Eindhoven is a city in the province of North Brabant and is considered as an innovative city. It is well known for its Design Academy and yearly Dutch Design Week (21-29 Oct. 2023) which is the biggest design event in Northern Europe. Because of that Eindhoven is called the ‘Design Capital’ of The Netherlands.
Strijp-S is a neighborhood in a former industrial park which belonged to electronics company Philips. Since 2000 many creative companies, shops, cafes and restaurants opened their doors in this area.
Here you will find CoffeeLab STRP (before 'Onder de Leidingstraat'), this is a great place for coffee and (healthy) lunch. They cook without additives and use organic ingredients as much as possible. Their food is all fresh and homemade.
At Intelligentia ICE they make the best ice-cream of Eindhoven! Their innovative flavors contain less sugar, but more taste. I have to go back to try 'walnuts soy sauce' and 'blackberry ginger' and 'green apple riesling wine' and 'vegan coconut twist' and......
Piet Hein Eek is a well known Dutch designer and got famous as a 'green' designer because of his scrap wood furniture. His company resides in a former factory and contains a shop and very good restaurant.
For all the sweet tooths who like cool buildings: go to Pastryclub!
I have started my Instagram page 4 years ago with only pictures of street art. Now my feed is more travel and food orientated, but I still love murals like these!Everywhere around the city you will find beautiful graffiti.
Just outside the city center there are 3 small streets, called Kleine Berg, Grote Berg and Bergstraat, where there are no big chain stores but only local (fashion) retailers and nice cafés and restaurants. The next 4 venues are situated in these streets. One of these is Bagel & Juice where they serve good carrot cake.
Tucked away behind a small ally you will find this hidden gem! If I would live in Eindhoven I would be here every single weekend and sip a cup of freshly roasted coffee :) The owners of Bean Brothers travel the world to find the best coffee beans and build a strong relationship with the farmers.
Do you love Indonesian food as much as I do? Then check out Javaans Eetcafé :)
We have tried the ‘Ricetable’ which is a broad selection of many dishes.
☞ Please note: they moved to Beek en Donk: Piet van Thielplein 29
Lucifer Specialty Coffee has a nice terrace where you can enjoy warm summer days. Their goal is 100% slave free coffee, so they pay an honest price for their coffee beans (which are roasted at their own roastery in Eindhoven).
In front of the train station is one of the 3 branches of Coffeelab. Some tables are suited for working remote or studying. They’ve created their own blend named the ‘No School blend’ and it is a combination of Brazilian and Rwandan coffee beans.
Down Town Gourmet Market is an eclectic eating and gathering sanctuary. The market has 21 individual eateries; chef driven or fast casual concepts, around a social hub and two central bars.
Woensel-West is an upcoming area which is still quite 'rough around the edges' but has attracted more retail over the past years. It has for example several vintage shops, a vintage hotel, bike-repair shop and Coco Loco (before Kidskartel), a lovely shop with café for kids and their parents.
VANE Skybar is the right place to go for a cocktail. It’s located on the top floor of ‘De Groene Toren’ and has a panoramic view of the city center.
Kazerne is situated in former military police barracks and industrial warehouse, it houses a restaurant, gallery, lab (where professional creatives work together) and a hotel. Nice to know: the restaurant is recommended by The New York Times!
In the restaurant they develop a number of new seasonal dishes every two weeks. Everything is fresh, homemade, vegetable oriented and robust with an Italian touch. We loved absolutely everything about this place. The atmosphere, the food and wine, but most of all their great staff!
During our visit we've seen the exhibition Born at Night. It showed how in the Chinese megacity Shenzhen products are being created in a very special way. Check their website for current and future exhibitions.
The owners of ZwartWit Koffie got inspired to open their own coffee bar during a trip to Melbourne Australia, which is known as THE best place in the world for third wave coffee bars. At ZwartWit they use an osmosis system to filter the water and ad the right minerals to create the perfect espresso.
Sundays are great for spending a few hours in a museum. We have visited the Van Abbemuseum for contemporary art. It has a permanent collection and several temporary exhibitions. Even the building itself is a piece of art!
How to get to Eindhoven
A train will take you to Eindhoven within:
- 20 minutes from Den Bosch
- 40 minutes from Breda
- 50 minutes from Utrecht
- 1 hour from Maastricht or Rotterdam
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Do you like to discover more of Brabant?
Check out my blog post about Helmond.
Please note: I was invited to experience '24 hours in Eindhoven' by Visit Brabant.
I was invited at some of above mentioned venues,
but I have visited several of them during a couple of personal visits.