This is where you need to be in Maastricht

A day in Maastricht is always a good idea. In a wonderful city, you naturally want to eat wonderful food too. This is where you need to be.

Zoervleis

Tuutsje vaan Teunsje
Sour meat is made according to a traditional Maastricht recipe using horse meat. You can get the best fries with zoervleis at Tuutsje vaan Teunsje. At this snack bar, you can also choose a giant meatball or fried sweetbreads with your fries. Also delicious.

Reitz
Reitz on the Markt is Maastricht’s best-known and oldest snack bar. And for good reason: the homemade zoervleis always has perfect flavor and texture. You can also sit inside at Reitz. Do be prepared for a (long) queue. And arrive on time; they are open from 11:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Flan

Peter Lemmens and Mathieu Hermans
There is division in the south of the country over the best (rice) flan. In Maastricht, the battle is fought between Peter Lemmens and Mathieu Hermans. At Lemmens, you pay €4.35 for a slice of flan and a cup of coffee. If gooseberries are in season, get the gooseberry flan. It left us speechless. You cannot sit down at Hermans. So you have to take your flan home. Or eat it in front of the door—we wouldn’t be able to resist either. A small rice flan costs €7.50 here.

Café

Café Zondag
At Café Zondag, you can get a no-fuss breakfast (a boiled egg or a croissant, for example), lunch—try a grilled pork belly sandwich with sauerkraut, currants, mustard and a little honey—or a beer at the bar. There is no dinner menu: in the evening, you’ll have to make do with drinks and snacks.

Take One
Take One is not exactly the coziest café, but if you like beer, you have to come here. When you enter for the first time, you are not allowed to order anything; you may only tell them which flavors you like in beer. Then the old man behind the bar chooses a beer tailored to you. This beer café is opposite Café Zondag, so you can drop into both on one afternoon.

Restaurant

Café Sjiek
We are fans of Café Sjiek. Relaxed atmosphere, a good wine list and excellent food. Order stewed rabbit leg with prunes. You can also eat excellent zoervleis at Sjiek (with ‘thick fries, apple sauce and mayonnaise’). Here you can read an interview with the owner.

Baker

Le Salonard
They bake bread here, but also sell wine and cheese (1+1+1=3). Their fig-and-walnut bread is famous.

Bakkerij Souren
This bakery is located in the city center. It is a small shop in a narrow alley, accessible from Maastricht’s main shopping street. This is where the people of Maastricht buy their bread.

Coffee

Blanche Dael
Maastricht’s oldest coffee roastery. At the shop on Wolfstraat, you can buy freshly roasted coffee beans. Coffeelovers is a chain with several locations throughout the city that uses Blanche Dael beans to make the most delicious coffee. The nicest Coffeelovers locations are in the Dominicanen church and on Plein 1992.

Black pudding

Slagerij Fransen
At Slagerij Fransen on Sint Pieterstraat, you can buy the most delicious black pudding. Black pudding is often quite salty, but this one has something sweet about it. It is very creamy, and when you fry it, it becomes wonderfully crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. At Café Sjiek, the black pudding from this butcher is prepared with apples and bacon.

Pizza

Piano B
Here, excellent pizzas are baked in a wood-fired oven with an ultra-thin, crispy crust. It is busy—very busy. But it is worth the wait.

Market

Market on the Markt and the Farmers’ Market
There is a market on the Markt every Friday. All sorts of things are for sale, but we are especially excited by the fruit and vegetable stalls. The farmers’ market on Stationsstraat takes place every Thursday afternoon. Buy bread and cheese there.