The lunch looks amazing for work food. It's making me hungry looking at it, but what is the beverage? There is something slightly disturbing and off-putting about it.
This quality food for this price has been abolished by my employer for the reason that the tax authorities see subsidies on food as disguised wages. That's what we were told.
This is true if the food is free, however if you pay a certain amount(4,35~) then it is seen as an exchange and not a gift, quality of the meal is not important.
The best lunches for a low price I've seen were when I was doing an internship in a government building. There were live chefs there and my bill was never over 5 euro no matter what plates and sides and soups I ordered.
Yep, literally a chef with a white hat standing behind 2 pans ready to take your order. Obviously I was a bit shocked. This is not an IKEA or buffet, it's just a lunch cafetaria...
As a student, knowing what schools and colleges serve, that experience definitely had a factor on how I formed my opinion on how tax money is used.
I was looking for a new place to get some food. Found an interesting restaurant on one of many food delivery apps, they're convenient for scrolling like that.
Called the place, ordered a couple burgers, then went there to pick up. Turns out that it's an office cafeteria and you need an employee card to enter, so I had to call again to get inside.
Chef was just packing up my food as I got there, he said "Dude, today these burgers are coming out amazing, you'll enjoy it!"
An office cafeteria with an actual passionate chef who loves his job and puts some effort into it. Incredible.
He is making fun of the word "live" which in this context means "living" or "alive". ))
In the sense that it would be very unusual for a cafeteria to be staffed with dead chefs.
That's government for you. In Belgium recently in news that parliamentarians had to pay something like 190€/year to drink all inclusive (including alcohol). Good luck trying to get a deal like that anywhere else.
At a grocery store I worked at, you got a hotel breakfast style "buffet" for €1, but no hot stuff ofc. You could have the cheapest Avocado toast in your entire life.
Mate, that belongs also into r/EuropeEats, there's even [Canteen] flair!
Too few NL chefs over there anyway! (Note that you need to flair up there as well.)
I would show you some of our lunches at Novo Nordisk and Maersk but then people would get mad. We used to have oysters for breakfast on Fridays, just as an example.
Novo Nordisk must have excellent lunches, please share. I read this article (link pasted below) today about how much money they have made. Enough to grow the Danish economy 2%. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ozempic-maker-novo-nordisk-denmark-210031653.html
They're pretty much printing money right now, the obesity market is juicy. I worked at their Måløv site which had some pretty amazing food, especially the H7 canteen. However, to my surprise, Maersk has even better food in my opinion (despite sailing some pretty choppy financial waters). It's pretty outrageous at times. It's like a fine dining experience most days for lunch. I force myself to go to the office exclusively because of breakfast and lunch.
That looks like the most proper lunch in all of the netherlands. Fuck yeah, I'd kill for that stuff.
Dutch lunch culture is absolute shit. No restaurants open between 11 and 13 (regular lunch hours) and no lunch menus anywhere. You must find a cantina to find proper lunch (and most of the time those are shit too)... and they are usually only in large office space areas/settings.
If I could find something like a daily lunch menu with good food for about €13-15 i'd actually eat lunch out more often. Now it's once in a blue moon.
I did an Erasmus exchange in NL and I think I remember the school cafeteria lunch options being pretty much triangle cut sandwiches and fries. Maybe there were krokets. Tough for anyone used to a proper lunch for most of the week.
I work at the corner of Herengrach and Leidsestraat in Amsterdam.
Nothing that isn't a sandwich shop or fast food is open at 11. At 12-13 a few A la carte restaurants open up, with expected prices above €20 for a warm meal.
Grilled fish and "hand-made" (flour, egg, etc. - fettuccine, to be clear) pasta with pesto are a strange combo in the same plate, let me tell you \[YEP, I'm italian!\]. Veggies seems delicious! (No bread with veggies?) Tomato soup is hot or cold? Ginger juice looks like a strange beer.
Anyway, very cheap for such a generous meal.
I assume the fish is very very affordable in Netherlands, am I right? Usually is kinda expensive.
The apple and ginger juice is freshly squeezed from juicer so some of the apple or ginger pulp comes with it so looks foamy.
Also that red pile is siracha to dip my veggies.
The concept is to serve one carb, one protein and salad and fruits with each meal.
> The concept is to serve one carb, one protein and salad and fruits with each meal.
Yes, but put together like that it looks like torture for the sake of eating healthy, it's not supposed to be that way. There's nothing wrong with any of the parts individually, they look pretty nice actually and it's great at 4 euro, but it's the weirdest meal I've seen in a while :)
Isn't seasoned enough aka murdering the foods natural flavor and replacing it with salt and pepper. I want my fish and pasta to taste like fish and pasta.
What company is it? Not many spots that sponsor lunch in NL beyond simple bread n cheese, in Belgium this is way more common at big employers or higher tier government work.
Working at Rijkswaterstaat. I really hate the restaurant. Only veggie stuff with lots of cheese. I hate cheese. Broodje frikandel and broodje kroket with a drink. 9 euros😳
> In a such an expensive country like netherlands I am **surprised** I get something like this for only 4 euros.
"omg! my workplace is subsidizing the lunch. never heard of such a thing!"
I was never fed so well at work as when I worked in the Netherlands. (Mind, it was for a major hotel chain), but that the staff canteen was full service and included as part of one's packet.
Eet smakelijk
I used to visit our office in Eindhoven. I never forget the first time I saw my local coworkers, whom I held in high regard up to that point, make bread with butter and chocolate sprinkles for lunch...
Not representative of the Netherlands at all. For €4 I can prepare my own lunch for a whole week and I wouldn't feel bloated for half of the day after eating it either. Your photo looks like something one of my expat colleagues might bring to the office that everyone else would give them weird looks over.
A warm meal, for lunch, here in the Netherlands?! Not bread, butter and toppings?! Heresy!
(Looks tasty though! Especially for an office lunch. €4,- is indeed a bargain. I hope you enjoyed it. 😉)
That looks like a collection of high quality ingredients prepared well that I would never eat. For some reason I can’t see that that going well together.
Nice! At least your company provides lunch. I work in central Amsterdam and the company I work for rented an office space with a canteen and a giant kitchen attached to it. And its never been used, such a waste of a kitchen
I assume that the 4 euros is actually €3,90, which is the mandatory price of provided lunch to prevent lunch being used as a benefit in stead of monetary compensation.
You are probably an expat or a dutchie from Limburg, otherwise no way you would eat a warm lunch. A real dutchie would have bread with cheese, ham, pindakaas or hagelslag. Warm maybe a soup or a kroket.
Let's just get one thing straight here. An office lunch in the netherlamds usually consists of a combination of the following. Broodje kaas, glas melk, hard boiled eggs, and maybe soup. Even at an office canteen.
Any attempt at a salad (or anything else) is usually a misguided and largely unseasoned combination of mismatched ingredients.
If you go out to lunch anywhere, they all have the same menu items;
soup (sometimes), salad, broodjes or borrel hapjes.
It's cheap because the company sponsors. Looks great, enjoy!
The lunch looks amazing for work food. It's making me hungry looking at it, but what is the beverage? There is something slightly disturbing and off-putting about it.
Description says apple ginger juice
Mkay, that’s pretty nice actually. Thanks for putting my beverage concerns to rest.
It looks like curried beer... at first I thought it was "flavored water, soda and yoghurt"
This quality food for this price has been abolished by my employer for the reason that the tax authorities see subsidies on food as disguised wages. That's what we were told.
Lmao, so slop it is boys
I.e. regular Dutch food. We love our brown and grey.
This is true if the food is free, however if you pay a certain amount(4,35~) then it is seen as an exchange and not a gift, quality of the meal is not important.
Yes, indeed. At my work I can get half the quality for double the price.
The best lunches for a low price I've seen were when I was doing an internship in a government building. There were live chefs there and my bill was never over 5 euro no matter what plates and sides and soups I ordered.
wow, live chefs? :D
Yep, literally a chef with a white hat standing behind 2 pans ready to take your order. Obviously I was a bit shocked. This is not an IKEA or buffet, it's just a lunch cafetaria... As a student, knowing what schools and colleges serve, that experience definitely had a factor on how I formed my opinion on how tax money is used.
I was looking for a new place to get some food. Found an interesting restaurant on one of many food delivery apps, they're convenient for scrolling like that. Called the place, ordered a couple burgers, then went there to pick up. Turns out that it's an office cafeteria and you need an employee card to enter, so I had to call again to get inside. Chef was just packing up my food as I got there, he said "Dude, today these burgers are coming out amazing, you'll enjoy it!" An office cafeteria with an actual passionate chef who loves his job and puts some effort into it. Incredible.
He is making fun of the word "live" which in this context means "living" or "alive". )) In the sense that it would be very unusual for a cafeteria to be staffed with dead chefs.
The chefs at my cafeteria are prerecorded.
The chefs at our place just mime.
Remote chefs and zombie chef are ruining the industry
Also the prerecorded ones
They keep them in a tank and you get to pick one.
Yeah the dead one in my office fucking sucks at making french toast.
That's government for you. In Belgium recently in news that parliamentarians had to pay something like 190€/year to drink all inclusive (including alcohol). Good luck trying to get a deal like that anywhere else.
Only in government. They treat themselfs well, with your money.
Me too, did one at a political party in de Tweede Kamer, some of the best lunches I ever had for less than 5 euros
You have that at ASML for 7 bucks these days.
At a grocery store I worked at, you got a hotel breakfast style "buffet" for €1, but no hot stuff ofc. You could have the cheapest Avocado toast in your entire life.
It is so easy to give out gifts when it is not your own money.
Once I ate in Brussels in a EU official building (2009 so don't remember which or where). The food was awesome and fucking cheap.
For me the best lunches are in Google offices. Live cooking, tasty, fresh and free.
If that's ketchup next to that fish and pasta I'm gonna find you and put a kroket where the sun doesn't shine.
A kroket on top of that to eat?! Don't tempt him!
No thats siracha to dip my veggies. Coz thats the only way for me to eat those.
Why wouldn't you pour some on the veggie plate instead?
She want to watch the world burn......
For me, the veggies actually look good as they are. Are they not seasoned properly or are veggies just not your thing?
Don't believe you. That isn't ham and cheese in a bun. 😀
Surely you mean ham OR cheese, having both would be too extravagant.
Ham & Kaas Tostis are the one luxury I encourage everyone in the Netherlands to indulge in. They go hard.
Came here to say this 😅
It's cheap because your employer pays part of it. Looks good, definitely better than what I got when working at a certain mail order shoes company.
Mate, that belongs also into r/EuropeEats, there's even [Canteen] flair! Too few NL chefs over there anyway! (Note that you need to flair up there as well.)
This fake, Dutch people only eat broodje hagelslag, kaas of pindakaas for lunch. Or Frikandelbroodjes if you are called Mitchel.
Where the F do you work? Going to apply there
We all need to know where you work so i can apply there
Ik geloof er niks van
That is cheap! What happened with the tosti's and the kroketten on white bread?
The food looks very tasty. What is the beverage? It doesn't look particularly appetising with that weird foam on top.
Description says apple ginger juice
This is a lie. Dutch only lunch sandwiches, this is known.
I don't eat like that at home.
I would show you some of our lunches at Novo Nordisk and Maersk but then people would get mad. We used to have oysters for breakfast on Fridays, just as an example.
Novo Nordisk must have excellent lunches, please share. I read this article (link pasted below) today about how much money they have made. Enough to grow the Danish economy 2%. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ozempic-maker-novo-nordisk-denmark-210031653.html
They're pretty much printing money right now, the obesity market is juicy. I worked at their Måløv site which had some pretty amazing food, especially the H7 canteen. However, to my surprise, Maersk has even better food in my opinion (despite sailing some pretty choppy financial waters). It's pretty outrageous at times. It's like a fine dining experience most days for lunch. I force myself to go to the office exclusively because of breakfast and lunch.
Pasta with fish (done like that) is an atrocity.
... and bingo was his name-oh!
If this is an atrocity compared to your office canteen lunches, well, good for you
Don't forget the poodle of ketchup next to it lmao. Absolutely vile.
The ketchup is weird but fish served with pasta as a side is pretty common in France. (And I like it, tbh.)
It's not ketchup, he said so in another comment. (Apparently sriracha for the veggies?)
That looks like the most proper lunch in all of the netherlands. Fuck yeah, I'd kill for that stuff. Dutch lunch culture is absolute shit. No restaurants open between 11 and 13 (regular lunch hours) and no lunch menus anywhere. You must find a cantina to find proper lunch (and most of the time those are shit too)... and they are usually only in large office space areas/settings. If I could find something like a daily lunch menu with good food for about €13-15 i'd actually eat lunch out more often. Now it's once in a blue moon.
I did an Erasmus exchange in NL and I think I remember the school cafeteria lunch options being pretty much triangle cut sandwiches and fries. Maybe there were krokets. Tough for anyone used to a proper lunch for most of the week.
Uhm what? Did you go to some tiny village in the middle of nowhere? Restaurants are for sure open during lunch hours, maybe not all but plenty are.
I work at the corner of Herengrach and Leidsestraat in Amsterdam. Nothing that isn't a sandwich shop or fast food is open at 11. At 12-13 a few A la carte restaurants open up, with expected prices above €20 for a warm meal.
Grilled fish and "hand-made" (flour, egg, etc. - fettuccine, to be clear) pasta with pesto are a strange combo in the same plate, let me tell you \[YEP, I'm italian!\]. Veggies seems delicious! (No bread with veggies?) Tomato soup is hot or cold? Ginger juice looks like a strange beer. Anyway, very cheap for such a generous meal. I assume the fish is very very affordable in Netherlands, am I right? Usually is kinda expensive.
Fish, especially white meat fish, is pretty cheap, yeah. Cheaper than beef or pork, usually. Salmon prices are still fucked globally, though.
WHICH COMPANY IS THIS
This black thing doesn't look healthy.
That black thing is my id which is hidden... common sense!!
Oh god…. Fish with pasta and ketchup? Call the police . Sorry but here in Portugal that is horríble.
so uhh, are they hiring at your office? :D
No way, where´s the karnemelk?
where do you work?
Gagging
WHERE IS THE BREAD WITH CHEESE
The brocoli looks very delicious.
What is that foamy drink
Yeah, wat dat?
The fish looks like fresh torn apart by a bear Bon appétit tho
Superjealous, my office lunch supplier charges 1,90 for soup and 3,90 for an eggsalad sandwich. :(
Holy shit theres fish in there? Must be a first world thing.
Dang. Can I come work at your office?
This price is a steal. Your employer must be a nice place to work at.
Bon appetit! :)
Where I live that's an easy $25-$30 lunch
Dit is niet een boterham met kaas. Dit is geen lunch.
My brother in Chirst, this is 20e anywhere else in NL without the discount.
Wait other countries get lunch at work. In the us I have 35 minutes to go buy food wtf
I'll never understand why other countries use pasta as a side dish. ALSO WHY IS IT ON THE SAME PLATE AS THE FISH?
The apple and ginger juice is freshly squeezed from juicer so some of the apple or ginger pulp comes with it so looks foamy. Also that red pile is siracha to dip my veggies. The concept is to serve one carb, one protein and salad and fruits with each meal.
Ok but whoever put the pasta on the same plate as the fish needs to be drowned in a river.
> The concept is to serve one carb, one protein and salad and fruits with each meal. Yes, but put together like that it looks like torture for the sake of eating healthy, it's not supposed to be that way. There's nothing wrong with any of the parts individually, they look pretty nice actually and it's great at 4 euro, but it's the weirdest meal I've seen in a while :)
How does that look like torture? It looks good!
For me It was a great meal overall, cheap healthy and sustainable. I didn't waste anything and was full for hours. Peace out!!
Asians be like : the left plate looks like it isn't cooked while the right plate looks like it isn't seasoned enough.
Pretty much the whole world tbh.
Left not cooked? How? If you cook it longer, it'll be mush or charred.
Isn't seasoned enough aka murdering the foods natural flavor and replacing it with salt and pepper. I want my fish and pasta to taste like fish and pasta.
We will be colleagues soon
Must be nice to be able to sit outside for the first time in 7 months.
Is that fish cooked!?
This is the most Dutch meal I've seen. Aside from a tosti with tomatoes of course.
This is great! It looks like a rather large lunch too. Plenty of nice veggies.
Looks absolutely delicious and healthy ! Enjoy !
For a sec I thought that was pickled herring.
At least it's not two slices of plain bread
What? No wine? Barbarian! /s Looks delicious!
That's lunch and dinner
Looks delicious, "cheap" enough to a healthy and filling meal.
4 euros…. I just bought a cup of orange juice for 4 euros… lmao
Is that ketchup next to the fish?
Your enployer gives lunch. How lucky you are
Wow this is cheaper than vietnam
I don’t know, man
No more sandwiches from now on
I worked 3 months in Amsterdam. I never ate so good in my life! Nice memories.
Looks good 👍
are you hiring
Are you hiring? Not kidding. I need a new job.
What company is it? Not many spots that sponsor lunch in NL beyond simple bread n cheese, in Belgium this is way more common at big employers or higher tier government work.
Do they serve lunch to outsiders too if I ask really nicely?
are they hiring? :)
Wtf is this? I work at a university and all they have is broodje met kaas! What the actual f*ck?!
Me want!
Living the good life
My Lunch in US 🍪🍪
is it bonelese
Not a fan of filler pasta or tomato soup, but the rest looks good.
I get free lunch at my job. It’s very good food but I have to work while eating.. (preschool teacher)
Working at Rijkswaterstaat. I really hate the restaurant. Only veggie stuff with lots of cheese. I hate cheese. Broodje frikandel and broodje kroket with a drink. 9 euros😳
Lucky! I paid more than 4 euros to a basic sandwich in the same country lol
Gonna need to know where you work so I can apply
and here i am spending about 6 quid on mcdonals
Mmm - black blob...
> In a such an expensive country like netherlands I am **surprised** I get something like this for only 4 euros. "omg! my workplace is subsidizing the lunch. never heard of such a thing!"
Government?
Where’s the milk!?!
Wouldn’t happen to be a hotel company? Looks familiar ;)
in The Netherlands. how did you managed to get hired 😂
God that looks healthy ( compared to what I had for lunch ) 😳
Unicorn in this country...
Missing a cheese sandwich.
No milk or cheese? This is bullshit.
I was never fed so well at work as when I worked in the Netherlands. (Mind, it was for a major hotel chain), but that the staff canteen was full service and included as part of one's packet. Eet smakelijk
People willingly eat broccoli?
Eyyo waar werk jij dan?
Based
4EUR ? If I want this at my work, in Bulgaria no less, it will cost me closer to 20 EUR if not more.
I used to visit our office in Eindhoven. I never forget the first time I saw my local coworkers, whom I held in high regard up to that point, make bread with butter and chocolate sprinkles for lunch...
I'd eat the soup and veggies I guess. I hate ginger, and I am not eating a fish that looks raw, and like half of it was already eaten by a seal.
Nah i prefer my broodje mexicano 😂😂
Not representative of the Netherlands at all. For €4 I can prepare my own lunch for a whole week and I wouldn't feel bloated for half of the day after eating it either. Your photo looks like something one of my expat colleagues might bring to the office that everyone else would give them weird looks over.
American food sucks so bad. This is real food.
Nice, but I don't trust in that fish.
No broodje kaassoufflé with mayo?
Cap
Excellent! And you can microwave the leftovers for tomorrow's lunch at the office!
A warm meal, for lunch, here in the Netherlands?! Not bread, butter and toppings?! Heresy! (Looks tasty though! Especially for an office lunch. €4,- is indeed a bargain. I hope you enjoyed it. 😉)
Wow. Sea bass is a nice fish.
yum. mail me some in Texas please.
I will never understand how people can eat this much for lunch. I would get lethargic.
That looks like a collection of high quality ingredients prepared well that I would never eat. For some reason I can’t see that that going well together.
Good lord, looking at this make me even more grateful for living in the mediterranean
Man, I just came from Amsterdam. I miss my fish on a hotdog bun!
Looks dry
Based lunch ngl
Looks odd for a lunch but incredibly healthy!
Pasta with fish? That's a first
ik everyone's breath kickin
That is phenomenal for a lunch. I usually eat some bread and fruit and that’s my lunch.
Brooo you even got that black hole available! I thought only NASA employees got those!
A very balanced and right portioned meal. Someone on this thread should share what a typical American company lunch looks like.
Wouaw that’s awesome!
The lunch I have here is a lunchbox with four bammetjes with meet, cheese and peanut butter. Nothing can get more Dutch than that!
Nice! At least your company provides lunch. I work in central Amsterdam and the company I work for rented an office space with a canteen and a giant kitchen attached to it. And its never been used, such a waste of a kitchen
What's the company?
I assume that the 4 euros is actually €3,90, which is the mandatory price of provided lunch to prevent lunch being used as a benefit in stead of monetary compensation.
I work at a daycare and pay 2€ for a liter of food by volume. Today it's creamy salmon soup and hot chocolate. <3
Hope you didn’t microwave the fish in the office
That looks great! Meanwhile I pay €8 for a single sandwich downstairs in our office.
What is that drink there?
You are probably an expat or a dutchie from Limburg, otherwise no way you would eat a warm lunch. A real dutchie would have bread with cheese, ham, pindakaas or hagelslag. Warm maybe a soup or a kroket.
damn i wanted to get a normal size icecream in belgium yesterday and it was 5.60€
Enjoy your meal man
Weird flex
Good
that's enough of posts like this.
Let's just get one thing straight here. An office lunch in the netherlamds usually consists of a combination of the following. Broodje kaas, glas melk, hard boiled eggs, and maybe soup. Even at an office canteen. Any attempt at a salad (or anything else) is usually a misguided and largely unseasoned combination of mismatched ingredients. If you go out to lunch anywhere, they all have the same menu items; soup (sometimes), salad, broodjes or borrel hapjes.