Den Haag’s Surinamese and Antillean Food Scene: The Story Nobody Tells
When people write about food in Den Haag, they write about Indonesian food — and they are right to, because the city’s Indonesian and Surinamese-Javanese food culture is extraordinary. But Den Haag also has a significant Surinamese and Antillean community, and the food that community has brought to the city is equally worth understanding.
The Surinamese community in Den Haag
Den Haag has one of the largest Surinamese communities in the Netherlands, concentrated particularly in the districts around the Schilderswijk and the area south of the station. The community arrived in waves from the 1960s onward, and the food culture it brought — Surinamese-Creole cooking, Surinamese-Javanese cooking, Surinamese-Chinese cooking — has been embedded in the city for decades.
What to eat
The Surinamese bakeries in and around the Schilderswijk sell freshly made roti — the flaky flatbread served with curried chickpeas, vegetables, and meat — from early morning. A full roti meal costs €6–9. This is not fusion food adapted for Dutch palates. It is the actual thing.
Pom — a Surinamese-Creole dish made from grated pomtajer root baked with chicken — is found at Surinamese restaurants and is one of the most distinctive dishes in the city. It is comfort food in the deepest sense: slow, rich, specific to this community and this history.
Why it matters
The food tells a history that Den Haag’s official tourism narrative rarely addresses directly: the colonial relationship between the Netherlands and Suriname, the migration that followed independence, the community that built itself here. Eating at a Surinamese restaurant in the Schilderswijk is not a tourist activity. It is participation in the actual life of the city.
