This bar I simply chose because of its name. As you might know.. I am Dutch. I just wanted to know what Café Holandes had to do with Holland, or better said The Netherlands. First of all, it looks nothing like a Dutch ‘Café’, more like a cafeteria/snack bar. I have never seen a cafeteria in Spain, until today of course. But this is supposed to be a bar.
I asked the waiter, when he had a bit more time, the origin of the name. Turns out that the parents of the present owner went in the sixties to the Netherlands to find a job and lived there for a while.
In the bar itself are a couple of chairs and tables, but the place to sit in this bar is at its terrace. Today they had 10 tables outside, none of them with an ashtray, although you are allowed to smoke. There were two waiters, but they did not show there faces a lot at the terrace. It wasn’t really noisy at the terrace, although it is very close to the Camino de Ronda. I enjoyed the tranquillity of the terrace, as well as the large tinto de verano, at a good price. But the tinto the verano might have had a bit more wine to my taste.
This afternoon there were about five tables occupied and one of them with a foreign family. The others seemed people from the neighbourhood.
In Café Holandes you can choose your tapas. You can find their selection on the wall or on the little blackboard. I asked the waiter for their best tapa, and he said with this warm weather best something cold, like their salmorejo (cold tomato soup) or ensaladilla rusa (Russian salad).
I decided to go for the salmorejo. Well, if that is their best tapa….. I have had better salmorejos.
They also have a Dutch tapa. I thought that was really curious as in The Netherlands we do not have tapas. Turns out it is grilled pork meat with melted cheese and tomatoes. What shall I say?!?
For the second drink and its tapa, I decided to choose the hamburger. And that was a good choice! It had a good taste and it was huge.
Café Holandes is open seven days a week from 8 till midnight.
Address: Glorieta de Arabial 99
Facebook
Website, they do not have
