Villa Kakelbont opens vintage living-room café behind the Meent

ROTTERDAM, 6 March 2026 – Villa Kakelbont, a name many older Rotterdam nightlife regulars will still recognise, has returned with a new venue in the city centre. The former Oude Haven favourite has reopened in the Halvemaanpassage, just behind the Meent, now reimagined as a vintage living-room café rather than a straight revival of the old bar.

The new Villa Kakelbont is being pitched as a place where you can drift in for a quick drink and end up staying all evening. With board games scattered around, an intentionally old-school interior, and a menu built around café classics, the venue is trying to bring back a type of Rotterdam hospitality that feels more lived-in than polished.

A familiar name returns in a new form

Villa Kakelbont first made its name in the 1990s in the Oude Haven, where it grew into one of the best-known nightlife spots for a generation of Rotterdammers. Now the name is back on a façade in the city again, this time a short walk from the Meent. The owners are careful not to present it as a replica of the old days. Instead, they describe it as a contemporary translation of the same feeling: warm, relaxed, sociable, and a little old-fashioned in the best possible sense.

Co-owner Thom van Zanten says the aim was to create the kind of place they would want to walk into themselves, without overdesigning it or turning it into a “concept” venue. “We want you to walk in here and feel like you’ve been coming for years,” he says. “Just Rotterdam at its best: down-to-earth, warm and a bit old-fashioned in a good way.”

Café classics instead of clever dishes

On the food side, Villa Kakelbont is going for recognisable pub dishes rather than complicated plates. The menu includes things like smoked sausage on the bites menu, grilled entrecôte, and pork tenderloin at what the venue describes as an honest price point.

There is also a changing daily special for €16.95, with the weekly dish shared via social media. The idea, according to the owners, is not a predictable canteen-style meal, but a proper daily plate prepared with care.

Villa Kakelbont has returned to Rotterdam with a new café behind the Meent, bringing vintage interiors, pub classics, board games and a relaxed city-living-room feel.

Beer on tap, simple cocktails, no fuss

Behind the bar, the drinks line-up also leans into familiarity. Pilsner Urquell, Guinness and Paulaner are on tap, and the cocktail selection is described as classic and accessible rather than elaborate.

The broader message is clear: this is meant to be a straightforward, comfortable café where you do not need to decode the menu or the mood before sitting down.

Vintage details and room for everyone

The interior has been built from older elements gathered from around the country, including wood panelling, stained-glass details, marble tables and a vintage sofa with fringe. Instead of trying to look sleek or newly finished, the room is meant to feel layered and slightly worn in.

The venue has space for around 200 guests, spread across cosy corners, high and low tables, and a bar designed for easy drop-ins. There are also pool tables, dartboards and games, plus a children’s play corner, which signals that Villa Kakelbont wants to be more than a late-night stop.

 Villa Kakelbont has returned to Rotterdam with a new café behind the Meent, bringing vintage interiors, pub classics, board games and a relaxed city-living-room feel.

Rotterdam’s brown café mood, updated

What Villa Kakelbont seems to be betting on is not nostalgia alone, but the current appeal of places that feel unforced. In a city where new hospitality concepts often arrive with a lot of styling and a lot of explaining, there is still room for a café that just wants to be cosy, social and dependable.

That makes this reopening less about copying a former legend and more about reviving a certain atmosphere. For Rotterdam, that may be the smarter comeback.

How to get to Villa Kakelbont Rotterdam

Villa Kakelbont is in the Halvemaanpassage, just behind the Meent, so you are right in one of the easiest parts of central Rotterdam to reach on foot, by bike, or by public transport. Blaak is the most obvious station if you are coming by train or metro, and from there it is a short walk past the Markthal area into the city centre streets behind the Meent. If you are already in town, this is the kind of place you can easily fold into an evening that starts with a drink elsewhere and quietly ends much later than planned.