More Belgian beery delights on Breda's main square
Advantages: Decent food, drinks and location Disadvantages: A bit dark inside
...my opinion this is one of the better ones.
'''CONTACT DETAILS'''
Cafe Zeezicht
Ridderstraat 1
4811 JA
Breda
The Netherlands
Telephone : 0765148248
Email : info@cafezeezicht.nl
Website (in Dutch) : http://www.cafezeezicht.nl/ ... more
INTRODUCTION
This bar on the main square on Breda is one that I have frequented on several occasions. Here is a quick rundown of it.
THE BAR
Zeezicht sits on the corner of Grote Markt, the main square full of bars and restaurants, on the other side of the square from Breda cathedral. A bar serving food is quite common in the Netherlands, and there are quite a few dotted around the town. Inside, it's quite dark, and room for about 30 to 40 people sitting, depending on how crowded it is.
There is a dark wooden floor and a lot of dark wooden square tables, pushed together to make them bigger. Solid wooden chairs are not the most comfortable but are OK.
When I went it was fairly full, with a couple of tables free. You can smoke anywhere (until July anyway); even one of the waitresses was having a surreptitious drag every so often behind the bar. This made it a little smoky - unfortunately in the Netherlands that's an occupational hazard (until July, anyway).
From the spring to the autumn, there are chairs on the main square outside, and all year round there are chairs wedged up against the walls, with some outside heaters beaming at them, which can be quite pleasant when it's a little fresh outside.
THE FOOD
Several sandwiches on offer, such as baguettes with ham, cheese, salmon and several soups (cheese,, tomato, vegetable), toasted ham and cheese sandwiches as well as local specialities; for example, toast topped with eggs and ham served with French fries.
A good selection of beers is available as we're close to Belgium such as Hoegaarden, Duvel and Jupiler on tap and many other available in bottles.
One thing this place is noted for is that they do a lovely deep bowl of tomato soup, great value at 3.8 Euro and when you ask for more bread you get a lovely, hot, fresh roll for only 0.5 Euro. The soup is very fresh, lots of blended bits of tomato, slightly spicy and perhaps acidic too but nevertheless very tasty.
I've also tried the smoked salmon sandwich which was really nice; a wholemeal roll cut in half, with a big piece of smoked salmon on top, garnished with capers, rings of raw red onion, chives, a lettuce leaf, a slice of lime and a piping of cream. This was light yet satisfying and filling.
You can get freshly squeezed and very nice orange juice at 2.7 Euros.
The cappuccino is OK, missing a sprinkling of chocolate and extremely frothy but nice enough. It's always served with a little biscuit in Breda, in this case a ginger one. You will find the coffee servings quite small compared to UK standards but personally I prefer this and in fact struggle these days with large ones having got used to the Dutch size.
SERVICE
This is almost always good (I can think of one exception with a barely interested poker faced waitress). It's particularly nice in the summer sitting outside. Only if they're very busy hard is it to get their attention. In the winter inside, it's usually no problem as they're always running around serving, and in the Netherlands it's generally very much up to you to hail them. In my experience only top notch restaurants will give you even a semblance of attention. I guess this is a cultural thing. I am being kind today.
FUN WITH BABEL FISH
sea visibility is himself to the large market in breda and has 2 deepenings. You come in in the sociable café where you can enjoy nice coffee, good wines, cocktail parties or the special biertjes. On first deepening the restaurant is, where the card is French getint. sea visibility has a lunch card, small and large card. Moreover is weekly changing 3-gangen-menu and season Courts as asparagus and mussels are served there.
I think the bar name is translating as "sea visibility" in case you were wondering.
CONCLUSION
This is well worth a visit if you like tomato soup or Belgian beer. There are many bars to choose from on the Grote Markt and in my opinion this is one of the better ones.
CONTACT DETAILS
Cafe Zeezicht Ridderstraat 1 4811 JA Breda The Netherlands
