... There is a café on this main square called "Belgisch Bier Café Moeke" (Belgian Beer Café Moeke) and it's this establishment I cover today, having gone there for a late Sunday lunch.
THE CAFÉ
The café is located in a large, Victorian era hotel, very grand and classic in appearance. This ... Read review
Website (In Dutch) - http://www.moekebreda.nl/default.aspx?id=124 ... more
INTRODUCTION
Continuing my tour of Breda, today I incorporate the posh suburb of Ginneken, just North of the main city centre, about a 15 minute walk from the main square. Surrounding the pretty little main square, there are several bars and restaurants of excellent quality (and correspondingly high prices in some cases). There is a café on this main square called "Belgisch Bier Café Moeke" (Belgian Beer Café Moeke) and it's this establishment I cover today, having gone there for a late Sunday lunch.
THE CAFÉ
The café is located in a large, Victorian era hotel, very grand and classic in appearance. This impression was maintained once entering the café. The hall was spacious, with high ceiling and austere yet striking fixtures and fittings. Wood was most prevalent, with wooden floor and wood panelled partitions, and wooden tables with long benches as well as chairs. The cream wall colour scheme was augmented by several small mirrors and old looking metal plated signs for several beers (Stella and Kriek amongst them). Several tall, relatively thin windows with drawn dark brown curtains let in lots of light. In the middle of an arc stood the very long bar, which was surrounded by high wooden tables and chairs, the chairs having comfortable looking dark brown leather seats.
The place was about half full at between 2-3pm on Sunday afternoon, and the clientele looked the expected mix of slightly money and normal Dutch, which made for a very relaxed, convivial atmosphere. The background music wasn't too intrusive or offensive, the usual easy listening fare.
As usual in Breda, you can smoke in any part of the bar. The toilet, located upstairs, was also old fashioned looking but well maintained.
FOOD AND DRINK
The café has a phenomenal range of bottled beers on offer. I counted some 40 or so brews on the beer menu! They ranged from the normal (e.g. Duvel) that set you back about 3 Euros, to the very strong 9% trappist beers, which weighed in at about 5 Euros. Available on draught were the expected array of Belgian delights - Leffe Blond & Dubbel, Jupiler, De Koninck and Hoegaarden, as well as another speciality white beer.
The food menu contained separate sections. The first was bar snacks such as olives, nachos or the Dutch speciality of croquettes (basically anything pulverised to death to a paste and deep fried, examples being chicken, pork or beef). Sandwiches included cheese or ham. Croques were croque madam and monsieur (ham I think). Several salads were included, including caesar. There were 3 of 4 omelette choices, and a lunch menu of chicken sate, entrecote steak, vegetarian ravioli and mussels with fries. Finally the desert menu contained crème brulee, chocolate mouse and fruit sorbet, neglecting to mention the rather tasty look chocolate and apple tarts sitting in the cabinet near the door.
There were 2 of us there, and we ordered a couple of dishes each; we both had onion soup, and I followed this with a cheese sandwich, my friend having an omelette.
To warm me up, I also had a cappuccino, which was pleasant enough, but lacking the customary biscuit, although I can't say I was too upset by this. Sometimes you can get too much of a good thing.
The soup came in a small bowl on a saucer, which in turn was on a plate, which also held 2 slices of baguette; 2 white and 2 wholemeal, all very fresh as I'm coming to expect here. In the soup, in fact obscuring it from view, was one huge cheesy crouton right at the brim. A push down on this caused displacement, which, as any GCSE student would know, ends with a full vessel shipping liquid, which indeed it did, the upshot being that I lost some of my soup and I definitely didn't think "eureka". Once I'd negotiated my way past this, I found the consommé to be laden with onion and spring onion, and the whole combination was very appetising. Normally this would have been enough for lunch, but I'd missed breakfast and so the cheese sandwich appeared about 10 minutes after I'd finished the soup, as did my friend's omelette.
I was asked it I wanted the sandwich in a bun or not and I said no, so it arrived as an open sandwich; 2 slices of white bread with slices of fresh cheese sitting on top, itself covered by some ruccola. On the side was a small dish of Dijon mustard, and a small side salad of lettuce, tomato and cucumber with a little dressing on top. It was all excellently presented, and although simple fare, was very tasty. The locals eat this with a knife and fork and so I did as the Romans (or Dutch) did.
The folded omelette was also astride 2 pieces of white bread, with an identical side salad, and I was informed that this was also very tasty. So full marks for presentation and taste; a simple job well done.
The bill was 22 Euros, and we weren't even charged for the carafe of tap water we ordered, so I think this is pretty good value.
SERVICE
The service was of the standard we've come to expect in the UK - or put another way, excellent by Dutch standards. The waitresses were helpful, friendly and attentive - always making sure they asked how each course tasted, asking us if we required more beverages and even addressing me as "sir" at one stage. We were in the café for about an hour in total and it felt very relaxing whilst not over-long, or with too much waiting time, so they did their job excellently.
CONCLUSION
I had only stumbled upon this place as a second choice chancing of my arm, and I am very glad I did. It was a very convivial place for lunch and I can imagine it a fun place on a weekend evening, trying to try some of the esoteric beers. I would highly recommend this place in the unlikely event of you being in Breda and even more unlikely event of finding yourself in Ginneken.
