Tucked away in a street between the Van Oldenbarneveldstraat and the Binnenweg there is a small restaurant called Open. Here you can get some good salads and sandwiches. My favorite is the sandwich with smoked chicken with basil dressing, but there is much more to choose from.

The place is small but brightly decorated, something that they change every now and then. The staff isn’t the quickest, but their friendliness makes up for that.

I have had dinner here once, a couple of years ago, but generally come here for lunch.

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Open | Coffee & tea, Restaurants (Mediterranean ) | Bread roll salmon € 7.50
Jacobusstraat 215 | Center | +31102136257
Sun – Thu 12:00 – 21:30, Fri – Sat 12:00 – 22:00

The last corner of the Meent and the marktplaats now finally has some potential. Van Zanten has opened her doors last summer and I like it. It’s a nice little cafe/lunch place during the day and turns into a restaurant/bar at night.

Their food is good and not as predictable as in most places (so not just your standard steak and fries). Van Zanten has lots of salads to choose from and asparagus (white) when they’re in season. They also have a lot of sandwiches to choose from, which makes it a great place for lunch.

Van Zanten is getting quite the attention now. It attracts a different crowd than Café Pol (check out the article) or the other two pubs on the corners. A lot more down to earth people.

This bar is turning into a great success!

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Van Zanten | Bars, Coffee & tea, Restaurants (European)
Meent 44 | Center | +31108435012
Sun – Thu 10:00 – 01:00, Fri – Sat 10:00 – 02:00

One of my favorite bars in Rotterdam is definitely ‘Stalles’.

The location and its terrace is ideal for some good people watching. The different type of visitors to this place is also the reason I like it so much, a nice mixture of all kind of people. One thing they all have in common is that they’re relaxed.

Next to Stalles is ‘Parket’, which is the same kind of place. In fact only one wall separates the two places from being one. They share owner, staff and bathrooms. ‘Stalles’ and ‘Parket’ are known as pubs, but the menu here is quite good and gets regular up-dates. Monday and Tuesdays are pizza night. From 15:00 pizza’s cost between € 4.50 and € 6.50.

If you stay long enough during the weekend you can walk straight into Club Vibes (check the Club Vibes article), yaay!

Exciting, if you have a RotterdamPas, you get 20% discount on the bittergarnituur!!!

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Stalles | Bars, Restaurants (European) | Plat du Jour € 10.50
Nieuwe Binnenweg 11a | Center | +31104361655
Mon – Thu 12:00 – 01:00, Fri – Sun 12:00 – 02:00 (with bad weather from 15:00)

I have always had a fascination with tea, dare to say that I’m more from the tea team than the coffee one, so when I discovered bubble tea a while ago, I fell completely in love. Bubble tea is tea in an array of flavors mixed with either fruit, milk or yoghurt, can be drank either hot or cold and with little tapioca balls. The tapioca balls feel like a gelatin in your mouth taking the experience of drinking tea to the next level!

So, one day while walking through the city I discovered YoYo!, and was instantly glad that finally bubble tea had arrived in Rotterdam. Their menu is pretty extensive and the combinations that you can make are almost endless. You can choose to take your tea either hot or cold, with milk, yoghurt, fruit, powdered coconut, taro root, etc. Also, you can choose the type of tea you wish, from jasmine to oolong, they have it all! After choosing your liquid base, comes the fun part of choosing the toppings; from the traditional tapioca balls, popping (stuffed jelly balls with fruit juice or yoghurt), nata de coco (coconut flesh), jelly and much more. But don’t distress if you don’t know what to choose, the owner, Mr. Wing Li and his friendly staff are always more than willing to guide you through their selection and giving you a fabulous experience.

This is a place worth visiting! My favorite: strawberry milk tea with tapioca and jellies. Yum!

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YoYo! | Coffee & tea, Snacks | Medium drink € 3.00
Karel Doormanstraat 34 | Center
Mon – Thu & Sat 11:00 – 20:00, Fri 11:00 – 22:00, Sun 12:00 – 20:00

In this small pub you can find all kinds of people, a reason for me to go there. The vibe is just really nice, even though it can be very crowded inside. This pub is open till late, so you might see the sun come up when you were just going to have one drink!

Since smoking isn’t allowed inside anymore, De Witte Aap has built a permanent terrace with heaters on the pavement right in front of the pub. A very smart thing to do I think. Smokers happy, the pub is extended and it always looks as if there are lots of people there.

Every month the pub offers an artist to show his or her art here. So you could come home a bit drunk and an art collector.

The Lonely Planet has voted ‘De Witte Aap’ the best pub in the world in 2010. Lets see what they do the coming years…

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De Witte Aap | Art & culture, Bars | Beer € 2.30
Witte de withstraat 78 | Center | +31104149565
Sun – Thu 13:00 – 04:00, Fri – Sat 13:00 – 05:00

I can write a lot about this cute little bakery, but only one thing is important…

Koekela has got the best cakes and cookies in town and I dare say, maybe even the country!

And now they’ve moved a couple of shops up the road to a bigger place where you can also sit and enjoy their goodness.

For muffins or cupcakes I’d suggest going a bit further to Alice in Cakeland (check the article), but stay in for the cookies and brownies! Don’t want to go out? They have a webshop!

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Koekela | Shopping, Snacks | Muffin € 1.10
Nieuwe binnenweg 79a | Center | +31104364774
Mon – Fri 08:00 – 18:00, Sat 08:30 – 17:00

The interior doesn’t give it away, but this place is tops!

I just got rid of my fried rice with mushroom addiction, cause I discovered how good their sushi is.

This place is always very busy, so you might have to wait for a seat at one of the long tables. Or…you can ask for take away and eat your dinner/lunch at a nicer place.

Don’t be afraid you won’t have enough food. It comes in pretty good portions (you know, just a little too much that you eat anyway and then feel way too full!)

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Dim Daily | Restaurants (Asian) | Mixed sushi 8 pieces € 14.00
Rode zand 48 | Center | +31102809026
Sat -Thu 12:00 – 22:00, Fri 12:00 – 23:00

I know, it is one of the many pizza/pasta places in town, but the food is really good and the price even better. If you are with less then 10 people you can’t make a reservation.

The place is big, but also very popular at the moment. And if you need to wait, Happy Italy is located right next to Van Zanten (check my Van Zanten article), so you can start and end your evening there and jump in for dinner here.

If you’ve got kids; there’s a little play area downstairs. The little ones can entertain themselves while you enjoy you dinner.

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Happy Italy | Restaurants (Italian) | Pizza Delizioza € 6.75
Binnenrotte 102 | Center | +31102140836
12:00 – 23:00 daily

One of my favorite shops in town is ‘La Bourse’. This perfumery sell beauty products of the better brands. The service here is so good and the staff is very friendly. They know the products well and know what they’re talking about.

Also, the prices here are sharp. You get a good discount anyway, but as a regular client (which I am) you get even more. They alway give you nice samples and you can choose if you want a perfume or cream sample, how good is that! I always leave this shop happy.

The only “flaw” might be that they sell ‘Essie’ nail-polish instead of ‘OPI’, but hey nobody’s perfect. La Bourse has three shops. The biggest one is on the Coolsingel, the other two are on the Meent (almost next to the Vlaamsch Broodhuys) and the Korte Lijnbaan.

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La Bourse | Shopping
coolsingel 54 | Center | +31104135893
Mon 11:00 – 18:00, Tue – Thu 10:00 – 18:00, Fri 10:00 – 21:00, Sat 10:00 – 17:30, Sun 12:30 – 17:30

Level is situated in the trendy area around the Meent and this describes the place a bit as well. It’s decked out very hip and lots of people come here to be seen. All the others come for the cocktails, especially the “Porn star”. I’m not the biggest cocktail drinker, but even I like some of the ones they make here.

I like Level because it’s a nice and a bit different hang out near my house. I don’t have to go far to have a night out.

Before 21:00 when the place turns into a crowded cocktail bar, Level is a restaurant. They have nice food and the way serve that food is very pretty, but that’s also what you pay for! Their chocolate dessert for chocolate lovers is to die for though!

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Level | Bars, Restaurants (European) | Chocolate desert € 7.50
Pannekoekstraat 76A | Center | +31102800788
12:00 – 01:00 daily