This Groningen restaurant is one of Europe’s best new top restaurants

What great news! A Groningen restaurant has been named one of Europe’s best new top restaurants. And by the influential Opinionated About Dining (OAD), no less. It concerns the Groningen restaurant Noor, opened in March 2022 by thirty-somethings Marleen & Jeroen Brouwer.

This is not the first time Noor has received accolades, by the way. The restaurant earned a Michelin star within three months and, in the same year, entered the Gault&Millau guide as its highest new entry. It is also the only Dutch restaurant included in the ranking of 30 European ‘Top New Restaurants’. Quite an achievement!

American restaurant website OAD

The American restaurant website OAD publishes various lists every year ranking the best modern restaurants in the world based on the experiences of restaurant visitors. Unlike restaurant guides such as Michelin and Gault&Millau, OAD works with public reviewers from all over the world who frequently visit modern top restaurants.

OAD has more than 6,000 registered reviewers who submit over 200,000 reviews every year. Each reviewer receives their own ranking, depending on the number of restaurants visited and those restaurants’ scores. The higher the reviewer’s ranking, the greater their impact on the scores of restaurants in the lists. The names of the 200 ‘top reviewers’ are public and can be seen on the OAD website.

Marleen: ‘Internationally, OAD is an authoritative restaurant guide that we chefs have followed for years, and it is an honour to see yourself featured in it. That we are the only Dutch restaurant in this top 30 of European newcomers is fantastic.”

Student promotion

What I personally find so great, apart from this wonderful recognition from the industry, is that former university friends and owners and chefs Marleen and Jeroen know better than anyone that a Michelin-starred restaurant is out of reach for many young people. So last year they opened twelve dates in July on which students could enjoy a star-worthy meal for half price. Hopefully they will repeat this again this year. 

Also read: 

• This is the tastiest apple you can buy at the supermarket
• 6 baffling products from Albert Heijn 
• Lidl dishwasher tablets named Best Product of the Year