Anyone wanting to eat healthier or trying to stick to a certain diet will find that sometimes it makes hanging out with friends just a little bit less spontaneous. Many of our social events and connections are usually surrounded by food or drinks and when you don’t want to give up being social, and you also don’t want to ruin the hard work you are doing by sticking to a healthier lifestyle, you need to be creative and find better alternatives to the restaurants you would usually go to. I’m here to help you out with a great suggestion!
Just between The Hague Central Station and the city center, there is a cute little fresh food deli by the name of Green Bowl at the Fluwelenburgwal 14, which has been around since February 2014. Owners Liting Leow and Soontat Yeung started Green Bowl because they felt that at the time there weren’t enough healthy and affordable options around for people who want to be more mindful of what they consume.
They offer daily fresh, healthy, low calorie, nutritious, and unprocessed food only. What’s also good to know is that gluten free, lactose-free, and nut free options are available and basically anything on the menu can be customized to meet your dietary needs. Green Bowl even offers some halal options, which makes them accessible to an even larger audience.
On the menu (which you will see written in colorful crayon on the large blackboard inside) you will find a variety of salads, wraps, freshly made smoothies and juices, and tasty side dishes. They are currently working on adding more (warm) exciting side dishes to their menu starting this Summer, to cater to the growing demands of the customers.
I have been a fan of their food from day one and I love how I can always rely on them to offer a great guilt-free meal that really makes me feel satisfied. I have often introduced friends to Green Bowl and all have been very enthusiastic about this place. Besides the mix-and-match salads (where you basically design a unique salad to your own taste), my favorite dishes so far have been: the spicy chicken wrap, the pumpkin soup, and the Angus beef burger with Roseval potatoes and mushrooms.
The Asian background of the owners influences the taste of their dishes in a great way. When something is referred to as spicy, you better believe that it is spicy! Their spicy chicken wrap or tandoori wrap are great examples of that.
Green Bowl is a cute and small, independent, family-owned restaurant/takeaway and it can seat up to about 15 people. Being small it also means that customers get more of a personal treatment and they will start to recognise you and have a nice chat with you if you come in more than once. Since we live in a time and age of convenience, not only can you do takeaways at Green Bowl, but they will also deliver the food right to your home when you call them (or order through one of the delivery services’ websites or apps). They were rewarded with a prize for the best home delivery restaurant of 2016 by Thuisbezorgd.nl due to the raving reviews they received from their customers.
Green Bowl is open from 4pm to 10pm every day of the week and is, by all means, worth trying out at least once. You might end up falling in love with their food, like I did. If you do, don’t say I didn’t warn you—healthy never tasted so good!
Fauzia has lived in the Netherlands for most of her life, but is originally from Surinam in South America. She is fluent in both Dutch and English. Fauzia loves quotes, iPhoneography, social media, movies, music and theater. What she loves more than anything are her 3 children. She would love to leave a footprint of kindness on this world and one of her favorite quotes is one by Dr Seuss: 'Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind'.