Where to Eat Well in The Hague for Under €12
I have €300 a month for food after rent, transport, and study costs. That number forces a kind of precision that most food guides don’t have to think about. Here’s where I actually eat in Den Haag, with actual prices.
Saturday: the Schilderswijk market
The street market in the Schilderswijk runs on Wednesdays and Saturdays along the Hoefkade and surrounding streets. It’s the largest street market in The Hague and one of the cheapest places to buy food in the city. Fresh produce, spices, olives, bread, fish, meat. Arrive by 10am on Saturday when it’s fully stocked. Budget for a week of vegetables: €8–12. This is not a tourist market. It is a functioning neighbourhood market. Behave accordingly.
Indonesian: the Van Boetzelaerlaan area
The toko shops along the Van Boetzelaerlaan in the Transvaal neighbourhood sell prepared Indonesian food to take away. A container of nasi goreng or rendang with rice: €4–6. A full rijsttafel-style takeaway for two: €12–18. The quality is the genuine article, not a tourist approximation. My colleague Lena — who grew up near here — has written about this in more depth, but the short version is: this is where you eat when you want to understand what Den Haag’s food culture actually is.
Broodjes: the underrated Dutch lunch
A good broodjeszaak (sandwich shop) in Den Haag charges €3.50–5 for a proper filled roll. The chains are fine; the independent ones are better. The formula is: fresh bread, kroket or frikandel or kaas or haring or whatever the daily special is, eaten standing up or on a nearby bench. This is lunch for the majority of working people in the city. It’s cheap, it’s fast, and a good one is genuinely satisfying.
Surinamese rice and chicken
The Surinamese restaurants in the Schilderswijk and Transvaal areas serve rice and chicken dishes for €6–8 that will keep you full for the rest of the day. Roti with chicken curry is the benchmark — if a place does this well, everything else will be good too. I eat here at least twice a week. My budget survives because of it.
Honourable mention: the Albert Heijn on the Grote Marktstraat does a decent hot lunch section for €3–5 and the fresh bread counter is reliable. Not glamorous. Genuinely useful.
