Prins van Terbregge

Located on the idyllic Rotte river in Rotterdam, Prins van Terbregge by Simon Wijers offers a culinary experience that is both refined and surprising. The welcome is immediately friendly, and we are enthusiastically escorted to our table. The interior is understated, and the view of the Rotte is stunning. Chef Sven de Wit cooks international cuisine and makes frequent use of foraged ingredients and local produce. We kick off with an aperitif featuring a crispy curry element shaped like a fish, black olive teppanyaki, and a mini taco with goat cheese garnished with confit onion. Simply delicious. For the starter, beef tartare made from minced beef with pickled onion, chive vinaigrette, and a poached egg. The flavors are well balanced, and the egg adds a pleasant twist. The quality is maintained with the second course as well. Tortellini filled with Argentine shrimp, dashi cream, foam, and cauliflower crisps with tuna cream. A light, refreshing dish that delivers a refined taste experience thanks to the combination of Argentine shrimp and dashi. The Frühroter Veltliner from Austria, with its floral and herbal aromas, complements the dish perfectly. The highlight is crispy celery root rolls with Serrano ham and freshly grated truffle. The textures and flavors are excellently balanced, with the sweet celery root and salty ham enhanced by the earthy truffle. The 2020 Bercher Spätburgunder, with its cherry notes and minerality, is once again a superb complement. The selected wines and the background stories shared at the table for each wine are impressive and interesting. However, the acoustics are not ideal, and we have to strain our ears to catch everything. A minor point to note.

Once a boathouse, later a café, and now, for nearly twenty years, a culinary destination along the Rotte. Here, owner-sommelier Simon Wijers welcomes his guests with delicious surprise menus from the internationally inspired cuisine of...

The Prins van Terbregge is tucked away in a residential neighborhood in Rotterdam, beautifully situated along the Rotte river. We are warmly welcomed by an enthusiastic young team and given a table by the water, where people literally row past our window just a meter away. It's a good thing we can look outside, because we aren't exactly thrilled by the interior of the Prins. It's furnished in dark tones, definitely not giving off the vibe of a high-class restaurant. Because of this, we're a bit apprehensive about the food, but that fear turns out to be completely unfounded. We kick things off with a nameless blanc de blancs brut from the region between Burgundy and Lyon. The welcome from the kitchen consists of a zucchini waffle with mustard mayonnaise and a tartelette seasoned with Nashik spices. Original and very tasty. The starter is an immediate showstopper: fantastic salmon with gin-and-tonic ice, a wasabi and nori crisp, plus a cucumber sauce. You think: how do you even come up with this combination, and it turns out to taste amazing too. The chef clearly has a real passion for this. Afterward, we suspect the salmon will be hard to beat, but somehow it still happens: a fourteen-hour braised short rib that melts in your mouth, accompanied by a cauliflower cream and grilled cauliflower. We pair it with a powerful red wine from Armenia, and we can honestly say it's the first time we've had one. But certainly not the last time, as it's absolutely divine. We round off our dinner with cheese. A beautifully curated cheese board that starts with a soft goat cheese, moves to aged Dutch cheese, and finishes with a stunning Dutch blue cheese. The armagnac we drink alongside it is the cherry on top. Welcome back to Lekker.

During a time of crisis, owner Simon Wijers has extensively renovated his wooden restaurant along the Rotte: walls were painted and interiors reconfigured, a new kitchen was installed, and the terrace is being revamped. And there is a new head chef, Sven de Wit. A young, passionate culinarian who previously worked at restaurants including Aan de Zweth in Kwintsheul. We sample an olive and tomato cake alongside onion and cheese pastry bites, paired with glasses of Jungmayr’s Roter Veltliner – the delightful Austrian (yellowish-white) counterpart to the more common Grüner Veltliner – followed by warm bread with spread. The first course from the chef’s menu is escabeche-style raw swordfish with a lapsang souchong jus. The exceptionally tender fish pairs beautifully with a lightly saline, perfectly chilled Barbadillo made from Palomino grapes from Cádiz. This is followed by melt-in-the-mouth celeriac preparations surrounding a small, sharp cheese ball. Sommelier Teun Kuijpers pairs it with a superb glass of Boekenhoutskloof, crafted from 100% Semillon grapes from Franschhoek. For the main course, we have classic duck breast, cooked to perfection, served with pearl onions and red beet. The chef brings a lavash sauce to the table. Now, a juicy Chianti Classico from Tuscany fills the glass. The meal concludes with a lovely cheese dessert. De Prins is an absolute keeper.

Chef Enrico Patist is steadily making his mark at this hidden gem, consistently referred to as De Prins by regulars, which boasts a splendid terrace along the Rotte. Owner Simon Wijers’s passion for wine is evident from the impressive display lining the entrance. The wine list is nothing short of spectacular, with whispers circulating that it features over 700 labels. And every single wine is available by the glass! The atmosphere is lively and cozy within a modern interior dominated by white and grey tones and abundant wood. The independent-minded sommelier, Nick Rietveld, offers excellent wine pairings. We start with a Bogdanjuša 2020 from Vina Carić, pairing it with a vegetarian ratatouille terrine served in a ginger and garlic broth alongside an onion compote. This Croatian wine reveals aromas of plums and anise. Another standout wine accompanies a fantastic portion of roasted lamb rack and lamb neck braised in jus, served with a tomato-based sauce. Pouring into the glass is a Première de Baccari, an organic red from Morocco. Rich and complex, it proves to be an excellent match for the meat. We wrap up with a plate of happiness: a house-made brownie topped with a yogurt crunch, cherry beer ice cream, and white chocolate ganache. Finally, a note on the acoustics: due to the bustling crowd, we struggled to hear the descriptions of the dishes. Despite that, it’s a wonderful spot.

A greenhouse on the water, a beautiful terrace with heat lamps, inside a cozy fireplace and a dining room filled with lit candles. Owner and wine enthusiast Simon Weijers can boast of a lovely spot that received a facelift last year: a sanded floor, light walls and ceilings, and new restrooms. Chef Enrico Patist has been running the kitchen at 'De Prins'—as regular guests affectionately call the restaurant—since 2018. He forages for game, experiments with unique ingredients, and tends a rooftop garden where various herbs grow. He surprises with his quirky and unconventional flavor combinations and presents artfully plated dishes. Together with Simon, sommelier Nick Rietveld pours fine wines to accompany them, drawn from a selection of no fewer than 500 labels, and they both enthusiastically explain their choices. What a lovely establishment this is!

Major changes at the wooden pavilion of wine fanatic Simon Wijers on the Rotte: sanded floors, light walls and ceilings, new restrooms, and a renovated terrace. Also new is the head chef: Enrico Patist, who previously served as sous-chef and now displays an almost Sergio Herman-like passion for foraging plants and herbs from the wild to craft unconventional recipes. A skilled artisan, working seamlessly with maître-sommelier Nick Rietveld, who is just as driven a wine expert as their boss. We taste tender quail roasted on the carcass with apricot and rooibos tea cream, bitter Italian salad greens with sumac and smoked oil. Rietveld pairs it with a Marsanne from Louis Chèze, a fantastic 2016 Rhône wine. Next comes pikeperch with exotic flavorings such as sea urchin cream, black quinoa, chervil root cream, vanilla-passion fruit gel, a wild mouse-ear chickweed vinaigrette, and sugar beet boiled in coffee. Accompanied by mango, radish, and sea vegetables. An overwhelming taste experience, heightened by glasses of white Minervois made from Grenache and Macabeo grapes from 2015. The main course features grilled halibut with, among other things, a fennel salad and a langoustine with pandan leaf and yuzu foam. In the glass: the crisp house Limoux, ‘Le petit prince’ 2016. Finally, carrot cake with mustard seed, green cardamom, speculoos, blood orange, cumin, and pine nuts. Excellent preparations and flavors, refined acidity and bitterness, unexpected textures. Something’s really happening here!

On the idyllic terrace of this jovial restaurant along the Rotte, owner, host, and sommelier Simon Wijers is tasting wines with a supplier for his new list. We take a seat at the adjacent table, and we are spontaneously asked if we would like to taste along. Well, that’s exactly what we love. Wijers’ wine knowledge proves to be almost unmatched, and he happily discusses his extensive list of now 340 wines, all available by the glass! As an aperitif, we enjoy an Avala Brut Majeur champagne. There are no amuse-bouches, but there is a board piled high with crisp fresh bread and farmhouse butter. Chef Antoine Schweig prepares international cuisine, and he does so with great flair. To start, a beautifully presented mackerel ceviche with couscous, cucumber sweet-and-sour sauce, goat yogurt, cockles, and tomato vinaigrette. The mackerel has been cold-smoked just enough to remain raw, resulting in a wonderfully soft ceviche. It is paired with a German 'house' Riesling: Special Selection for Simon Wijers, a dry late harvest vintage from 2016. A fantastic pairing; the Riesling is highly mineral, which complements the acidity of the ceviche perfectly. Next, Anjou pigeon with aged whole-milk cheese, where the leg is braised and the breast roasted pink, served with carrot, a pigeon croquette, and celeriac. The precisely cooked cod loin with curry foam, asparagus, and langoustines is complemented by a Château d’Anglès from La Clape, 2015, which initially seems like it might overwhelm the dish. However, the wine’s freshness actually elevates the meal to new heights. Here, wine and food are inextricably linked.