Posts Tagged With: Restaurants

C’s (Or: Coffee, cheesecake and countryside)

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Niki

A few weeks ago Marco and I went back to the Cheesecake Company by the Grote Kerk. I’ve posted about this place many times – they even served the cheesecake at our wedding! It isn’t quite our two year anniversary yet but this time they did have the same flavor as our heart-shaped wedding cheesecake, white chocolate cappuccino… So of course we ended up choosing that one.

And on Saturday Marco, his mother and I had dinner over at De Gezelligheid (near Amersfoort) with the family. The food at De Gezelligheid was pretty good. We started off with “de spiegel” (the mirror) which was a sampling of all of their starter items served on a platter. My favorite item was the fried mushroom, of all things. For the main dish I had a hamburger with thick cut fries. Yum.

Of course we had to stop at the Starbucks at Centraal Station, so I decided to take a photo of the wall (doesn’t everyone want to take a photo of a wall?):

Love or hate Starbucks – I just like the cool font and presentation!

Here is a photo of the lake by Marco’s uncle, with a Buddha statue on the other side (in the shadows):

Quite peaceful.

Categories: Daily Dutch living, Food, Friends&Family | Tags: Cheesecake company, Restaurants, Starbucks | 1 Comment

Spanish ham (Or: Lunch at Ibericus in The Hague)

Posted on July 28, 2015 by Niki

Recently I had lunch at a new restaurant in The Hague: Ibericus. It is on Frederik Hendriklaan, close to Scheveningen and best reached with tram 17. Ibericus is a Spanish restaurant and ham bar which serves tapas as well as many different kinds of sandwiches. I had a ham focaccia and it was delicious.

Their ham is imported from Spain and comes from the native Iberian pig. Some of the ham shoulders are sold for over €400 euros.

Categories: Food | Tags: Restaurants | 2 Comments

And now for Vietnamese food (Or: Little V in The Hague)

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Niki

Marco and I went with his mom to Little V, a Vietnamese restaurant just off the Centrum area in the Rabbijnmaarsenplein. The plaza also has a noodle bar, an Asian restaurant and a sushi restaurant. It’s right next to Chinatown. But until WWII, Jews lived there. Rabbijnmaarsenplein is named after rabbi Isaac Maarsen (1892-1943). There’s a wiki article about the neighborhood in Dutch.

The food and cocktails were great. The service was fast. We were given the option of receiving appetizers and the main course at once or apart, and we also had the option to get the main course as soon as we were done with the appetizers or to wait a bit. Paying was also hassle free- I am used to the Dutch culture where no one can be found when you want to pay because everyone thinks you want to converse for four hours…

Here are some of the photos from the restaurant:

appetizers – in the foreground at right is chicken spring rolls. In the back is shrimp spring rolls. And at left are rice rolls with chicken and vegetables inside.

Continue reading →

Categories: Food | Tags: Little V, Restaurants | 2 Comments

Irodion, Greek restaurant in The Hague (Or: Desserts and city views)

Posted on April 28, 2015 by Niki

A few weeks ago Marco and I went to a Greek restaurant with my father-in-law and his wife. We went to Irodion, a restaurant which has recently re-opened on the Grote Marktstraat (it used to be at another nearby corner, but construction forced it to move so it was closed for a time). They have a snackbar on the ground floor and a restaurant on the first floor.

The best thing about the restaurant is the view of the Grote Markt plein. (It looked like most of the tables next to the window were four seaters, so keep that in mind.)

And here is a look at the bar:

The food was comparable to the Greek restaurant we usually go to, Athene. In both places you generally have the option of a salad bar to go with your meal, plus the typical Greek choices. If anything this menu was a bit easier to get through, as they had less combinations listed (though the same food on offer). Athene does give you a complementary chilled shot of ouzo, a licorice alcohol served as aperitif.

The desserts were pretty nice. First the dame blanche:

There is so much whipped cream you can’t even see the vanilla ice cream! And of course it comes with a rather generous serving of chocolate sauce to pour on top.

Here is the baklava dessert:

The cool thing about the presentation is the orange slice, although it is hard to tell why from this angle. It is a full orange slice cut in half so that one half is draped on one side and the other on the other side, with the peel connecting the two sides.

Categories: Food, The Hague | Tags: Restaurants | 1 Comment

Roger’s 40th (Or: Birthday party at Paraplu)

Posted on August 24, 2014 by Niki

A month after Marco, Roger also turns 40. We celebrated the event by going to Paraplu in The Hague – the first time for me. As usual, I had the kipsaté (chicken on a skewer with peanut sauce). Yum! Also the first time I ever had kroepoek (the white disks) paired with peanuts and peanut shavings directly on top.

As a surprise, a family member had ordered a birthday dessert for Roger (and the table). Quite spectacular:

Good times en lekker eten!

Categories: Food, The Hague | Tags: Birthdays, Desserts, Restaurants | 4 Comments

Time for Dessert (Or: Athene Palace in The Hague)

Posted on November 15, 2013 by Niki

And now for something not Disney related….

Last Sunday Marco and I went to Athene Palace, a Greek restaurant in The Hague. You are served a shot of ouzo shortly after arriving. It’s a Greek, anise-flavored alcohol. I usually order a variety dish that contains a bit of french fries and rice, along with various meats like suflaki, suzuki, gyros, and chicken. Good stuff!

Another person in the party ordered this dessert:

I forget the exact flavor, but if you like whipped cream this is definitely the dessert for you. I’m more of the dame blanche type. My favorite way to eat that ice cream dessert is to ration out the fudge sauce so there is still some sauce left even near the end of the dessert.

The only drawback to this restaurant is that it can be hard to signal a waiter to bring the check. However that is true of lot of restaurants in this country it seems. Others might say they are just giving you enough time to converse afterwards without being bothered, so it really depends on your viewpoint.

Categories: Food | Tags: Desserts, Restaurants | Leave a comment

New experiences (Or: Chopsticks for the first time)

Posted on July 20, 2013 by Niki

Tonight Marco, Roger and I went to Sumo, a sushi and grill restaurant, one of our frequent places to eat. But this time we went to celebrate Roger’s awesome grades on two exams he was doing for his work. Two 9/10s! I think he only needed a 6 or 7 to pass… but of course he went above and beyond and studied his brains out. 😉 Go Roger!

Sake and chopsticks

This was also the first time that I ditched my practice chopsticks (oefenstokjes, you can see a random image of them here). The practice chopsticks are held together with a small bundle of rolled paper at the top which causes the ends of the chopsticks to have a bit of spring or bounce to them. Simply squeeze them together and you are good to go for grabbing something.

But nope – this time I forgot to ask for oefenstokjes and decided to shrug and try it with normal chopsticks. It wasn’t that hard, but I admit that I stared quite closely at Marco and Roger’s hands to see the placement of their fingers and try to copy them. It mostly worked!

Categories: Food | Tags: Restaurants | 4 Comments

Popcatepetl (Or: Mexican restuarant in The Hague)

Posted on June 20, 2013 by Niki

Yesterday I went with Marco’s mother for her birthday to Popcatepetl (nickname Popo, since they are smart enough to realize no sane person can pronounce that). I first blogged about the restaurant last year, but it seems like the service has been getting worse since then. This is my third time there since I have moved to the Netherlands and usually the problem is the service.

Granted, it was kind of busy for a Tuesday night and we chose to sit outside on the patio (with the ants, but that’s another story!) but it was still a bit too annoying for us. For instance, a couple came in about 5 minutes after us, and managed to get their food before we even ordered. Yeesh! The only thing we didn’t have to flag someone down for was the drinks when we first arrived. Total time at the restaurant was about 2 hours, 15 minutes, and we didn’t wait too long after finishing the meal to ask for the check.

The food was decent, though. Not spectacular, but decent. I had the nachos with chicken and she had the “Popcatepetl ensalada”, with a lot of different items: salad, bacon, chicken, kidney beans, olives, corn, avocado, a filled jalapeño pepper and some paprika.

chicken nachos (chicken is hidden in the middle, but there was enough)

Popocatepetl Ensalada

We both had a lot of leftover items on our plates that we had no interest in eating, unfortunately.

Categories: Food | Tags: Birthdays, Restaurants | 4 Comments

Zoetermeer (Or: Easter tree displays and restaurants)

Posted on March 30, 2013 by Niki

A few week ago I went with Marco’s mother to Zoetermeer. We went to the shopping area (Stadshart) near Zoetermeer Centrum, mostly to shop and have lunch. We ended up having lunch at Napoleon Brasserie where I had the bal gehakt, which is mainly a meatball sandwich – of sorts. It was pretty decent, although I was expecting there to be some juice alongside. But no, just the meat and the bread (and some mustard packets).

What can I say – I liked the candles!

I also took a picture of an Easter tree display in one of the stores (maybe Blokker, not sure). You can buy little birds, butterflies, and similar to hang on an Easter tree as decoration.

Now if only Spring would come for good. It snowed a little bit yesterday! Though not for long and nothing stuck.

Categories: Everyday purchases, Zoetermeer | Tags: Restaurants | 1 Comment

La Lanterna (Or: An Italian restaurant in The Hague)

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Niki

Last night Marco, his mother and I went to La Lanterna in The Hague, for an appetizer, entree, and dessert. His mother and I both had minestrone soup, while Marco went for “inferno soup”, so named for its spiciness. (Helaas [unfortunately], the soup wasn’t an inferno!)

For dinner, I had pizza primavera, with tomato, cheese, ham, salami, mushrooms, and green/red peppers. I just had to take a picture of it because it was so colorful…

My tastes lean a bit more towards thick pizzas (as I love the dough), but for a thin pizza this was great.

And then there was my dessert:

Yum! So sour. You have before you a lemon which has been hollowed out. They stuffed lemon ice cream inside, placed a bit of whipped cream on top, and then replaced the “top” to make it look like a hat.

Marco’s mother’s dessert. More ice cream!

Marco’s dessert. Even before you took a bite, you were definitely drawn in by the plate. The bottom of the plate had a thin layer of glass covering the real bottom of the plate, with a tiny bit of space in between. This caused nifty looking shadows with all of the little pieces they threw around the dessert itself.

All of the dessert portions were big. Of course, I kept scraping on the inside of the lemon searching for more ice cream, but had to stop when I realized I was really just eating the innards of the lemon!

Categories: Food | Tags: Desserts, Restaurants | 2 Comments