5 Best Restaurants in The Hague, Netherlands

Magnificently dating to 1423 but rebuilt in 1660, the oldest restaurant in The Hague has a well-preserved interior redolent of the Dutch Golden Age, complete with wood-beamed ceilings. The furniture is more contemporary, but it's nonetheless an impressive setting for a light lunch, a platter of bitterballen to wash down a cold beer, or a hearty surf-and-turfy dinner, or beef stew.

Dudok—with its vast granite-and-metal interior that looks like a cross between a 1930s railway station and an ultracontemporary factory—is a great place for people-of-every-stripe-watching: politicians debating over a beer, fashionistas toying with their carpaccio salads, and pensioners tucking into an afternoon tea of cream cakes and salmon sandwiches. The menu combines international dishes—steaks, grilled chicken—with traditional Dutch fare such as mustard soup (surprisingly mild and flavorsome) and sausage with cabbage.