Leeuwarden Food Guide: 7 Friesland Producers You Can Visit

The food worth travelling to Leeuwarden for is mostly made outside it, on farms, in a distillery, at a working mill and on a private lake, all within an hour’s drive of the city. This guide covers 7 producers and places to eat in Leeuwarden and the wider Friesland countryside, with the phone numbers you need because most of them run tours only by arrangement.

The trip these notes come from was made when Leeuwarden held the title of European Capital of Culture, in 2018, and the city invited a group of Belgian bloggers north to eat their way around the region. The title has long since moved on. The producers have not, and they are what the region is worth travelling for.

One correction before you plan. Restaurant By Ús, which plenty of write-ups of Leeuwarden from that period still recommend, has closed. There is a short note on it below so you do not waste an evening looking for it.

Euro amounts carry conversions at the rate of 11 September 2026, when €1 bought about $1.16 and £0.86.

7 local food hot spots in and around Leeuwarden

The 7 places below are ordered as a route rather than a ranking, starting with lunch in the city and working outward across Friesland. Four of the seven need a phone call before you turn up, which is the single most important thing to know about eating your way around this region.

1. Dutch bistro food at Grand-Café De Walrus

Grand-Café De Walrus is the easy first stop, on the Gouverneursplein in the middle of Leeuwarden with a large terrace in front of the door. It is bistro food with a Dutch accent, and it has been trading since 2009.

We had a three-part lunch combination: a small soup, bread with pulled pork, and a sandwich croquette, which is the Dutch dish that most confuses visitors and is exactly what it sounds like. Starters, mains and desserts change weekly, so the menu is different on a second visit. It keeps long hours, from mid-morning until late.

Grand-Café De Walrus, Gouverneursplein 37, Leeuwarden. +31 58 213 7740

2. 150+ years of history at distillery Weduwe Joustra

Weduwe Joustra in Sneek makes Beerenburg, the herb liquor Friesland treats as its own, and it has been run by the same family for six generations from the same narrow building. Walking in, it looks nothing like a distillery.

The story behind the drink is the reason to go. Stephen Joustra imported French wine for his own pleasure and found that the peat insulation in his cellar improved it, so he started selling it, and then died a year into the business leaving his wife Anjenette with four young children. On a trip to Amsterdam she watched a herb seller supplying sailors, who tipped his herbs into barrels of alcohol and drank the result three times a day against seasickness. She had the sailors bring her packets of the same herbs through Sneek, and Beerenburg was the result.

The joke Friesland lives with is that its national drink is named after an Amsterdam shopkeeper. Beerenburg was the herb seller’s name, the sailors called them Beerenburg herbs, and the widow named her drink after them.

The original recipe is still made with the same herb combination, and the house has added sweeter and stronger versions since, all of them nothing but dried herbs and alcohol. Weduwe Joustra does not export, so the Netherlands is the only place to buy it. Tours run on request only, so call ahead. The attic doubles as museum and tasting room, and the guide we had was the reason a person who barely drinks came away interested.

Weduwe Joustra, Kleinzand 32, Sneek. +31 515 412 912

3. Organic flour milling at mill ‘t Lam

Smock mill ‘t Lam in Woudsend is a seventeenth-century mill that still works, and it is the only mill in the region certified organic. The first records of it date from the 1600s, when it replaced an older mill, and after a spell out of use it is fully operational again.

It grinds grain and barley sourced entirely within the Netherlands and sells to bakers, to shops and directly over the counter. The shop is next door in what used to be the miller’s house, and it stocks other local food alongside the flour.

Tours are given by the miller, Kees, who runs the mill with his wife, and he takes visitors up onto the mill’s stage to explain how it works. Call ahead; there is no walk-in tour.

‘t Lam, Molestrjitte 4, Woudsend. +31 514 591 659

4. Eel fisherman Ale de Jager

Ale de Jager is one of the last professional fishermen in Friesland and he fishes a one-hectare lake that only he has the right to fish. The address looks like an ordinary house in an ordinary street; round the corner there is a private harbour with two boats, nets and gear.

The harbour connects to the lake by one of Friesland’s canals, so he takes the boat to work the way most people take the car, considerably earlier in the morning. He catches the fish, and he smokes and prepares them himself. We were shown the smoking cabin and given eel and salmon out of it, and both were better than anything with that description has a right to be.

When he is not fishing he takes visitors out on the lake to see the nets and hear how the Friesland fishing industry works, and he runs those trips year-round by arrangement. This is a one-person business, so call before you drive out.

Fiskerij Bedriuw de Jager, Oan it Swin 9, Reduzum. +31 6 23690581

5. Sheep farm Groot Kabel

Groot Kabel is an organic sheep farm at Kollumerpomp making sheep’s cheese, and it exists in its current form because of a fire. Wieger and Dineke’s farm burned in 2007, and instead of rebuilding what they had, they specialised.

Every litre of milk their sheep produce goes into their own cheese. None is sold on and none is wasted. Most of the cheese goes to wholesale and a small shop on site sells the rest. If you are wary because you dislike goat’s cheese, sheep’s cheese is a different thing: what surprised me was how mild it is.

The farm runs on solar power, collects rainwater for the sheep, filters its waste water, uses the manure as fertiliser and grows beet to feed the flock, which is close to a closed loop without quite being one. Dineke walks visitors through the stable and you can see into the cheese room through a glass wall. Tours are by arrangement. If you cannot fit in a visit, Groot Kabel Schapenkaas is worth picking off a shelf.

Groot Kabel, Foijingaweg 57, Kollumerpomp. +31 511 408 817

6. Botanical Garden De Kruidhof

De Kruidhof at Buitenpost is the botanical garden of Friesland and holds one of the largest medicinal herb collections in western Europe, laid out across 19 themed gardens. It is the one stop on this list with fixed opening hours, and they matter.

The 2026 season opens on 14 April, and the garden runs Tuesday to Saturday from 10:00 to 17:00 and Sundays and public holidays from 12:00 to 17:00. It is closed on Mondays. Adult entry is €8.50 (about $10, £7).

The themed gardens run from the obvious to the unexpected: medicinal herbs, kitchen herbs, ferns, roses, fruit, a forest garden and a butterfly garden alongside a collection of biblical plants, a garden of dye plants, a garden of crops that have fallen out of fashion, a Friesland biodiversity garden, a meditation garden, a prehistoric hunters’ settlement used for workshops, and a replica convent herb garden laid out the way Charlemagne ordered monasteries to plant theirs. There is also a Berenburgborder, planted with the herbs that go into Berenburg, which is a different recipe from the Beerenburg at Weduwe Joustra and a good way to close the loop on the day.

Beyond the gardens there is a playground, a shop, a labyrinth, an Ice Age museum and a café, and the café is where we had lunch: a platter of small jars of pestos and spreads made from what the kitchen cut in the garden that morning, so it is different every day.

Botanical Garden De Kruidhof, Schoolstraat 29b, Buitenpost. +31 511 541 253

7. Food tour around Leeuwarden

The Kleine Kerkstraat and the Nieuwe Oosterstraat are two short streets in the centre of Leeuwarden lined with specialist food shops, and walking between them is a self-guided food tour that can absorb an afternoon. The 7 shops below are the ones we made it into.

• House of Taste, Kleine Kerkstraat 36. A wholesaler and shop for Friesland delicacies and imported ones: drinks, sausage, cheese, nuts, oil and vinegar. They will make you a sandwich to take away.
• Bakery Salverda, Kleine Kerkstraat 34 and Oostergrachtswal 109. Trading for more than 200 years, and known for regional specialities: Oranjekoek, the almond cake, and Dumkes, the cookies measured by the length of a thumb.
• Zuivelhoeve, Kleine Kerkstraat 23. The dairy shop, mostly cheese, with tapenades and nut mixes alongside it.
• Proef Puur, Kleine Kerkstraat 7. A fairtrade chocolate and ice cream maker with its own shop. As a Belgian I am obliged to be sceptical about foreign pralines, and theirs were good.
• Bakery De Broadtsje, Kleine Kerkstraat 3. The place for Fryske sûkerbôle, Friesland’s sugar bread, plus cakes, cookies and rye bread.
• Priuw, Nieuwe Oosterstraat 6. “Priuw” means to taste. The owner, Hielkje, had to work to persuade local producers to stock with her when she opened, and now they come to her. Food, beer and souvenirs, and she will talk you through every item on the shelves.
• Groenteman van der Meulen, Nieuwe Oosterstraat 1c. A greengrocer, and the surprise of the trip. Eight varieties of potato were laid out for us to taste, with some already turned into chips, and the differences between them were far larger than I expected. He sells one variety to a nearby fish and chip stand, which is where I would start next time.

One that has closed: Restaurant By Ús

Restaurant By Ús at Over de Kelders 24 has closed, and it is worth saying so because it still appears in a lot of writing about Leeuwarden from the Capital of Culture period. Restaurant listing sites now mark it closed and its own domain no longer resolves.

It is a genuine loss. The format was one set menu per evening, so the only decision was how many courses you wanted, which let the kitchen buy fresh, waste nothing and follow whatever was in season. We ate five and a half courses off that night’s menu, through mackerel with watermelon kimchi, plaice with herring roe, mussels in a barbecued red onion broth and a passion fruit tart, and the pacing and the table spacing were as good as the cooking. If you find a Leeuwarden list still recommending it, that is the list’s age showing.

Where to stay in Leeuwarden

Leeuwarden is small enough that anywhere central works, and the Post-Plaza Hotel is the obvious choice because of the building. It occupies the old post office, and the former sorting hall is now a grand café serving food and drink all day, with DJ sets on Friday afternoons and live singer-songwriter sets on alternate Sundays.

The room was what a single night needs: a large double bed, a small desk and a bathroom with a rain shower. Check prices and availability for the Post-Plaza Hotel.

How to get to Leeuwarden

Leeuwarden sits at the end of the line in the north of the Netherlands, in Friesland, and the two sensible ways to reach it from Belgium are train and car.

By train from Belgium, the route runs to Schiphol and then north. I went from Leuven to Antwerp, took the Thalys from Antwerp to Schiphol, and changed there for the last train to Leeuwarden. A regular InterCity from Antwerp to Schiphol works too and adds close to an hour, which matters only if you need to arrive by a particular time. Compare train, coach and flight options across Europe before you commit, because the difference between the two Antwerp options is entirely about how much you want to pay for the hour.

By car, leave it at Parking Zaailand in the centre, which is a large underground car park, and walk. Note that the producers in this guide are spread across Friesland and several of them are not near a station, so a car is the practical answer if you want more than the city shops.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The 4 tips below each save a wasted drive across Friesland, and three of them are about needing to phone first.

1. Phone before you drive to any of the producers. Weduwe Joustra, ‘t Lam, Ale de Jager and Groot Kabel all give tours on request only, and the last two are run by one household each. There is no walk-in option at any of them.
2. Do not plan De Kruidhof for a Monday, or for winter. The 2026 season starts on 14 April and the garden is closed every Monday, which catches people out because it is the one fixed-hours stop in the region.
3. Buy your Beerenburg in the Netherlands or not at all. Weduwe Joustra does not export, so there is no picking it up at home afterwards.
4. Cross Restaurant By Ús off any Leeuwarden list you are working from. It has closed, and it still appears on plenty of them.

About the author. These notes come from a two-day press trip to Leeuwarden and Friesland taken by Sofie Couwenbergh, who founded Wonderful Wanderings in 2012 and travelled north from Belgium at the invitation of the city during its European Capital of Culture year. The page is maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team, which covers the Netherlands for independent travellers, including the producers, restaurants and hotels worth booking, and updates this page when businesses change hands, change hours or close.