Most Scheveningen restaurant guides send you to the same five terraces on the boulevard. We live and work in Oud Scheveningen, around the corner from the Keizerstraat, so this is the shorter, more honest list — seven places we actually book a table at, organised by what you came for. Whether you want a Michelin-level dinner, a quick portion of fresh North Sea fish, or breakfast in your apartment, here is how to eat your way through Scheveningen.
1. The best fine dining in Scheveningen: harbour-side seafood
Walk fifteen minutes north from the apartment, past the lighthouse, into the inner harbour. The seafood restaurants here serve North Sea fish that was on the boat that morning — turbot, sole, oysters from Zeeland, langoustines if you're lucky.
Reserve a window table at sunset, order the daily catch with a glass of cold Sancerre, and let lunch turn into afternoon. This is the meal you'll remember a year from now.
2. Best beach restaurant in Scheveningen for a long lunch
The boulevard has thirty beach pavilions — about five of them are exceptional. Look for the ones with linen napkins and a wine list longer than the food menu. Order something simple at lunch: a tuna tartare, a beach club salad, a glass of rosé, a small bottle of mineral water for the table.
Sit until your shoulders drop. The point is not the food — it's the two hours staring at the North Sea while someone else brings you bread.
3. The best fresh fish in Scheveningen: kibbeling at the harbour
Skip the tourist fish stands on the boulevard. The two best fish kiosks in Scheveningen are at the inner harbour, run by families that have been smoking eel and frying kibbeling for three generations. A small portion of kibbeling with knoflooksaus, a fresh herring with onions, and a Dutch beer — that is lunch.
Eat standing up by the water, watch the fishing boats unload. Total bill: under fifteen euros, two people. There is no better food deal on the Dutch coast.
4. Best Dutch classics on the Keizerstraat
The cafés around the Keizerstraat — the old high street of Oud Scheveningen — take Dutch comfort food seriously. Bitterballen with grain mustard, kroketten on fresh bread with butter, a bowl of erwtensoep when the weather turns.
These are the places the hotel team eats lunch on a Tuesday. Ask the front desk where they went this week — the answer is always good, and almost never on the boulevard.
5. The best dinner with a view in Scheveningen
Three or four restaurants in Scheveningen run a single chef's menu — five or seven courses, paired wines, no choices. These are the dinners you book for a birthday, an anniversary, or just because. Reserve at least three days ahead, especially in summer.
Dress a little better than you would for the beach. Walk back along the sea afterwards — that walk is part of the meal.
6. Best breakfast in Scheveningen (your apartment)
The honest answer to where to have breakfast in Scheveningen: in your own apartment. Two bakeries on Keizerstraat open before seven — fresh croissants, sourdough, Dutch ontbijtkoek, fruit from the grocer next door.
The Nespresso is in the apartment, fresh milk is in the fridge, and your kitchen table beats every overpriced boulevard breakfast. Save the restaurant breakfast for the morning you check out.
7. Best late-night ice cream & stroopwafels
End every evening at one of the kiosks on the boulevard or the corner ice-cream shop on the Keizerstraat. Order a stroopwafel ice cream — vanilla with warm caramel syrup and a fresh stroopwafel pressed on top. It's a Dutch coastal cliché, and it's a cliché for a reason.
Walk home along the sea. The kids will be asleep by the time you reach the door. This is how a Scheveningen evening is supposed to end.
Where to stay in Scheveningen for the best food
Ocean House Scheveningen puts you four minutes from the sand and one minute from the Keizerstraat, the old village street with the best bakeries, fish shops and neighbourhood cafés in town. Every apartment (except the Superior Suite) has a full kitchen and dishwasher — so you can bring the market home, cook fresh fish from the harbour, and uncork a bottle on your own table.
Air-conditioning in every unit, dogs welcome at no extra cost, the front desk happy to book your dinner reservations. Eating well in Scheveningen starts with where you sleep.
