Bakery Review: Leffers
The newest bakery in town lies in a beautiful historic shop in The Hague city centre. Could it be The Hague's best bakery?
Hailing from Delft, Leffers opened a new branch on Herengracht recently with fanfare on socials and print media. The bakery offers sourdough bread, Swedish buns, cookies, and a friendly atmosphere for a chat. The Google reviews are certainly high at 4.8, but is it as good as these reviewers claim it to be? Or was the neighbourhood just starved of a good bakery?
In this piece, I review a selection of their top sellers: the white farmers loaf, their famous cardamom buns, the hyped buckwheat chocolate cookie and the canelé.
The white farmers loaf is the ideal bread to get creative
The best-selling loaf at Leffers is a white farmers loaf that looks beautiful and probably would offend no one.
The appearance is beautiful with wonderfully even bubbles dotting the inside like a symphony. The crust is thin and upon slicing, you get a hint of tang with the smell of flour.
Personally, I miss more tang and salt in the dough. It tastes like flour. Therefore, as a standalone product, it is quite boring to eat. This is the bread you use when you want to get creative with the toppings, for yourself or for a get-together.
6.5/10
The cardamom buns are good
The competition for cardamom buns has been heating up recently and Leffers delivers a good contender.
The bun smells divine, of freshly ground organic cardamom with a deep earthy and peppery bite. It is a good bun with a smell so addictive you keep on coming back for more.
Although it is moist enough, it never achieves the somewhat gooey moistness that the best cardamom buns all achieve. Regardless, a good contender worth going back to if you’re in the area.
7/10
A hyped cookie and a difficult canelé
Asides from bread and buns, Leffers offers an assortment of smaller pastries and cookies.
Unfortunately, the buckwheat chocolate cookie with salt was a bit of a miss. It tastes like a brownie cookie with fudge-like centre and chewy edges, which was unexpected. The salt was a welcome addition. More nuanced chocolate would have been welcome too.
6/10
I will give Leffers praise for offering a canelé — a small pastry from Bordeaux with beautifully fluted edges that is notoriously difficult to get right. A good canelé is an exceptional texture and taste sensation with a crackling browned crust giving way to a moist custardy rum interior.
The canelé from Leffers has a beautifully burnished exterior with a velvety inside that hints at vanilla. The canelé I received on the day, however, tasted too burnt and the flavors of the pastry (honey, vanilla, caramelized milk) were out of balance. This is quite a pity as the city misses a really good canelé.
6/10
It is the people and location that make Leffers remarkable
What makes this bakery so special is the atmosphere they’ve created. The ladies at the counter are lovely, patient, and kind. You get the impression that they are genuine and happy to chat with you while the busy city rushes past. And the consistency that you get this friendly feeling is remarkable.
The shop itself too is marvelous in its’ own right. The monumental building dates back to 1823 with an intricately carved wooden facade in a Neo-Renaissance style. The interior itself dates back to 1897 when it was used as a fine delicatessen. The bread wall too, all the more visually appealing when backed by historic green glazed tiles. The bakery has certainly done well to open up the space and make it feel lighter during their renovation. With modern lighting and fun branded elements juxtaposing the historic ceiling and walls, the interior and exterior make this a noteworthy bakery come to.
The Hague Review: 6.9/10 Leffers is good
I had high hopes for Leffers when they arrived in The Hague. Overall, the variety and quality of the assortment is quite good. They are a welcome addition to the neighbourhood and undeniably better than an average Dutch bakery. The baked goods too are all very attractive. Take your tourists here — the location is accessible and the design makes for a memorable experience.
Although I’m not wow-ed by the taste of the goods, they are good enough to be served at a brunch. For a sourdough bakery, Leffers is also certainly more affordable than other counterpart bakeries in the city. But when the difference is 2 euros, I’d rather have my weekly bread elsewhere.
Go when you’re in the area and craving a snack and get the cardamom or cinnamon buns. The ladies at the counter will certainly make the trip more enjoyable.
Meneer Leffers
Herengracht 16
2511 EH Den Haag
