CEO Baas Van Het Vlees: A meat lovers’ paradise

Text: Bas van Duren | Photos: Marc Verhees Photography

Thick, juicy and broiled to perfection: if steak is your game and you happen to be in Rotterdam, there’s a restaurant that is truly worth your time: CEO Baas Van Het Vlees, which translates to CEO: Meat Boss, named best meat restaurant by the Dutch Restaurant Awards multiple times.

The CEO stands for ‘Cote de Boeuf’ (rib steak), ‘Entrecote’ and ‘Ossenhaas’ (beef tenderloin), with those three cuts being the core business. The restaurant has been run by owners Sharon Kars and Mario Ridder since 2013. The menu changes every season, but the main ingredients stay pretty much the same, offering up the finest meats in a setting that mirrors the stalwart and raw feel that the southern part of Rotterdam encompasses.

Kars: “We pride ourselves on having the best cuts and use hormone-free meat from Texan Black Angus cows. It’s marbled to perfection and we’re one of the few Dutch restaurants that uses an American broiler, for which we had to install some extra gas pipes. It’s worth the result as the heat comes from above, scorching the meat and thus ensuring all those juices and flavours are kept nicely in place.”

Asked what the favourites are, Kars has her answer ready immediately: “The share platters, like the CEO platter with different kinds of starters as an entrée, and the one for the main course that is filled with the meats that CEO stands for. As for wine pairings, we have a wide assortment of wines from 32 euros a bottle to 1,630, and if you’re in the mood for a good cheese, we have a cheese cellar where we will take you and you can load up.”