Grand Café Central in Binnenstad

After living in Gouda for over a year, I think this is one of my favorite places for coffee in our city. The coffee is tasteful and there's a lot of variety to choose from. The cakes are always fresh and tasty. On top of that, every time I’ve been here, the staff was really nice and friendly. I know I might be preaching to the choir, but get there early and try their famous apple pie. Oh my goodness! Not only is it fresh, tasty, and crunchy, but it’s also a huge piece of cake for a very good price. Enjoy!

Nice cafe, friendly and good service. People who know what they are doing. Great lunch menu. It was hard to choose because of all the delicious dishes. We had the mussels and the spicy tuna sandwich. Delicious... and beautifully presented too. (presentation matters) A large glass of Pai Dieux and a white wine to go with it. You also get a glass of water with it. I saw that with people who ordered coffee as well, that they got a glass of water with it. Very thoughtful. Highly recommended if you are in Gouda.

Better trade the staff for robots

Had lunch on the terrace. Had to wait a long time for drinks. Ordered a salmon sandwich and a fried egg. Had a tasty meal. Friendly staff.

Your carpaccio salade gave me food poisoning…

Amazing apple pie! A very large serving, crumble crust plus whipped cream. Delicious!

Had a lovely time on the terrace, perfect service

Good food, sticky pork belly yummy

Great restaurant right on the market square, with style, history and a good menu.

Nice and cozy cafe in the center of Gouda. Very friendly staff!

Nice beer cafe/restaurant with good service. Huge selection of beers! Highly recommended for beer lovers.

Fast service, abundant delicious food. I recommend it.

We ate here last night. The atmosphere and service are as we have come to expect: fine. Unfortunately, the food was disappointing this time. We had the lamb kofta and the vegetarian lasagna. The lasagna, in particular, was very meager; it seemed more like a small dish than a full-fledged main course, especially considering the price. We pointed this out to the staff on the spot, but nothing further was done about it. It feels like there is shrinkflation here, which is a real shame. We normally enjoy coming here regularly, but this time the portion size really disappointed us. Next time we’ll just go to Belvedere 100 meters down the road....

Super cozy, incredibly friendly service. Pleasant acoustics, old-fashioned charm. The food was fine, but could be a bit sharper. Non-fresh (white) bread with the croquettes, croutons not homemade, things like that. Despite that, I would definitely recommend it because you won't find a place cozier than Central in Gouda.

Nice Grand Café. The atmosphere is cozy; it is pleasant to spend time both inside and outside on the terrace. The food tasted good: Cheese soup with salmon, toasted bread, sea bass, grilled vegetables, etc. More than enough. Plates were neatly presented. The staff is very customer-friendly and regularly comes to the table to ask if everything is to our liking. Definitely worth a repeat visit.

A comfortable seat and a generous slice of delicious apple pie

Had a delicious lunch with the kids

Delicious grilled goat cheese French Melt on oven-baked white bread and a generously filled fish salad with salmon, tuna salad, garlic shrimp, egg salad, and fresh lettuce, with matching dressing. Very friendly staff. Beautiful location.

What a fantastic spot!! We loved it! Our drinks, food and service!!! Great location, right on the square!!!! We felt very lucky to have stubbled across it!!!!

Friendly and plenty of staff, but it's a shame that I had four people at my table just for coffee and cake. The people at the tables next to me were talking about it too. Taking the order, bringing the order, asking if I wanted anything else, and one to settle the bill, and then someone else was walking around clearing tables.

Nice place with good service, a nice beer selection and delicious dishes

Stunning terrace with various spaces inside, including a magnificent bar with a dozen draft beers and a wide selection of drinks. Very special!

Coffee with handmade apple pie (with whipped cream); highly recommended!

Cozy little place, delicious food, good service

We had a nice and delicious meal. Lunch with a group. Everyone had something different. Lots of choice. Everything was good.

Very nice, always good service and the food is good too. Staff very friendly.

Lovely spot in the city center, with the terrace overlooking the beautiful market square and the most beautiful town hall in the Netherlands.

Very nice restaurant, super friendly and efficient staff, lovely atmosphere

I came here 25 years ago. A lot has stayed the same, including the unfriendliness of the staff. Just go for it, I suppose.

Lunch at Café Central is tasty, but I found dinner very mediocre.

Beautiful location... cozy terrace, but also atmospheric, authentic place inside. Service prompt and personal, and had a delicious lunch. Simply everything was good!

Great food, excellent service, pleasant terrace.

A very good bar in the centre of Gouda

We were here for a party for Lies Kleijn, her 80th birthday. Everything was perfectly taken care of. The food was excellent, and the staff were friendly and clearly explained what was on the menu and regularly asked if we wanted drinks, so we had everything we needed. It was also a real treat thanks to the performance by Imca Marina...84.

The basic regional cafe with average food.

Super delicious food. Very friendly staff.

What a lovely place with friendly staff and excellent service. After visiting the museum, they took the time to accommodate our numerous allergies, and even humorously! After paying the reasonable price, we were allowed to take shelter inside. Bro! 🤣 Delicious food too. I say top-notch!

Great cafe. Lovely location on the square. Service is good. Food excellent. Only downside is the amount of smoking at the tables. Really spoils it's for everyone else.

Possible to get a table without reservation. Nice service. Ok food, ordered Limoen Tiramisu, expected to be sour and fresh but not sour at all.

Visiting Gouda with the dog, and my wife, of course, craving coffee and cake. This place was the first we encountered on our way to the city center. Coffee and apple pie. What excellent service! They immediately asked if they could put a bowl of water for the dog at our table and if we'd like a glass of water with our coffee. The coffee was delicious, and the apple pie, perfect. We didn't think this was a supermarket apple pie, it was truly delicious. We give this place a 10 out of 10.

Schönes Lokal in zentraler Lage. Ausgesprochen leckeres Essen zu fairen Preisen. Sehr zu empfehlen! Donnerstags oft etwas voll, da dann auch der Käsemarkt in Gouda stattfindet.

The staff were very nice to us but the food wasn't that great. I ordered the homemade burger but the steak had a funny taste. Maybe it's just me and not used to it, I don't know. I was with two other friends and the staff welcomed us warmly ! When I asked for water, they didn't mention it was above 7 euros! For water ! The prices are quite high aswell.

A very cozy cafe with friendly service, a good lunch and a nice beer menu. Inside the cafe a hidden treasure. A beautiful space with walls painted with art nouveau in 1924. You must have been inside.

Het terras is uitnodigend. Koffie met gebak genomen: groot stuk appeltaart en citroen meringue taart. Smaakte uitstekend. Binnen achter de toiletten de mooie zaal bewonderd. De bediening is vriendelijk en vlot.

Always cozy and pleasant, both inside and outside on the terrace.

Nice cafe at the Markt in Gouda. Good beer menu!! Cozy informal atmosphere.

Nice place, good to stay on the terrace

We ate fish&cips. It was very nice. Also fried potatoes were nice.

You can enjoy a delicious lunch during your visit to Gouda on the main market square

Great place for a drink with friends!

For years I have been very fond of coming to your restaurant, for a dinner with my work. Or to have lunch with someone, like today! You have good and friendly staff, who are always up for a chat with me 👍😃😊

Very nice atmosphere, good wine, good friendly service, in short 👌😊👍🍾

Nice place, good atmosphere and good service! Accidentally paid for another table, but got refunded after a day!

Our waiter was super friendly, and it was a great little patio! My mom loved her limoncello spritz, and I got a citrus-y white beer that was delicious! The waiter suggested it! We also really enjoyed the onion rings! A great way to people watch next to the cheese market!

Always cozy and delicious and great service

Very disappointed by the food, so called home-made burger given with a very fat steak which doesn't look like meat but more like bad sausage stuffing,

Arrivés à huit avec deux enfants de 6 et 9 ans, nous avons eu l'impression de déranger le personnel à l'accueil peu sympathique. Deux familles hollandaises arrivées 5 minutes après nous, alors que nous n'avions toujours pas de table mise à disposition, ont été installées et servies bien avant nous. L'une d'entre elles a fini son repas quand nous attendions encore nos assiettes. Service sans aucun sourire. " Oui vous attendez depuis longtemps mais nous sommes très occupés ! ". La cuisine est bonne mais nous ne reviendrons pas. C'est regrettable. Famille Boulanger

Delicious food and nice place on the terrace

Oh boy, that fish salad, so delicious! Excellent service in a very pleasant atmosphere.

Good food. Friendly staff. Food reasonable price, drinks too, ranging from good prices to the expensive side. Not the best place at the market, but you are otherwise good, so who cares. Great food. And will definitely come back.

Thanks Sebastian for your super cocktails in such a beautifil Place. Best bar tender in Town love you

A perfect cafe on the square serving delicious, hearty food, good beer and all with friendly service.

We had a lovely lunch, but the Spanish service spoke poor English and we didn't speak Spanish😊

Edit: second time wasn’t that special. Consistency is key guys. Ah man…. Original: Best steak I’ve had in the Netherlands. Delicious!

Cozy atmosphere, tasty food and plenty of choice in various types of beers!

Good place, delicious meat and food arrived quite quickly, so I understand why it was so full and it was not expensive

The oldest café in Gouda according to some. This is not immediately visible from the outside, but inside there is an atmosphere of yesteryear. More importantly though; there are about 18 beers on tap and many other bottled beers. Paix Dieu was recommended to me. Mai, mai, mai, once born under the light of the full moon, what a glory this is. In Gouda only on tap at Grand Café Central. My advice, visit this cafe and drink this beer. But be careful when driving, half a liter with 10% adds up quickly. We'll be back... hips... :))

Beau cadre avec son feu de bois. Bonne accueil avec bon choix à la carte un peu plus cher qu’ailleurs vu que l’on est sur la place. Plat bien servi, assez copieux et très bon. Escalope milanaise et ses pâtes à la sauce tomate, pâte carbo, nickel. Pour info, des clients sont entrés vers 22h, ils ont pu manger.

I planned to have a nice meal together with the family for my parents' wedding day. There would have been live music that evening and a special menu. The food was fine, but the live music was unremarkable. Asking the staff doesn't help much at first, but after some insistence they reveal that there is no live music that evening. Result, disappointed parents... I expected the manager to join our table and apologize, but unfortunately... I think for this reason I would no longer recommend this place. Too bad, it used to be better than it is now.

Great staff, good food, wonderful cocktails.

The service was delicious, but the fact that we didn't want food made them less willing to come to the table.

Delicious cappuccino and apple pie with whipped cream.

nice places but once again I was surprised to receive a beer in a can, this beer was tasteless 😑 it is not noted anywhere that the beer is in a can, at 7.25 per can... for in an establishment, service this in an almost lemonade glass... I was disappointed to taste this. the bottled beers are authentic, the taste is important... well for me anyway. So if you taste a very unknown beer, ask if it is in a can or a bottle 👍🏻

Nice and cozy cafe, we were here for a drink and some snacks. There was no terrace weather, so we sat inside.

Delicious food and good service!

After asking 3 times and waiting 30 minutes, still no Duvel....

Nice space, less satisfied with the lack of staff. 5 people for a non-working beer tap, but hardly any time or attention to provide you with a drink. In response to Café Central's response: That was when my wife said goodbye to her work on Thursday afternoon, October 24th. from 4.30 pm in the tap room.

Lunch was good, great food.👌🏻 Just the advice; Turn down the music, in a restaurant people want to be able to talk to each other at a table without shouting 🧐😉. Furthermore, it has become uncomfortable/dark at the back of “bij de Buren” since the nice, beautiful reading table has been exchanged for tables where you sit high up. (bar stool idea).

We ate here in 2023, really nice place and the apple pie is the best I've ever eaten.

Nice terrace, but a lousy place in terms of food. It made me sick.

Nice place to have a drink and eat Nice service So recommended 👍😊

Good food, a bit noisy here and there to have a quiet conversation (I'm a bit deaf)

Nice experience, delicious food, perfect steak, delicious gravy. Good service, attentive and crafty.

Enough to have an excellent evening. Delicious food, very friendly waiters who took the time to introduce us to the wide range of beers available. The only negative point of the experience is the fact that the restaurant is rather noisy due to the music being a little too loud. To do again!

Nice place for coffee with delicious apple pie

Every time we visit Gouda we always visit here. It’s changed a bit over the years - enjoyed the beers and the Apple pie and cream.

Nice beer, pleasantly busy and good service

I always have a great time at Café Central. The food is always good and the staff are friendly. You see that the experience and the atmosphere are considered important. I think my favorite on the Gouda market!

Oops and sorry, in my poor review I appeared to have remembered an incorrect restaurant. (I had mixed up an experience with somewhere in Overijssel where we were) At this restaurant in Gouda we came across an article I had read about the very special fresh apple pie according to grandmother's special recipe with the accompanying recommended special beer Paix Dieu. And I wanted to visit Gouda, but this was the main reason for our visit. Man, that was delicious, great point and I've never had such a large beer glass in my hands. With the high alcohol percentage you will have to wait a while before driving. But how delicious that cake was together with that beer. If I visit Gouda again, I will definitely visit this terrace again. Of course, this, together with a cocktail + cake from the friend, quickly becomes pricey, around €38 in total if I remember correctly. But today it doesn't seem absurd to me for such a large beer, really fresh pastry, large cone and cocktail.

Friendly staff, fast service. The food is tasty, and they also take gluten into account. Just ask and everything will be explained to you neatly. Top location, right in the center!

Zeer fijne plek voor een hapje en een drankje! Vlotte bediening en zeer vriendelijk personeel. Nette prijzen en heerlijk eten! Gewoon een mooie relaxte plek t.o het oude stadhuis van Gouda. Tijdens de Curiosa dagen druk, maar toch een vlotte bediening! Een absolute aanrader.

Excellent meal in this restaurant! The setting and atmosphere are warm and the staff very pleasant!

Had a pleasant evening, friendly service, delicious food and drinks. My favorite beer "Paix Dieu" on tap.

The service was a little slow but the food was very delicious. I love the mussel sandwich.

Very friendly service and excellent cuisine. Highly recommended.

Recommended! There is a nice terrace. Very nice service. Delicious pastries, especially the apple pie. You can also eat very well here. There is an Art Deco mural at the back of the store. The toilets have been modernized, fortunately while retaining the stained glass.

Cozy restaurant, good food. Service was friendly.

For 23 euros, 24 fried, small pieces, without bread, without any garnish, slapped on the table. Thank God we ate the dish as a couple. The stomach pain came immediately...

We have been coming to this terrace for years and always satisfied. However, yesterday's food was far below par. 2 sandwiches and 1 tonic for over 30 euros. Sandwich consisted of 2 dry slices of bread, a few slices of dry ribeye and a piece of mixed lettuce. Staff very friendly and fast service.

Very tasty food, good service, lots of racing bike people