Hoeve de Nachtegaal: Wintelre

As anyone who follows me on FB or Instagram knows, we spend a ton of time at Bosschuur De Meren. It’s a great nature reserve in Wintelre with a water pump, sand pile and lots of nature. We love it there and go generally once a week when the weather gets nice. But, good or bad, Boschuur comes with an added ritual: ice cream on the way home at Hoeve de Nachtegaal: Wintelre. The kids call it “the cow place” and its not hard to understand why. It’s a little dairy. I think. It’s a bit unclear, honestly. But they have lots and lots of cows…..

It’s actually a really cute little cafe with an indoor and outdoor play area so it’s good in any weather. My kids love it there and it has become our post Boschuur ritual. There is a really cool playground outside with play equipment, a trampoline and a wooden play house. Slides are set into the little hill and there are plastic trucks and such. Lately there has been a bouncy castle outside on pretty days.  It’s awesome, but the play ground is plenty even when it isn’t up. There is lots of outside seating so on pretty days I sit outside and have a glass of wine or a beer and the kids play and have an ice cream.

On really pretty days I generally tell the kids that they are to dirty to play inside. This probably isn’t true but on pretty days they should play outside, damn it! This is the Netherlands! It’s pretty for like 3 weeks!

I have brought the kids here for a play on not so pretty days as well. On these days we play in the indoor play area. It is upstairs from the main cafe seating. There is only one large table so if there is more than one family there it can get a little cozy, but it has always been fine. I have never been there with more than one family. There is a little ball pit, cars, a play store, bins of toys, that sort of thing. You can sit up there and eat but tell the waitress that that is the plan because they won’t just come up and check on you. Also upstairs is a little room with a big window overlooking the cows. The kids think its great. I think it smells like cow and I’m glad there is a heavy door protecting me from the smell.

The menu: So it’s pretty basic and totally Dutch. I think most of their business is from old people and selling kids ice cream so it’s not much of a surprise. They have a brie, honey and walnut sandwich that I really enjoy, it’s an open faced number best eaten with a fork. I am also fond of the cheese and pesto sandwich, sounds weird but it’s really good. I love the fact that they don’t have chicken nuggets and fries on the menu, it kinda forces my kids to eat something new. They have sausage rolls (worstenbroodje) and grilled cheese/grilled ham and cheese (tosti) for the kids. Pro tip: on the menu there is a “maxi tosti”, this is three halves of a grilled cheese sandwich. that’s perfect for my 2 kids because neither will rarely eat a whole one. We don’t often eat here, honestly. Only  when we have spent a super long day at Boschuur and I either don’t have the time or motivation to cook a dinner. Or if my kids eat all the food I packed and are still hungry. Generally we go for the ice cream. It’s really good ice cream!

The staff is always super friendly. They have always been very tolerant of my crazy dirty and often shoe less kids running through the place to get to the indoor play area. The ice cream is in a cooler by the door so that’s super easy as well.

It’s a very pretty area. It’s really popular to do a cycle tour of the area and this is a great stop. I would go without the kids for a quite cup of coffee. Who am I kidding, I don’t cycle for fun and I’m far more likely to have a glass of wine than a coffee but go for it. It is a nice place.

 

Some Helpful Information:

• This is the website (sorry, it’s in Dutch): Hoeve de Nachtegaal
• This is their address: Merenweg 1A, 5513 NZ Wintelre
• There is free parking on site. The parking lot is kida confusing the first time. There is a little building at the road next to the car park. there is a sneaky exit just behind it. It’s hard to explain but you will get it when you get there. I’ve seen some interesting things from people trying to get out of that car park.
• They aren’t open in the evenings but the hours can change depending on the season.

Looking for some other places with both indoor and outdoor options?

• Billy Bird: Hemelrijk
• Vossenberg Speelboerderij: Tilburg