Joelia

High quality cooking

Owner and host Pieter Timmer has succeeded in turning Julia into a place where casualness and spontaneity perfectly blend with high-level gastronomic cuisine. Julia is part of the prestigious Hilton Hotel, yet it exudes an informal atmosphere, attracting many young guests who want to experience fine dining. If that’s what you’re after, you’re in the right hands with executive chef and co-owner Sofiane Bons and his youthful team. It starts with the basics: quality first in classic French cuisine with a fresh international touch and Asian influences. During our visit, a pleasant vibe hangs in the air; conversations are spontaneous, and the cooking is excellent. The first amuse-bouche immediately sets the tone: a crispy tartelette with soft, lightly dressed raw octopus and a flavorful red Carabineros shrimp. An evergreen on the menu is Le Jardin, the little vegetable garden. A splash of color featuring South French meat tomatoes marinated in pesto, olive oil, pepper, jalapeño, and spicy sansho leaves. Served with a vinaigrette made from, quite unusually, smoked buttermilk and celery. This is followed by a spicy rutabaga mousse, a shrimp crisp, and fried small shrimp alongside perfectly seared Norwegian hand-caught scallops, verbena gel, and a foamy mussel beurre blanc. The wine recommended by all-rounder Pieter (who besides being owner, maître d’, cheese expert, and sommelier) hits the mark: Menetou-Salon Blanc 2023, full and crisp-dry, from Isabelle et Pierre Clément in the Loire Valley. For the main course, sustainably farmed brook trout with nectarine, olive, mint, a super-crispy skin, and reduced mussel broth (nage). For dessert, a playful nod to Texel: sea buckthorn berry with sheep yogurt, a “ball of wool” made from egg white and sheep’s milk, and wheatgrass presented in four ways: as oil, grass, gel, and crunch. All this beauty is rewarded with a significant jump to number 61.

A year and a half after Mario Ridder's departure, one thing is certain: Joelia continues to operate flawlessly under chef Sofiane Bons and maître-sommelier Pieter Timmer. The young service staff works smoothly and precisely, directed by...

At Joelia, we are surprised by a lunch that exceeds our expectations. Although former owner-chef and SVH Master Chef Mario Ridder has already handed over the reins at Joelia, located in the Hilton hotel, to host Pieter Timmer, the quality of the dishes remains at the highest level. We choose the three-course lunch menu, and we do not regret it for a second. Chef Sofiane Bons starts strong with two excellent amuse-bouches: a spring roll filled with duck liver, macadamia nuts, and yuzu. This combination creates a beautiful balance between the rich, fatty duck liver and the fresh, tart yuzu. Also impressive is a calamari ceviche. This level of finesse piques our curiosity about the rest of the menu. The starter melts almost on the tongue. The flavor highlight of this dish is the ajo blanco sauce, a cold soup made from almonds and garlic from Andalusia. In the glass, a Tephrit Achkarren Weißer Burgunder 2021 (Weingut Josef Michel) with notes of honey and fruit and a light minerality. This pairs beautifully with the nutty sauce. The pièce de résistance is veal cheek with a delicious pepper and merguez sauce. A dish that excels both in flavor and texture. Not only is the food of a high standard, but the sommelier's wine selections are also spot-on. The careful selection of wines enhances the flavors of each dish and creates a harmonious whole. And the bold choice to let us try a natural wine, a Christian Ducroux Exspectatia from Beaujolais served with turbot, chanterelles, Aztec Gold potato sauce, and miso crunch, turns out to be a masterstroke. Joelia remains a gastronomic jewel in Rotterdam, offering an excellent price-to-quality ratio and a kitchen that continues to surprise despite the recent change in ownership. Ranked again in the Top 100 this year at number 74.

Pain itself is not something to be loved, and because it often occurs we take pains to pursue those things which give us pleasures, without considering that they can cause pain. Now, shamefully.

Stepping into Joelia is like briefly escaping daily reality to immerse yourself in culinary pleasure. The atmosphere is chic yet relaxed within a modern, spacious, and light-filled setting adorned with plenty of brass and marble. Weekdays feature mostly business clientele, while weekends are bustling with largely local Rotterdam guests coming for leisurely lunches or dinners. SVH Masterchef Mario Ridder cooks generously with rich ingredients, also refining them with elegant Asian touches like koji, kinako, and sambai. Guests can choose from à la carte, various set menus, and Mario’s specialties, where ingredients such as crab, caviar, truffle, and wagyu are generously featured. Host Remko Bögemann pours a fruity house champagne from Henriot with fine mousse. Alongside the familiar bowl of ras el hanout cashews, beautiful bites quickly follow, including a palate-pleasing kingfish tartare served in a crispy pastry shell topped with a piece of lavash and a tangy physalis dressing. This proves to be a harbinger of an afternoon filled with tableside bliss. We taste super-fresh scallops with pleated tomato in foaming vin jaune, and perfectly cooked turbot on sauerkraut with a curry foam, crowned with a generous dollop of caviar. Head sommelier Johan Spin, a walking wine encyclopedia, pairs this seamlessly with a wood-aged 2018 Inopia Blanc made from viognier, roussanne, marsanne, and grenache blanc. The vegetarian main course features a poached egg with asparagus, Caesar salad, and a classic hollandaise. Expertly prepared but not particularly surprising. Before coffee, we indulge in a small warm crispy waffle with homemade ice cream, advocaat, and shaved chocolate. Life is good in the heart of Rotterdam. Drops from contention for the Top to 16.

Everything is perfect in this restaurant at the Rotterdam Hilton hotel. SVH Master Chef Mario Ridder took over this visually stunning ambiance of brass, marble, and American oak seven years ago, and everything radiates – now post-pandemic – a fresh new energy, backed by a kitchen of the highest caliber. The highly flavorful, surprising, and playful dishes are served with an almost effortless elegance by a young, uniformly dressed staff led by the capable restaurant manager Remko Bögemann, while veteran sommelier Johan Spin carefully pours selected wines to complement each course. It is a perfect combination of flavor, elegance, and refinement on a two-star level. Our meal begins with aperitif bites: a crostini with tuna and Taggiasca olives, a pastry cup filled with beetroot and apple, and a mini salad of mango and papaya with a sweet potato bonbon—all artfully arranged on a miniature replica of the Erasmus Bridge. Two more amuse-bouches follow: tomato, basil, and burrata served as a Caprese salad, and a scampi paired with melon, curry mayonnaise, and sesame clusters. What incredible flavors! Then the chef truly unleashes his creativity. We have kingfish (hamachi) with leche de tigre, radish, and red onion; oyster with potato cream, eel, and beurre blanc with Dutch shrimp; pan-seared turbot with coconut and curry; a combination of chicken and langoustine with peanut cream and carrot sauce; and super-tender veal loin with morels and truffle. To finish, a beautiful selection of cheeses. It is an explosion of surprising compositions, exquisite flavors, and lovely textures: Mario Ridder at his absolute best. And the fact that our beautifully mature Savennières Clos du Papillon (Baumard, 2007) was poured in perfect harmony with every single dish once again highlights the sommelier’s expertise: lesser sommeliers would have demanded a new bottle halfway through. Simply the best in Rotterdam!

Joelia is now an indispensable fixture in our country’s culinary elite. SVH Master Chef Mario Ridder, also owner of the restaurant CEO "Baas van het Vlees" in the same city, keeps the standard high and serves French-classic cuisine with a Rotterdam flair. This characterizes the atmosphere in his modernly designed hotel restaurant, which is consistently packed with both leisure and business guests. It feels wonderfully cozy here, filled with pleasant chatter, and the service staff love to crack a joke while maintaining impeccable professionalism. Mario Ridder: “The coronavirus crisis has left a massive financial hole, but it has also brought our team closer together, which has improved the quality—in the broadest sense of the word.” Every dish is consistently outstanding: refined, bursting with flavor, generously prepared, and there is absolutely no cutting corners on luxurious ingredients like lobster, caviar, and foie gras. Sommelier Johan Spin, a walking wine encyclopedia, pours generous glasses of perfectly paired wines, happily topping them up whenever they run dry. Incidentally, the wine cellar is visible through the restaurant’s floor, housing no fewer than 750 different labels from both Old and New World wine regions. Guests can also enjoy their aperitifs down there, with or without a delightful amuse-bouche. A top-notch establishment.

The atmosphere is extremely relaxed in this modernly designed hotel restaurant where SVH Master Chef Mario Ridder holds the culinary scepter. Maître Remko Bögeman moves through the room, which is packed with guests eager to taste Ridder’s high-quality cuisine, with obvious ease and cheerfulness. There is no stinginess here, which is a welcome relief in a city where the prevailing mentality is 'just keep it simple, that's crazy enough'. Sommelier Johan Spit (a walking wine encyclopedia) pours a lovely Laurent Perrier champagne, followed by a parade of amuse-bouches, starting with a Madeira jelly filled with sweetbread cream on rhubarb compote that immediately elicits a wow effect. This turns out to be the beginning of a top-tier afternoon dining experience. We choose the culinary journey 'Erasmus Bridge' and fall from one delight to the next. The langoustine is juicy and served atop structures of colored beets as purée and quenelle, accompanied by a sophisticated lime dressing that provides ample counterbalance to the light sweetness of the shellfish and vegetables. The perfectly cooked turbot features a crispy topping of broccoli crumble and is surrounded by an aromatic tomato broth. We sample lobster with tom kha gai foam and mushrooms, washing it down with generous glasses of Giekse Gaïa made from the Assyrtiko grape. Dry, spicy, with a powerful fresh flavor. Also outstanding is the slow-cooked duck with calvados sauce, paired with an excellent glass of Gevrey-Chambertin 2017 from Domaine Duroché. The dessert is a delicious sticky carrot cake featuring various preparations of orange, such as sorbet and jus. On another visit, we taste excellently cooked Anjou squab with mixed fruit, mustard, and hazelnuts, and the dinner concludes with a waffle served from a vintage ice cream cart, topped with vanilla ice cream, advocaat, and chocolate. Due to heavy competition in the Top 10, Joelia drops two spots to number 11.

It cannot be a coincidence that the restaurant of SVH Master Chef Mario Ridder is packed every evening. The chef, his maître d' Remko Bögemann – regularly assisted by Willem Reimers – and the capable sommelier Johan Spin remain relaxed about it. The young, uniformly dressed waitstaff also move swiftly, professionally, and with witty conversation through the two modernly decorated dining rooms, which are separated by a bar. Dining at Joelia is clearly one of the top dining experiences in the Maasstad. As ever, a small pot of crispy caramelized cashews arrives with the aperitif, and the sea urchin mousse dip served with flaxseed crackers tastes surprisingly delicious. The amuse-bouche is tuna tataki on sajoer: served so generously, it looks almost like a starter. The tuna is beautifully seared and red inside. We begin with the 'Joelia' lick pot, served in a caviar tin. Creamy avocado mousse with a pleasant fatty richness, topped with soft sweet crab and finished with briny, savory caviar. Ostensibly simple, yet what delightful flavors come together. This is followed by crispy-fried red mullet with carrot elements presented as both a cream and marinated slices, orange segments, and a vinaigrette based on olive oil, orange, and tarragon. Divine. The accompanying wine is equally divine: a Sicilian Nassa Grillo with light citrus notes, mild and crisp-dry. Also excellent is Mario’s signature dish: soft-sweet onion compote topped with crushed langoustines, a generous scoop of caviar, and crème fraîche. On another visit, we taste succulently cooked Black Angus beef with a garnish called stroganoff, finishing with a happy mix of chocolate, yogurt, and passion fruit. The fierce competition at the top means Joelia drops one place to number nine.

This beautifully decorated corner of the Maasstad Hilton Hotel stands head and shoulders above the Dutch landscape thanks to the thoughtfully crafted and surprising cuisine of SVH Master Chef Mario Ridder. He seems to have finally found his footing here, radiating authority and, above all, calm. Rotterdam is richly blessed with culinary demigods, yet here everything operates at a slightly higher level. Mario generously credits his brigade for this—the talented cooks he has assembled around him. They master classical techniques while simultaneously embracing everything innovative. Amidst these bright young talents, the patron-chef is not merely the boss, but the man who inspires, contributes ideas, and sets the course. It is a delight to watch them at work behind the large window separating the kitchen from the dining room. Sommelier Johan Spin, perfectly at home here on the Coolsingel, pours us a magnificent, ripe Chenin Blanc Clos Rougard (Saumur-Brézé, 2001) as we are swept along by the starters, amuse-bouches, and dishes. What incredible flavors and textures, what brilliant combinations and discoveries. This is a culinary academy. Simply ox-tail sausage with cauliflower, and beetroot with horseradish cream. But also mussel preparations with curry and seasonal vegetables. Presented by a swift service team led by Remko Bögemann. Our menu begins with raw razor clams with basil and verjus, followed by ravioli with octopus and red mullet. Delicious! The eel with oxtail and lemongrass is equally picture-perfect. Just like the main course of tender lamb with burrata and eggplant. The mixed berry pannacotta for dessert could have been a touch more thrilling, but that hardly diminishes its sublime taste. Much of the team from the recently closed World Museum has joined Ridder’s permanent crew, operating with utmost expertise and pleasantly informal ease. Nevertheless, Joelia must step aside for emerging talent at the top, stepping back to an 8.