Café Cook

The Baarsjes eetcafé on a hidden square that Your Little Black Book wishes sat in every neighbourhood.

Café Cook sits on a small quiet square off the Jan Evertsenstraat where De Baarsjes stops pretending to be edgy, and it has been the neighbourhood's dinner room since at least 2015. It looks like a brown café, wood, a long bar, vinyl on the wall, good beer on tap, and eats like a bistro: the card changes with the season and right now runs to shiitake paté with brioche, tuna tartare with ajo blanco, a cauliflower steak, a Poulet Noir with cider mustard jus at 26.50 and a diamanthaas with green pepper sauce at the same price, with a fish of the week and a Cook special beside them. Your Little Black Book's December 2024 casual-restaurants list summed it up as the sort of place you wish every buurt had: the feel of a good local pub, nice taps, and simply good food. The owners ran a prep kitchen and private dining room called MEP a few doors down and sold their second café, Goldmund on the Postjesweg, in 2025, so all the attention is back here. The terrace on the square is the summer draw; inside is small enough that booking on a Friday is sensible. The caveat is price: mains from 23.50 to 26.50 are bistro money in a café setting, and the cooking does not always feel that ambitious.

Open daily 11:00 to 01:00 with lunch from noon and dinner in the evening; book via the site or call for a last-minute table. Take the terrace on a warm night and order the fish of the week.

Photo: Café Cook

Photo: Café Cook (Emiro Smolders)