seasonal vegetables and even picks the ingredients by hand from nature. We had heard very positive things about this place before, and were even encouraged by a complete stranger to try it out. When we had dinner at Kuiter, we stood outside ready to leave and started chatting with one of the other guests who had come out for a smoke. We were all raving about the dinner we just had and he told us that he had a similarly great evening at De Jong a few weeks earlier. It took a while, but we finally got around to trying it out a few weeks ago on a Friday night. Would our high expectations be met? (more…)

Feb 23, 2015

Grand Garden, Rotterdam

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I started a new job three weeks ago. After a 10 week sabbatical, yes let’s call it that, working full time and having to commute for an hour each morning and again in the afternoon/evening has been quite the adjustment. The result has been not writing blog posts, passing out from exhaustion in the evenings, and going full-blown couch potato in the weekends. Cooking meals seems like a thing of the past. When you both get home at 7pm you want food instantly, so you either make something really simple or you get take out. So much take out… But we did manage to go out for lunch and dinner, I just hadn’t found the time to write about it. The lunch we had that was worth a blogpost was at Grand Garden, a dim sum restaurant in the center of Rotterdam, in the NH hotel. It has gotten rave reviews and is always filled with Chinese people, so on a lazy Sunday afternoon, we peeled ourselves off the couch, and headed over there. (more…)

Jan 17, 2015

The Butcherclub, Rotterdam

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The Butcherclub, with a name like this it was only a matter of time before we tried it out. This restaurant is basically a steakhouse that opens only for lunch, what a wonderful idea! So we went early on a Friday afternoon, arriving at about noon. And thank goodness we did because 30 minutes later the place was packed and there were even people having lunch standing. You can make reservations, so I would suggest doing that, especially if you come with more than two people. It’s a very small restaurant, quite cozy, and all the tables are high bar-like tables with barstools. But we’re not there to look at the interior, we came for steak! (more…)

Jan 14, 2015

Bij Loes, Rotterdam

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I just returned from lunch at Bij Loes in the old historic part of Delfshaven, and I must say, it was delightful. We took the subway to Delfshaven and walked towards the restaurant, passing several antique and art shops on the right, and old boats in the water on the left. We found Bij Loes and at first thought it may be closed as it was very quiet, but turns out we were early (noon) and the place filled up around one.
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