Broodje Holland

Broodje Holland

Like many restaurants in Luxor, this one has been through a few transformations. Not long ago it was a coffee and snack bar serving English breakfasts and light meals, run by Dean, helped by Whalid. Dean moved out and took over the bistro further up the road which used to be Tramps. That Bistro now trades under Dean's name. Whalid remained at Queens coffee and for a while ran it as an English breakfast and snack bar with the original lady owner. Queens now has another new identity, this time as possibly Luxor's first Dutch sandwich bar called Queens Broodje Holland.

The building itself is much the same. It has the same uncovered dark wood tables and wooden bench seating for about a dozen people. There is a counter at the rear and the kitchen on full view behind that.

As its name suggests (broodje means sandwich), the fare is mostly bread-based or bun-based light snacks, mostly as burgers. Other specials are listed on blackboards and may include fish and chips for LE30 or other lunchtime favourites. They also do an all-day breakfast for around LE20. Although some of the specials are OK, most of the prices are quite high for what is on offer. A straight burger is LE20, but to have anything added, it becomes a 'special burger' at LE25. This would be OK for a burger-based meal, but the price is just for the burger in a bun. Elsewhere you would expect some chips and garnish, but here you pay an extraordinary LE17 for the chips, which makes a special burger and chips LE42. You can get a steak meal for that within a few minutes walk. A coffee is LE12. You pay about half the price at nearby Jo's Paradise, on the roof of St. Joseph hotel. It is only LE2 more (LE14) at the Hilton!

Inside Broodje Holland

As it is a small restaurant with an open kitchen, and as most of the meals are based on grills of some kind, the restaurant can easily get to smell of cooking oil or some ingredient. In an attempt to overcome this, there is a massive canopy over the grills, leading to an extract duct which exhausts into the road at the front. The extract mechanism is powered by an unbelievably noisy motor on the outside wall, so if you like conversation with your meal you have to hope the fat doesn't get too hot or that the fan does not have to activated for another reason.

At first the restaurant looks reasonably clean, but move an ornament on the table and you may find dust. It appears that cleaning is done around anything that is in the way. The kitchen appears superficially clean, but if the restaurant is just given a wipe around the bits that show there has to be a worry about the deeper side of kitchen cleaning.

The restaurant is now run by two Dutch-speaking men. Photos of dutch royalty adorn the walls and Dutch newspapers are available. Separate Menus are available in Dutch and in English. If you are dutch and want dutch conversation or if you want to look at a dutch newspaper, you might be tempted to eat here. For everyone else, we really can't think of a single reason to choose Broodje Holland when there are so many alternatives offering better choice at much lower prices and in a significantly better environment. Give it a miss.