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Rotterdam Restaurants and Cafés
From:
Rotterdam Travel Guide

ABOVE: Appeltaart (right) at the Grand Café
Dudok is a Rotterdam culinary institution.
Where to eat in Rotterdam
Rotterdam isn't Lyon, and South Holland isn't Tuscany, but you
can eat decently in the city--or even well, when you dine at top restaurants like
Amarone.
If--like
us--you don't charge meals to a corporate expense account, you may be happier
(as the Dutch sheepdog at right was) with the 60+ midpriced eateries that are
reviewed at Peter Hilton's Rotterdam Cafés and Restaurants guide.
Rotterdam
Tourist Information's Drinks
& Dining in Rotterdam page is also useful: It has listings in various
categories (including "burger restaurants" and "streetfood") and gives
suggestions on food markets, shops, and events.
 Downtown,
the Grand Café Dudok is an
institution with Rotterdam citizens of all ages, and its appeltaart or
appelgebak (see photo at top of page) is so popular that other
restaurants in town serve it. Stop in for breakfast, an afternoon pastry and
coffee, a drink, or a full meal.
The
Witte de Withstraat, just west of the Harbor Museum and downtown, is the center
of a trendy area with a number of popular bars and eetcafés--including
Opa (the name means "Grandpa"), where we
had an excellent sidewalk dinner with a neighborhood cat playing at our feet.
A
bit farther west--and a lot higher up--the
Euromast's restaurant
offers brunch, lunch, dinner, "high tea," and "high wine" at an elevation of 100 meters (328 feet).
With
Rotterdam being Europe's busiest port and the world's second-busiest port after
Shanghai, it makes sense to dine on the water when you can. The city has several
floating restaurants, including the pleasantly old-fashioned
De Pannenkoekenboot ("The Pancake Boat"),
which offers an all-you-can eat pancake meal with a sightseeing cruise at an
affordable price.
For
outdoor eating at a rockbottom price, try one of the Doner Kebab
take-outs that have outdoor tables where you can eat Turkish fast food or local
spinoffs such as kapsalon (French fries beneath layers of kebab meat and
melted cheese).
In
the downtown shopping district, Bram Ladage
snack bars on Binnenwegplein and Hoogstraat serve French fries,
hot dogs, and other grab-and-eat items. Warning: The Hoogstraat branch of
Bram Ladage is next to a canal, so be ready to share a few of your fries
with panhandling seagulls.
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