Eat:
For years when I lived in Amsterdam, I would occasionally stop by Greenwoods on the Singel canal to treat myself to one of their great sandwiches. Well imagine my surprise when I came across a Greenwoods in Middelburg of all places. And OMG, they are just as great! My husband had a deliciously crisp and succulent fish and chips while I had the lovely pastrami sandwich. And to top it off, we were glad we managed to tuck into the fresh warm scones with clotted cream and best of all, homemade marmalade.
Renesse - Our Seaside - Wild game, lobsters and seafood
Our Seaside is located about 40 minutes down the beach from the Zeeuwse Stromen hotel. On fair days, it's a wonderfully relaxing stroll over the immense stretch of sandy beach. And no worries, if it's stormy like it was on one Christmas. There's a parking lot on Rampweg just over the dunes from the restaurant.
In fact on 27 Dec 2014, a day of wet snow and fierce winds blowing in from the sea, there was a surprisingly constant stream of visitors braving the dismal conditions to reach Our Seaside. If that isn't proof of good food and cozy warm shelter, I don't know what is.
Our Seaside's lunch menu features delicious large sandwiches such as the gourmet hamburger I had and beverages ranging from hot steaming mugs of coffee and cocoa to fresh mint tea. Other favorites of mine are the large salads, especially the one featuring smoked fish. What is characteristic of this restaurant is that they excel equally in meat, wild game and seafood specialties including lobster.
I have on occasion, enjoyed a special wild game three-course dinner with a variety of venison and wild game dishes. And on other days, dined on fillets of Atlantic sea wolf with a crunchy mustard crust and red wine sauce on a bed of mashed potatoes and glasswort. And to top this feast off, I was served a homemade warm apfelstrudel with an incredibly crunchy paper-thin crust. The best I've had ever.
This is a tiny cozy restaurant that is inspired by Mexico. 'Inspired by Mexico' is the phrase they use to describe themselves. And it fits since they have their own creative version of Mexican cuisine. For example, one of their tacos consists of roasted sweet potato and feta. Other meet and vegan versions change from time to time so you don't know what they are serving until you are in the restaurant and have a chance to look at the whiteboard. I also loved a mocktail they made with jalapenos. Since space is limited, book a table in advance.
PS. I hope you like the
We walked past this hotel and restaurant on numerous occasions. And I always thought, 'What an odd name...' Well we found out it means 'Sunshine' in Danish. It is a family-run business in which the mother is Danish. I was impressed by the quality of the seafood. When a seafood restaurant does NOT smell of fish, it is a great plus. That means the fish is really fresh and the place is clean. My gratinated lobster was cooked to perfection and my husband's sole was expertly fileted at the table. This is now our go-to fish restaurant in Vlissingen.
This was again one of those serendipitous discoveries. Towards the end of the corona pandemic, I was in Zeeland sharing a beach house in Renesse with some friends. One day, we decided to take a road trip to check out some of the nearby towns. So we drove to Zierikzee and wandered through the small town streets. That was when the display window of Roekoekoe caught our eye. What was being showcased were not sandwiches or pastries in the normal sense. There were these large baked balls, the size of a baseball, filled with all manor of savory deliciousness. Roekoekoe has christened these creations 'Bagel Bombs'. Due to corona restrictions, back then, they could only sell us the pastries to go. Now that things have returned to normal again, I would love to go back and properly dine there. Their menu lists many creative bagel bombs which I would like to sample, such as the Mumbai bagel bomb filled with a coconut curry, a Seoul bagel bomb with BBQ-smoked red seabass with kimchi and a Boston bagel bomb with BBQ-smoked bacon, cream cheese and spring onions.
