Closed-down cafes and restaurants

Reviews that have become obsolete, because the place closed down.

Most new cafes and restaurants fail sooner or later, leaving the established few. This is where I move reviews of places that close.

Take A Salad, Pannekoekstraat 89a, Rotterdam

Take A Salad is a relatively new cafe in the centre of Rotterdam, having opened in December 2003. Given that it's a salad bar, summer is a better time to visit, and we were certainly fairly impressed on our first visit today. The decor is bright and trendy and the salads are excellent; although it's not particularly cheap, the mixed plate (€6.80, up to five salads, photo) is good value because it's so much food, with extra bread on the side. Lunch for two, in fact.

The only downside is the mediocre weak coffee, whose Illy brand doesn't save it; perhaps the staff need training sessions from the experts at Urban Espresso Bar opposite. Still, I'm fairly easy to bribe with chocolate, and Take A Salad's coffees come with a mini muffin on the saucer, which tops the mini-cookies that you get at Urban Espresso.

Verdict: come here for food, with fresh orange juice, say, and cross over to Urban Espresso for coffee and cake.

Coopvaert, Blaak 776, Rotterdam

Try the specials that you would not normally see on a Chinese menu.

Coopvaert is a new cafe in the big and open ground floor of the new tower block next to the Maritime Museum.

The interior is big, open and white, with well-spaced small tables and lots of warm wood. The bustle of the open kitchen, lots of flowers and cool music do well to stop the plece feeling empty.

Our first visit was just a quick coffee, but the good service and interesting lunch menu led to more, for breakfast and lunch. In any case, a cafe that serves a mini-brownie with the coffee cannot be bad.

Bagels & More, Karel Doormanstraat 332, Rotterdam

Recommendation: go for bagels and enjoy a smoke-free lunch.

Bagels & More is a promising cafe with good bagels and a decent interior and terrace, that just about manages when it gets busy. The service is now better than it used to be, and the bagels are generally good enough to make it worth the wait. The only real problem is that the relatively small room gets very smoky when it is busy and the door is closed.

Compared to Cappucino [sic], this place has slightly better and cheaper bagels, but is not as cool or popular. The decor and furniture used to be far more stylish, varied and comfortable here, but Cappucino has since taken the lead. Bagels & More has small tables with wooden chairs and a big vinyl bench on one wall, a reading table and comfy stools along the bar and half a dozen tables outside. Best of all there is a big shelf along the front window with more stools - the biggest loss when Gary's Muffins became Bagel Break (now Cappucino).

The styling is similarly mixed: the pale wood and beige vinyl sit next to shiny glass and metal, and one white wall. Most interestingly, two walls are pop-art murals that add more colour. The overall effect is odd, with so many competing colours and textures, and so many elements thrown together. I like the eclectic nature of it though, like the five kinds of lighting, which challenges the conventional elegance of simplicity of design.

Tastoe, Soetensteeg 1, Rotterdam

Good for: coffee, food - lunch or dinner

Tastoe is a great cafe to sit around in, because of its cosy character, slow pace and charming friendly staff. The lunch food is pretty good, with excellent ciabattas, and the soup of the day is occasionally brilliant. The evening meals are good too - well-executed standard eetcafe stuff, with a couple of interesting dishes such as the Tandoori chicken. The thing that makes Tastoe great is the intimacy, not just of the ambiance, but also the cosiness of such a small room with the tiny kitchen area behind the bar.

Despite the central location and its fantastic atmosphere, Tastoe is often mostly empty, which is a shame becasue this often makes them close early. Still, as long as they are open it does not matter who else is there because this is Rotterdam's cosiest cafe - case study in the meaning of gezellig, in the most obvious sense, at least.

Tastoe is a good example of how it can be hard to find Rotterdam's best cafes and bars - you could easily be wandering around the desolate wastelands of Hoogstraat looking for somewhere to have a drink and never find your way here.

Peculiarity: the old-fashioned interior is 'fake' in the sense that it was moved all in one go from some old house.

Z&M Delicatessen, Van Oldenbarneveltstraat 126b, Rotterdam

Z&M is a small lunch cafe upstairs from the delicatessen, with a basic wooden interior and the same kind of bio-ingredients menu as Proef, but with more of an emphasis on Italian ingredients, and less on cake. My hummus and roast vegetable sandwich was pretty good: excellent bread, although I have had better hummus.

The window tables upstairs are a pleasant place to sit, especially on a sunny afternoon with the windows open, because this is the shady side of the street and because there is a lot to watch outside. It is no terrace, though, and such a shame that the wide pavement across the road is wasted on empty shops selling designer clothes for kids.

Prachtig, Willemsplein 73/79, Rotterdam

Prachtig is a modern grand-cafe with the definitive Rotterdam terrace, looking out over the Maas at the foot of the Erasmus bridge. The chic-modern interior is nothing special, but is also dominated by the impressive view.

Although the view makes this an excellent place to meet for a drink or two, the food is expensive and disappointing. It seems that Prachtig has pretentions towards being a Fancy Restaurant, and the menu and prices reflect this, as does the dishes' stylish presentation. Unfortunately, our food failed to deliver anything near delicious. The tempura was soggy, and the lasagne and meat dishes were both bland. The starters were good, at least, and the portions were big enough.

Sagardi, Coolsingel 83a, Rotterdam

Good for: lunch, drinks, tapas

Smart new cafe that appeared in April 2003 on the side of Coolsingel that's pretty devoid of good bars until you get as far West as Westersingel. Unusually, for Rotterdam the decor combines a restrained modern style with creative artwork and good furniture.

Food at lunchtime is a selection of panini that look worth a try; in the evening its more of bar, open for drinks and fancy-looking finger food until 'at least midnight'.

Sorgh en Hoop, Schiedamse Vest 91, Rotterdam

When six of us went to Sorgh en Hoop, it was something of an adventure considering their legendarily bad service and our experience last time: our main course order was simply forgotten, and the kitchen didn't find out about us until we reminded the waiter after having already waited for an hour. In fact, the IENS reviews aren't exactly positive either. Still, I figured that with our expectations firmly set it might actually be okay.

Our first ploy was to book a table at 1930, way before we would be hungry, and to start with cocktails and nibbles. The various cocktails we had during the evening were excellent, and actually worth the fairly consistent quarter of an hour they take to arrive; my Long Island Iced Tea (€7) included generous measures and wasn't too sweet, which is often a problem with cocktails in restaurants. These, and some bread and tasty home-made herb butter, kept us happy for ages.

So far the service had actually been good - attentive, friendly and helpful. The first minor catch was one of the drinks orders being forgotten, which in itself wasn't a big deal, although it is rather unsettling as a customer to be told that 'it's normal that we forget things sometimes'. However, I was really annoyed when 50 minutes after ordering our main courses, the waitress came to tell me that they'd run out of the spare ribs I'd ordered and that I needed to choose something else. Presumably, this was the first time the kitchen had actually looked at our order, and started to cook it. Fortunately, I guess it's not the actual cooking that takes so long because our main courses, and my replacement choice, arrived just ten minutes later.

When the food actually arrived I was having mixed feelings about the place: we'd been happy with our drinks and the excellent atmosphere, but it was exactly an hour since we had ordered the food. However, the food was good; my mar y tierra (€19) was a huge tasty collection of meat and fish with rice, potato, salad, fried banana, polenta and various other bits and pieces. I enjoyed it a lot, but the quality wasn't any better than the similar Bazaar or Nazar, which are much cheaper, and the price wasn't any better than Het Gelagh, which has much better food. The same goes for the cocktails - for €7 you might as well go to Bar P at the end of the Witte de Withstraat, which is much cooler, or have larger numbers of the excellent caipirinhas that Opa serves.

On balance, then, Sorgh and Hoop makes a nice change because its big atmosphere and big restaurant are rather different, but then there are several places with better food and cocktails for less money within a few hundred metres. The last straw, unsurprisingly, is that there's simply no excuse for service this bad.

Verdict: avoid, unless you're bored with Opa, Bazaar, Nazar and Het Gelagh.

Prachtig, Willemsplein 73/79, Rotterdam, tel. 4115321

Prachtig is a modern grand-cafe with the definitive Rotterdam terrace, looking out over the Maas at the foot of the Erasmus bridge. The chic-modern interior is nothing special, but is also dominated by the impressive view.

Although the view makes this an excellent place to meet for a drink or two, the food is expensive and disappointing. It seems that Prachtig has pretentions towards being a Fancy Restaurant, and the menu and prices reflect this, as does the dishes' stylish presentation. Unfortunately, our food failed to deliver anything near delicious. The tempura was soggy, and the lasagne and meat dishes were both bland. The starters were good, at least, and the portions were big enough.

Last visit: May 2006

Kookpunt Spijze, Binnenrotte 7, Rotterdam, NL7

Now that the dreary Spijze van de Jonkvrouw has been taken over by Kookpunt, a decent cafe location has become a decent cafe. The big open space and high ceilings lend themselves much better to this modern style than to some failed attempt at posh cosiness.

The music and menu are fairly sophisticated for Rotterdam, which makes this an unusual cafe, in the same way that Bagel Bakery is more modern and stylish than Bagel Break. This is a place to order double espresso instead of tea, and the food is worth a look too. My pea soup, with basil and mullet (€3.90) was both unusual and delicious.

It is raining today (this is spring in Rotterdam after all) but there are signs of an interesting terrace outside, so come summer this could be as good a place to hang around outside as it is to while away the afternoon inside.

Social Ground Coffee Lounge, Botersloot 18a, Rotterdam, NL

Social Ground Coffee Lounge is Rotterdam's first real taste of the modern transatlantic multiple-choice coffee concept. The combination of smart decor, comfortable furniture and great coffee and cake make you want to outsource your lounge and just move in. So although the comparison with Starbucks is inevitable, and the similarity striking, Social Ground Coffee Lounge is a much better cafe than any Starbucks we have been to.

The decor is modern and refined, but has enough colour to make the place far less austere than Urban Espresso Bar, say. Best of all, though, are half a dozen leather armchairs that are comfortable enough to make this place seriously compete with your lounge at home. But then, face it - your home is probably not this cool. Meanwhile, most of the other nearby cafes are starting to look very old and tired.

The coffee is great, as expected. However, it is the element of choice that we really appreciate: sometimes you want an espresso, sometimes you need a huge milky coffee - especially in the winter, and sometimes you want something in between. Having to choose between gewone koffie and koffie verkeerd is just, well, wrong. Needless to say, there are a lot of other things to eat and drink: our grilled sandwiches were suitably tasty and the brownie was impressively big and chocolatey. It is going to take lots more lunches to sample everything on this menu.

Not only is there a decent terrace, but a welcome addition is the rain protection, which is bizarrely missing from terraces elsewhere in rainy Rotterdam.

Peculiarities: Social Ground Coffee Company's modernity is not just skin deep - one day ev

Bagel Break, Korte Hoogstraat, Rotterdam, NL

The former Gary's Muffins has now been reinvented as 'Bagel Break', which is more or less the same, but different. The menu has survived largely unchanged, save the addition of ice-cream. Based on the bagel and coffee I had, the food is the same as it was before. The biggest change is the interior, which has been redeveloped into a newer-looking version of the same thing. There is more seating than there used to be - a larger number of smaller tables in a neat row and vinyl benches around the edge, which are comfy.

It was quiet on my first visit, so I need to go back on a Saturday lunchtime to see if the new layout is less chaotic and more cosy, or whether it is just packed to the point of unpleasantness. However, the best news is that this place is now non-smoking, so the air will not be as terrible as it always was at busy times.

Mostly, this is all good. However, the Bagel Break sign is a disaster, and looks like a bad photocopy of a quick sketch on the back of a napkin.

Pizza Express, St. Andrew's Street, Cambridge, UK

Like most examples of Pizza Express around the country, the decor is all black and white and chrome. The tables are packed together and the service is not great so it can be difficult to relax. The pizzas are good, but uninspired and only come in one smallish size.

Verdict: go to Pizza Express, 7a Jesus Lane instead; or, if you have no taste, Pizza Hut.

Eten, Nieuwe Binnenweg 153, Rotterdam, NL

Being dear, modern and trendy this is definitely a yuppie restaurant. Apart from anything else, almost everyone was wearing a suit.

The decor is Very Smart, with a dash of brasserie parisienne about it, but with a theme and more colour.

The food is certainly interesting: each dish's description on the menu is a long list of often-obscure ingredients; simple food it ain't. The food is Very Good. And there isn't much of it.

As with a place like Parkzicht you really have to be into this kind of thing, so if most of the other places on this page are the kind of place you go to then Eten probably isn't for you.

Peculiarity: the fishes.

De Gijs, Wykerbrugstraat 29, Maastricht, NL

Apparently, De Gijs has reinvented itself as the Python or something, so a new review is needed. Still, this place is reportedly just as rubbish since the renovation.

The Little Tea Room, 1 All Saints Passage, Cambridge, UK

The Little Tea Room is a real achievement: it is a traditional tea room that oozes apparent authenticity, which is what you need if you would not know the real thing from a transport caff, like me. The thing is, tea rooms are like Full English Breakfasts - English people do not do them, except for one or two who are therefore certifiably weird. Well, here I am, and this is actually quite a nice place - floral pretty decor and outrageously flowery china are supported by farmhouse-style furniture and backed by low-key classical piano music. Naturally enough, I am the only native in here: within earshot are Japanese, Swedish, American and Spanish accents. The tea is good too, and there is lots of choice.

Last visit: August 2004

Michel's Brasserie, 21-24 Northampton Street, Cambridge, UK

The interior and atmosphere here suggest an English country restaurant, but it is the excellent French food which is this restaurant's raison d'être. The only culinary concessions to English tastes are the extra vegetables, served on the side, which were perfectly cooked rather than mushy à la française.

Verdict: go with plenty of money, as it is not cheap, and eat the duck confit.

Spijze van de Jonkvrouw, Binnenrotte 77, Rotterdam, NL

Just like the nearby Cafe Pol, this place seems focused on a particular crowed. In this case, it is people with a really bizarre taste in interior decor - people who think dark pink, purple, mauve and dark wood look good together. It is like a bizarre parody of old-age bad taste, like my mother threatening to use blue-rinse in her hair and wear bright green when she is 60.

Still, it is not all bad - the coffee and service are quite good, and the menu features a huge list of speciality teas. The hot snacks are interesting and tasty and I liked my soup even if it was not especially good value. If you are into this kind of thing you should probably come for the afternoon and have the tea, sandwiches and cake pig-out (€13.50).

Worth a look, then, if you like this kind of thing but it is just not my cup of tea.

Tampopo,'s-Gravendijkwal 128, tel. 2251522

Good for: dinner - noodles

Tampopo is a stylish noodle restaurant, whose sharp modern decor and soft lighting make it a good place for an evening meal for two. The overall experience is good, but not remarkable, and a little pricey.

The food is a different style to Dim Daily, so if you go there all the time like me then Tampopo makes a nice change.

Crystal Palace, Noordmolenwerf 171, Rotterdam, NL

Good for: food - business dinners

Crystal Palace is a smart Chinese and Thai restaurant, with a Japanese restaurant called Sumo upstairs. The style is quite exclusive, with no superfluous decor - very refined, just like the food. I'm not sure about the service: the first time it was very slick, with waiters who discreetly arrive at the table seemingly just as you realise that you want something, and the second time it was simply awful. This place works well with a large group, arguments about splitting the bill notwithstanding.

The waterside location isn't actually that great in the evening because there's much more light inside than out, which makes it feel like sitting in a goldfish bowl. That, and the size, make the atmosphere neither intimate nor sociable, but then the excellent food more than makes up for that. Still, I'm still hoping that there's a better Thai restaurant in town.

Peculiarity: the completely gratuitous electric towel machine in the toilet.

Show Pain, Coolsingel, Rotterdam, NL

Good for: boring lunches

Show Pain is one of the three new pavillions on Coolsingel, in front of ABN-AMRO. Unfortunately, instead of being a cool yuppie bar, say, this is just a naff lunch cafe.

It has tacky decor and awful music: go to Tastoe or Panini instead.

Peculiarity: an especially stupid name.

Gary's Muffins, Rotterdam, NL

Good for: take-away bagels

Gary's Muffins' bagels and brownies used to be great, but are now merely okay since they took the best fillings off the menu. Hey Gary! Bring back the hummous! Now that the bagels aren't so wonderful, I can't help noticing that the coffee could be better and the seating is cramped and smoky at lunchtimes. In fact, I probably wouldn't go there so often if one of the girls I know didn't fancy 'Gary' (not his real name).

The best plan is to get plain bagels to take home, which is often actually quicker than waiting to be be served and for the bagels to be made up. The bagels themselves have such a substantial combination of crispy shell and sturdy bagel interior that a couple of those would be a great start to the week. No fillings required. First course: sesame seed bagel, tasty seeds. Second course: cinnamon and raisin bagel, not too sweet.

Gary's Muffins is worth going back to, but if you find the menu too unadventurous and the service too chaotic, then try Bagel Bakery instead.

Peculiarity: the ability of some of staff to completely fail to acknowledge that you've entered the cafe and are waiting at the counter.

Madal Bal Cafe, Mill Road, Cambridge, UK

Good for: tea, coffee, cake, snacks

This bright new cafe has excellent interior design, with soothing plants and fresh flowers; this stands out compared to the cafes that are bright and cheery, but look as if the paint has been literally splashed around. The meditative world music really got on my nerves though. For added character there's a tiny garden where you can sit in the sun, and 'gift shop' with a few shelves of cute presents.

Closed: spring 2004

Olé, Bridge Street, Cambridge, UK

Good for: tea, coffee, tapas

Olé is a nice change for Cambridge - another small summery cafe, but this time with Spanish tapas and sandwiches. Olé have redecorated since I last visited, swapping English tea room style for that of a mediterranean seaside cafe, which it is. Except there's no beach. As well as being so unpretentious, Olé is unusual for Cambridge in having a Bring Your Own (as in alcohol) policy for evening meals.

Verdict: a kind of Spanish version of Indigo Coffee House that makes a nice change.

Closed: summer 2004

Bar Moosh, Hills Road/Station Road, Cambridge, UK

Guest review - Victoria Sykes writes:

'I was totally and utterly disgusted with the whole experience that is Bar Moosh. Having eaten there in the past and enjoyed the food and atmosphere I thought it would be the ideal place to have our staff Christmas party. How wrong can a person be? I received a phone call at 12.30pm from an angry and rude man who ranted about the company not turning up for the Christmas meal, we had in fact booked it for the evening.

'When the company arrived at Bar Moosh that evening we found we were sharing the bar with another party, we only booked the meal on the conditions we would have the place hired out for ourselves. The food was Revolting! Apart from the fact they had messed the order up, the food came out cold, soggy and blatantly re heated (obviously from earlier that day when they had expected us). Some of the desserts didn't turn up at all! The staff were miserable and unhelpful and I'm sure the place could be shut down by health and Safety judging by the pit they called the toilet. I could go on all day about the state that Bar Moosh has slipped into. Don't waste your time with it.'

Disco Biscuit, Queens Road, Brighton, UK

Disco Biscuit tipifies Brighton itself; it looks relatively normal from the outside, but when you get inside you see that it's a bit different, and when you venture further in you find that it's downright weird. In Disco Biscuit the furniture is kitsch, except for the no-messing comfy sofas, the milkshakes are imaginative and the upstairs has a, um... big rocket. You've got to see it really.

Disco Biscuit used to be a post club cafe, but it changed hands and is now open during the day; this might explain the chill-out atmosphere. It's even sufficiently relaxed not to be at all intimidating if you're not sufficiently alternative yourself to blend into the surroundings.

As well as tea, coffee and the excellent milkshakes there is the predictable assortment of rustic cakes and biscuits. I seem to remember that they do more substantial food, but if they do I've never tried it.

One of the more incongruous things about Disco Biscuit is its mainstream location on the busy road between the station and Churchill Square - this is the sort of cafe that you expect to find in North Laine. Still, this is good as it makes it a more handy place to collapse if you've been trekking around the shops.