During a recent trip down south of Netherlands, we stopped by a city called Valkenburg which was famous for its castle ruins and cave networks. Unfortunately the day that we were at Valkenburg it was Carnival so everyone was busy watching the parades on the street and none of the other other tourist attractions were open. Initially we were thinking of trying out a french restaurant but when we came upon the entrance of Meat@Valkenhof, we just wanted to try it out instead.
Escaping the cold weather where thanks to the wind chill, the temperature was around 3 degrees celcius. Thankfully there were plenty of fire pits inside the restaurant to keep us warm and toasty.
History of the place
“Valkenhof” is a household name in the cozy village of Valkenburg. “Valkenhof” is a family business that has been around for 33 years and is known under the name “Taci”. José and Becir Taci have put all their attention and love into Valkenhof for 28 years. In the past it was known as a Balkan restaurant and was transformed into a café with live music in the evenings. Now it is both a restaurant as well as a family run hotel.
The food
Seeing that this was famous for its steak and ribs, we decided to order a couple of plates of the rib steak (500gm), a rack of ribs and a flank steak.
The rib steak was good, my only gripe with it was that closer to the rib bone, the steak wasn’t cooked too well there. As a sauce to accompany the steak, I chose herb butter which I could rub all over the steak. The steak came with grilled vegetables as well as a side of frites.
Finishing all that fries was definitely a challenge and over here I learned that you need to pay for sauces such as ketchup or mayonnaise. Thanks to that, I learned that they have incredible sauces here, such as curry ketchup and spicy honey mustard.
The ribs had a bit of a sweet chilli glaze which I thought best to eat together with the sauce that came with the ribs. The more savoury ranch-like sauce helped cut the spiciness and acidity of the sweet chilli glaze. The ribs were ok, not fall off the bone type but had a nice bite and taste to the meat.
The flank steak was cooked well and came with a large side of brussels sprout. Also you can choose various sauces to go with the steak and this particular time it was with chimichurri sauce. All of the steaks that we ordered came medium rare, the perfect cook for a steak in my opinion.
Conclusion
Overall we had a great lunch as both the food and service was excellent. Meat-wise, we definitely gotten Angus steak (I couldn’t read Dutch unfortunately). The meat had a stronger taste and it is similar to the Hereford meats. Definitely not the usual wagyu steaks that I have grown accustomed to. Food came out fast, the kids enjoyed their kids meal. There was lots of fries left and we were quite stuffed. I definitely can’t complain and would return here again to try out their other dishes.
Name: Meat @ Valkenhof
Address: Berkelstraat 32, 6301 CC Valkenburg
Note that you can’t drive up to the restaurant. You would need to park at a nearby parking garage and continue by foot. The restaurant is closely located to many tourist areas as well.
