Enjoy tasting the traditional flavours of Holland right here in your own backyard, without having to swallow that overseas airfare or find your passport.
Zenders Café and purpose-built Event Venue is nestled on Ruakura Road in Newstead only 15 minutes from Cambridge. Three sisters of Dutch descent started up this popular eatery to acknowledge the legacy of Dutch immigrants who made New Zealand their home after WWII. They arrived by the boatload, easily assimilating into their new country and became knows as the ‘invisible immigrants.’ Today many Waikato farmers and other local Kiwi’s can trace their heritage back to Dutch Ancestry.
On the day we visited Zenders, the Café was packed with lunchtime customers enjoying the range of tasty meals. Frikadellen Special took our fancy, with its deep fried crunchy crumbed exterior surrounding a delicious creamy beef or vegetarian choice. A range of delectable cakes and slices with chocolate, custard or apple were impossible to resist. We each had the mouth-watering Dutch Apple cake enhanced by its cinnamon flavour and sweet butter pastry.
The warm, comfortable Euro-Style atmosphere with beautiful Dutch tapestry and furnishings provides a welcome relief from the winter chill outside.
The red brick building houses several venue rooms for business conferences, weddings, family gatherings and promotional or corporate events. The original blueprints from the family’s great-grandfather’s farmhouse were replicated in the construction of this iconic building. The name Zender originates from Zevenaar, the nickname for the town in the Netherlands where the Reymer sister’s father hails from.
Whittaker’s is delighted to bring back two fruit lovers’ favourites, Raspberry & New Zealand Strawberry 100g, and Gisborne Orange & Hazelnut 100g, now showcasing local ingredients, as part of its core New Zealand Artisan Collection.