Venue provided complimentary food and drinks during Sherika’s visit for this feature. The Hague Online retained editorial control, and the views expressed are the writer’s own
Some restaurants feed you. The great ones transport you. La Bruschetta & Co, tucked along The Hague’s charming Denneweg, is in the second category. From the moment you walk in, something shifts. The walls are lined with photographs of Puglia — sun-bleached coastlines, dusty piazzas, the kind of images that make you want to book a flight immediately. Copper pots and pans hang overhead, a gift from the owner Francesca’s father, and the whole space carries the warmth of a family kitchen rather than a restaurant. Informal, cosy, and entirely unpretentious — this is exactly the kind of place you want to find on evening out.
Francesca opened La Bruschetta in 2018, leaving her home region of Puglia in search of new opportunities and a bigger life. She brought with her something that cannot be manufactured: a deep, lifelong relationship with food. Growing up in the south of Italy, cooking was not a skill you learned from a book — it was something absorbed at the kitchen table, passed down through generations, inseparable from family and memory. That upbringing is present in every dish that leaves her kitchen.
In the early days of La Bruschetta, Francesca’s mother would make fresh pasta by hand in front of the restaurant window — and locals along the Denneweg would stop to watch. It is one of those details that tells you everything you need to know about what this place is built on. Today, nearly 90% of the staff are from Puglia, which perhaps explains why the experience feels so cohesive and genuine.
The menu leans heavily into the traditions of Apulian cooking, and the pasta is where La Bruschetta really earns its reputation. It is, without question, the course most recommended by regulars — and having tried both the seafood pasta and the Tartufo truffle pasta on my visit, I understand why completely. The seafood pasta was rich and deeply flavoured. The truffle pasta was elegant and indulgent in equal measure and quite the theatrical watching it being prepped in the giant parmesan rind before being elegantly plated. Both felt entirely authentic — not the watered-down version of Italian cooking so often found elsewhere, but the real thing.
The grilled rib eye was equally impressive – well-rested, and treated with the respect good meat deserves. The mixed seafood platter was light, cooked well and included a good variety. And then there were the desserts, classics like tiramisu and sgroppino, which I will simply say should not be skipped under any circumstances. The wine list is well-considered and the mocktails are a thoughtful touch for those not drinking.
What strikes you most by the end of the meal is how rare it is to find a place that has held onto its identity so firmly. Eight years in, La Bruschetta still feels like a small, family-run restaurant in the south of Italy — the kind of place where the owner knows the regulars by name, the recipes haven’t changed because they don’t need to, and the food on your plate carries the weight of real tradition behind it.
The Denneweg is already one of The Hague’s most beloved streets. La Bruschetta & Co is one of the very good reasons why.
La Brushetta & Co is open for lunch and dinners Tuesday – Saturdays on Denneweg 57. Follow them on Instagram to stay updated
Photos: Sherika Rooplal-Clappers
Do you have a story about your own café, restaurant or bar in the city? Reach out to sherika@thehagueonline.com to possibly be featured.
Sherika Rooplal-Clappers is a contributing writer for The Hague Online, covering culture, lifestyle, and local events. With a passion for storytelling and international perspectives, she highlights the people, places, and experiences that make The Hague a dynamic city.
Invited by the venue to experience the workshop. The Hague Online retained editorial control, and the views expressed are the writer’s own
Ever wanted to make pasta, pizza or focaccia from scratch? Well, its easier than you think.
I recently attended a pizza-making workshop with Macché in The Hague, and left with flour on my hands, a very full stomach, and the warm, slightly chaotic feeling of having spent an afternoon in someone’s Italian grandmother’s kitchen. In the best possible way.
Macché is the brainchild of couple Antonella Cerroni , originally from the south of Italy, and Alessandra Soro, who hails from Rome. The two have been living in the Netherlands for around ten years, and the story of how Macché came to be is as charming as the workshops themselves. When the couple were saving up for their wedding, a friend asked them to teach her how to cook. The idea planted a seed — why not share what they knew with more people? What started as a way to save for a wedding became a genuine passion for watching others discover the joy of Italian cooking. Later, they were joined by Daniele Di Bella from Sicily, who had moved abroad to The Netherlands wanting to experience life in a new country. With a background in Michelin-starred restaurants and previously head baker positions, Daniele brought an added layer of craft and expertise to the team.
Macché is coming up on its first year, and already the Italian community in The Hague — which, it turns out, is a significant and tight-knit one — has embraced it warmly. Antonella tells me that whenever you mention you’re from Italy, people in the city simply light up.
What makes Macché stand out, beyond the warm and welcoming atmosphere, is that all of their workshops are entirely vegan. This might surprise some, but it really shouldn’t — Italian cooking has been naturally plant-forward for centuries.
Long before “plant-based” became a trend, the culinary tradition known as cucina povera — literally, “the cooking of the poor” — was the backbone of Italian food culture. In the rural and working-class communities of the south, particularly in Puglia, Calabria, Campania, and Sicily, families ate what they could grow or store: legumi such as beans, lentils, and chickpeas; wild greens; tomatoes; garlic; onions; ancient grains like farro; and always, always olive oil. Meat was a luxury that most simply could not afford. Livestock required land, feed, and resources that peasant families did not have — and when animals were kept, they earned their place through labour, milk, or eggs rather than ending up on the table. When meat did appear, it was typically reserved for major religious holidays, weddings, or the occasional Sunday feast, and even then used sparingly to flavour a large pot of stew rather than served as a centrepiece in its own right.
What cucina povera also gave us was an extraordinary philosophy of zero waste. Stale bread was never discarded — it was transformed into dishes that have since become icons of Italian cooking: ribollita, the hearty Tuscan bread and vegetable soup; pappa al pomodoro, a thick, warming tomato and bread soup; or ground into a crunchy topping for pasta in place of expensive grated cheese. Ingenuity, not abundance, was the mother of invention.
Antonella and Alessandra grew up cooking this way, learning around a family table in the way so deeply typical of Italian culture. Macché simply makes that tradition visible — and celebrated.
Looking ahead, Macché is planning a series of events that will take guests on a culinary journey through all the regions of Italy — a reminder of just how vast and varied Italian food culture truly is. From the butter-rich risottos of the north to the sun-soaked tomato sauces of Sicily, Italy is not one cuisine but many, and Macché wants to show The Hague all of them.
Whether you’re an experienced cook or someone who has never attempted fresh dough in their life, a Macché workshop offers something rare: the feeling of being welcomed into someone’s home, fed well, and sent back into the world a little happier than when you arrived. On the day, we made two pizzas — a tomato base with lemon ricotta, aubergine, and basil, and a white pizza with béchamel sauce, fried leeks, and parsley. Unexpected combinations, and so satisfying that you completely forget every ingredient on the table is vegan.
Photos by: Sherika Rooplal-Clappers
Keep an eye on their Instagram for upcoming regional tasting events — and book a workshop via their website – be quick as spaces fill up fast. Tip! A workshop also makes a great gift for the coming festive season
Do you have a story about your own café, restaurant or bar in the city? Reach out to sherika@thehagueonline.com to possibly be featured.
Sherika Rooplal-Clappers is a contributing writer for The Hague Online, covering culture, lifestyle, and local events. With a passion for storytelling and international perspectives, she highlights the people, places, and experiences that make The Hague a dynamic city.
Venue provided complimentary food and drinks during Sherika’s visit for this feature. The Hague Online retained editorial control, and the views expressed are the writer’s own
There’s a particular kind of idea that only makes sense once someone says it out loud: build an entire menu around the potato, in a country that eats them almost daily. At Potato Batata, tucked away on Maliestraat 1, that’s exactly what you can expect.
Lama Yazbeck, the owner of Potato Batata, is Lebanese born and bred. She arrived in the Netherlands five years ago, settling first in Amsterdam, where she found much of the food lacking in flavour and variety. When she moved to The Hague two years ago, she knew she wanted to bring something new to the city.
Foto: Anouk BoutenFoto: Anouk Bouten
Back in Lebanon, she had worked mostly in the NGO sector, but she also made and sold chocolate truffles from home as a side gig, and she enjoyed every minute of it. Eventually, she felt the calling to get back into food. This time, the question was what. So Lama did what many of us do when we’re searching for direction: she sat down with her mother and started listing meals.
Somewhere in that list, a pattern appeared. Potatoes kept turning up. In Lebanon, she told me, the potato isn’t a main ingredient, more of a supporting player. But the more they wrote, the more the idea made sense. The Netherlands loves its potatoes, and the quality is excellent. Why not take an ingredient the city already trusts and let it carry an entire menu?
It’s a lovely piece of reasoning, and a very expat one: start with what you know from home, and make it work for the place you’re in now.
The menu is potato from start to finish, with a Lebanese and Mediterranean flavour profile. There are wraps, potato salad, quiche-inspired pies, soufflé and, for dessert, a sweet potato pie. “All potato” sounds unusual, but the range is wider than you’d expect, and it’s clear that real thought went into moving one ingredient through savoury, comforting and sweet flavours.
I tried three dishes:
The messy potato wrap, filled with roast potatoes, coleslaw, pickles and lettuce, and served with a tangy sauce. Be warned: it is indeed messy!
The rustic potato pie, which is similar to a quiche, with basil, cherry tomatoes and olives running through the filling. The crust, made in-house, was flaky and perfectly cooked.
The sweet potato pie, which closes the meal and shows off the sweet potato in a lovely dessert.
The first thing you notice about the flavours here is how gentle they are. Lebanese cooking is often bold with garlic, lemon and fresh herbs, however here the food is simple and mild, comforting rather than punchy: the basil and olives in the rustic pie are present but polite, and the tangy sauce on the wrap is the liveliest flavour on the plate. All in line with a more Dutch palette.
Many items on the menu are homemade, like the hummus, and gluten free. Meat lovers, fear not: marinated beef is available and can be added to your meal. Around 90% of the ingredients are locally sourced, the meat is halal, and vegans will find great options too.
Foto: Anouk BoutenFoto: Anouk Bouten
Potato Batata is a place for a relaxed lunch, for anyone curious about a new concept, and for potato lovers, of whom The Hague has plenty. What it has is a clear idea, a personal story behind it, and a gentle, approachable take on Lebanese flavours.
Go for the crust, the comfort, and a menu that makes one humble ingredient do a surprising amount of work. Potato Batata has only been open for a few weeks, but plenty more is in store. They offer catering for events, and from November will be serving early dinners from 16:30 to 18:30, with more seasonal dishes such as mashed potatoes.
Photos provided by Lama Yazbeck/ Anouk Bouten for Potata Batata
Potato Batata is open for lunch on weekdays at Maliestraat 1 . Follow them on Instagram to stay updated
Do you have a story about your own café, restaurant or bar in the city? Reach out to sherika@thehagueonline.com to possibly be featured.
Sherika Rooplal-Clappers is a contributing writer for The Hague Online, covering culture, lifestyle, and local events. With a passion for storytelling and international perspectives, she highlights the people, places, and experiences that make The Hague a dynamic city.
Piet Heinstraat is one of my favourite streets in the city — lovely cafés, restaurants and stores line it, and you could easily spend half a day exploring it all. One of the most charming spaces there is, And Concept Store.
Run by Bénédicte Cador-Robinot, originally from Paris, the store has quietly been part of the neighbourhood for three years now. She brings her French eye for beautiful things to The Hague, both through her own handmade jewellery and a store filled with gorgeous finds.
Walk in and you’ll understand immediately why people lose track of time here. The store brings together artists from around the world, and every single piece is handmade: clothing, scarves, candles, jewellery, trinkets, the kind of gifts that feel personal rather than generic. It’s the sort of shop where you go in looking for one thing and leave half an hour later with three, all of them for people you love.
But what I really want to tell you about is the workshop I joined.
I sat down one Tuesday evening to make a pair of earrings using glass Miyuki beads, those tiny, jewel-toned Japanese beads that catch the light in a way that photographs never quite capture. There was no rush, no pressure to get it right the first time, just the quiet, repetitive motion of threading bead after bead while conversation drifted easily around the table.
It struck me, somewhere in the middle of it, how rare that kind of stillness has become. We fill our days with screens and speed, and here was a room full of people choosing instead to make something slowly, with their hands. It felt less like a craft class and more like a small meditation, the kind where you finish not just with a finished pair of earrings, but with your mind a little quieter than when you sat down.
The rising popularity of analog hobbies says a lot about what we’re all craving right now: fewer screens, less doomscrolling, more time spent actually making something with our hands.
If you’ve been looking for a reason to visit And Concept Store, let this be it, and mark your calendar for something extra special while you’re there. On 26 November, the store is hosting Pink Christmas, an evening of drinks and festive cheer to welcome the season in style. It’s the perfect excuse to start your holiday shopping somewhere that actually feels like a gift in itself.
So next time you’re wandering Piet Heinstraat, step inside. Browse slowly, pick up more than you planned to, and if you get the chance, sign up for a workshop. You might just leave with something you made yourself, and a little more stillness than you walked in with.
And Concept Store is open Tuesday – Sundays on Piet Heinstraat 92A with workshops on Tuesday evenings and one Saturday a month— follow them on Instagram for more details
Do you have a story about your own space in the city? Reach out to sherika@thehagueonline.com to possibly be featured.
Sherika Rooplal-Clappers is a contributing writer for The Hague Online, covering culture, lifestyle, and local events. With a passion for storytelling and international perspectives, she highlights the people, places, and experiences that make The Hague a dynamic city.
The Netherlands is one of the most dog-friendly countries in the world, and as a dog owner myself, it’s been a joy watching my rescue, Lily, explore and settle into life in The Hague after getting her from Romania. From the dunes to dog-friendly café terraces, this city makes space for dogs in a way that still surprises people who move here.
Dogs have also come to mean more than just companionship at home. More and more owners are recognising the real benefits that come with having one, from lower stress to a built-in reason to get outside and meet people. Walking Lily has certainly been mine; some of my favourite discoveries about this city have come from the places she’s dragged me into.
So here are my favourite spots to enjoy together in The Hague.
The beach. Scheveningen and Kijkduin are among the best places in the country to let a dog loose, but the rules shift with the seasons. In winter, from 1 October to 15 May, dogs are welcome on the whole of the Den Haag beach. In summer, dogs are limited to certain stretches during the day, so check the signs at each beach entrance or the municipality’s website before you go. Make sure you clean up after your dog.
If you want a reliable summer option, locals point to the Noorderstrand, beyond the last beach access at the Zwarte Pad, where dogs can run freely all day.
The dunes. The dunes of Westduinpark and the Hollandse Duinen National Park are beautiful for a long walk, but dogs must stay on the lead. Loose dogs disturb the nesting birds and wildlife that live here, so keep to the paths and read the signs at each entrance.
The Haagse Bos. For shade, space and a quieter pace, the Haagse Bos is a favourite for dog walkers. Look for the “uitrengebied” signs that mark areas where dogs may run free.
Zuiderpark. The Hague’s largest and oldest public park is a major green space, sports hub and cultural venue all in one. A few smaller areas allow off-lead running, but for the rest, it makes for a lovely on-lead walk.
Coffee with your companion
A good dog-friendly café doesn’t just tolerate your dog, it makes room for them. My favourite spots include:
Bartine – the famous bakery on Piet Heinstraat doesn’t just have great coffee, service and pastries, it also makes for a lovely spot to enjoy with your dog.
Arket’s café – the chic Swedish fashion store houses a café serving great cappuccinos and provides the perfect setting for “fika.” The staff love seeing dogs, so expect fresh water to be brought out for yours on arrival.
De Oude Tol – the classic South African lunchroom near The Peace Palace has a lovely outdoor terrace, perfect for warmer days with your furry friend.
Parkoers – housed in Zuiderpark, this makes for a delightful stop after a morning walk with your dog. The menu serves standard Dutch classics, but the atmosphere is properly gezellig.
The Story Café – this cosy neighbourhood café on Appelstraat serves up delicious meals, and they even have pup cups on the menu!
Beach clubs like Hito, De Staat and Zuid – perfect stops after a run on the beach!
Policies can change, so it’s worth a quick message or a look at the door before you go. My rule is to sit outside when the weather allows, and pick somewhere quieter in winter so your dog can settle under the table while you enjoy your meal.
What I love most about walking a dog in this city is how it shapes your day. The same park at the same hour, the same café table — these become a rhythm, and rhythms turn into community. People who would never have spoken to each other end up knowing each other by their dogs’ names.
Lily is not just a dog to me, she’s part of my family. Seeing how excited she gets to explore new places and try new things inspired me to create a dog-friendly event, which I’m delighted to share. On 31 October, I’m teaming up with The Story Cafe’s owner, Meryem Hammiche, and artist Ale, to host Dog P(ART)Y — a few relaxed hours in the morning with you, your dog, and a small group of like-minded individuals.
Here’s what to expect:
Delicious bites for you and your dog
A doggy artwork activity, where your dog gets to make art (yes, really)
A small, cosy group of other owners and their dogs
When: Saturday 31 October 2026 Where: The Story Cafe & Concept Store, Appelstraat 175 Tickets and extra info can be found here Good to know: Dogs must be friendly and socialised, and kept on a leash. You are ultimately responsible for your dog’s behaviour and safety. There will be 2 sessions – one for smaller dogs and one for larger breeds. Check out the link above for full details.
We wanted to create a space where your dog not only feels welcomed, but gets to engage with you in a fun, safe activity. Grab a ticket, bring your best boy or girl, and try something new!
Reach out to sherika@thehagueonline.com for all lifestyle topics and events
Sherika Rooplal-Clappers is a contributing writer for The Hague Online, covering culture, lifestyle, and local events. With a passion for storytelling and international perspectives, she highlights the people, places, and experiences that make The Hague a dynamic city.
