First thing that caught my attention (or puzzled me) was the name of this Thai restaurant: De Kleine Ondeugd. Que!? It is Dutch for ‘The Little Rascal’. What is the story behind this rascal? An intriguing name – yea sure, but will the food be intriguing too? Let’s find out!

At a glance 

• Location: Rotterdam 
• Kitchen:Thai
• Price: a 3 course meal was about 30 euro
• Rating: 7/10

De Kleine Ondeugd

De Kleine Ondeugd is a Thai bistro located on the Oostzeedijk since 1997. It is near the city centre of Rotterdam, but more in the Crooswijk/Kralingen area. Chef cuisinier Kwan cooks up a Thai storm in his little kitchen. You will have to like surprises to eat here, because the concept of this place is that you eat whatever is cooked that day (as the Dutchies say: “Eten wat de pot schaft“). The menu varies daily, but you can add a note to the reservation what your dietary restrictions are, I of course noted that I am a vegetarian. So a custom menu is created (with some sighing of the staff – more about that later).

The food

I opted for the vegetarian 3 course meal. It was a Friday summer evening, so yes, definitely opted for a beer to start the weekend right!

The first course is a Thai Mango salad. The flavours were fresh and light, it had a nice balance of sour and sweet. Combined with the crackers, the textures def complemented each other. It was good, not exceptional. Presentation wise it could be better if the sauce on the side of the plate was wiped clean – of course details, but details matter visually, especially on a white plate.

• The main course was a feast of different vegetable and tofu dishes – stir fried and curries. These dishes were definitely ‘rice thiefs’ (sidetone: a Korean saying that a side dish is so good that people eat more rice than usual in combination with the side dish). It was flavourful and so pretty with all the colours. I especially liked the curry, the coconut and lemongrass were delightful.
• The rice that came with it was flavourful and well cooked, I love me some short grain rice.
• I also ordered the Pad Thai as an extra dish. Oh-my-god, that was really good! Unfortunately the portion was very small, so us 3 girls had 2 bites each (low carb I guess).

The main waiter of our table didn’t explain the dessert well, so I was disappointed with the fruit bowl I got (which was really basic). My friend got the ice cream (as pictured), when it was served the staff told us afterwards it was matcha, strawberry and sesame. The ice cream was lovely according to my friend.

We also ordered this interesting Thai ‘magic’ flower tea! How does the magic work?

The Butterfly pea flower tea is a natural flower used to colour food vivid blue. The flowers of the plant are naturally bright blue. When brewed in hot (or cold!) water, they produce a bright blue liquid.

But here’s the best part, it changes colour depending on the pH levels of the ingredients it is mixed with! If mixed with lemon juice, it turns in a beautiful purple:

The staff

Most of the staff were very friendly and accommodating. The main waiter of our table however wasn’t. When we sat down and I told him I am vegetarian, he was annoyed and said well, everything is here with meat or with fish, we can only manually take out the meat and fish for you. We told him that we have added the note to our reservation that I am vegetarian. After checking with the kitchen, ‘real’ vegetarian dishes (so not taking the meat/fish out of the dishes) were possible and it was not a problem.

So, we got off on a bad start, but of course we didn’t let it ruin our dinner. As I explained with the dessert, he was also not good with explaining before the order what the dessert really was and only said it afterwards. The other staff were really friendly and punctual, I guess we were not so lucky that night or our waiter had a bad day.

The interior

We sat on the terrace in front of the restaurant. The terrace was packed, it was really sweet of the staff to offer and to go the extra mile by bringing more tables from the back to make the terrace bigger for us.

Final verdict 

7/10. The main course vegetable dishes and pad thai were def the stars, lovely flavourful and a great variety. The magic tea was a pleasant surprise and added to the visual show element. However, the dessert was really plain and a part of the staff made the experience less good. If I were to go back, I will opt for just 2 courses and the pad thai!

Information

Address: Oostzeedijk 348, Rotterdam (The Netherlands)

Website: https://dekleineondeugd.nl

Wanna see me slurp on the pad thai and see a video of the dishes (soon on my instagram)? Follow me on Instagram for more foodspots reviews and recipes! PS: The magic tea is already on the gram. 😉