Rabat – Moroccans living in the Netherlands are celebrating Moroccan and Dutch cuisine by dedicating their restaurant to this culinary fusion in Dordrecht, Netherlands. The restaurant’s decoration is influenced by several elements of Moroccan and Dutch culture, and it also offers a range of Moroccan and Dutch dishes.
The owners Zini and his son Ilias amply named their restaurant ‘Nedmar,’ which is an abbreviation for Netherlands and Morocco. It is located in 41 Grote Spuistraat, Dordrecht. The new restaurant adds to the offering of Moroccan food in the Netherlands, which currently has more than 124 Moroccan restaurants.
The decoration in the restaurant follows a traditional Moroccan pattern. The walls are sprayed with mosaic patterns, the curtains and paintings on the wall give a homely Moroccan vibe to the place. “I designed the tagine lamps on the wall myself. I was even asked where we bought them,” Zini says. There are however traces of Dutch patterns in the Restaurant’s logo.
Zini, the owner, had been planning the Moroccan-Dutch restaurant since 2020. However, due to the global pandemic-induced crisis, the restaurant took a little longer to open. Zini works as a cook in the kitchen at Nedmar. While his son Ilias greets the guests and handles their service.
The restaurant has menus for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. “We want to expand it later on,” says Ilias. “Now it mainly contains Moroccan dishes, such as tajines, couscous and rice dishes for dinner. But we also have tomato soup, sandwiches or tuna salad, for example.”
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He also expressed that they plan to add Dutch dishes to the menu such as “prakkie or Dutch tagine with meatballs,yet we notice that until now the guests almost always opt for Moroccan cuisine.” This increasing appeal towards Moroccan dishes in the Netherlands proves the quality of Moroccan cuisine.
In the week of International Women’s Day, Zini and Ilias announced their weekly women’s dinner. The first women’s evening started on Wednesday 9 March. The women’s dinner will be held on a weekly basis every Wednesday from 4 to 10 p.m.
