Chapter 01 · Centrum & the Canals · Koningsplein / Bloemenmarkt

Frens Haringhandel

Raw herring at the flower market corner, the cheapest great lunch in Centrum.

Every city needs a counter where lunch costs a fiver and tastes of the North Sea. Frens has been that counter since 1976, parked on the corner of Singel and Koningsplein next to the flower market, run by the same family the whole time. The order is broodje haring: silky raw herring, sharp raw onion, sliced pickle, soft white roll, assembled in about forty seconds by people who have cut more fish than you have eaten. In June, when the Hollandse Nieuwe arrives, the line folds around the stall and half of it is regulars taking their herring whole, tail up, like the postcard says. Kibbeling and smoked eel are there for the cautious. There is nowhere to sit and nothing to look at except tulip sellers and canal traffic, which is to say the view is perfect.

Broodje haring with onions and pickle; in season, ask for the Hollandse Nieuwe

What to order

Full menu

Broodje haring± €4.50
Raw herring, onion, pickle, soft roll; forty seconds from order to bite
Hollandse Nieuwe, whole± €4.00
June onwards, eaten tail-up like a local
Broodje gerookte paling± €8.00
Smoked eel, the big-spender move at a herring cart