Getting around
A vegan and vegetarian guide to the Bazaar in Beverwijk | Getting around | The Food Court | Hal 30 - besides the food court | The Eastern Market | The Boulevard | The Randweg
Getting around in the Bazaar can be a bit difficult. Signposts, maps, hall numbers, and location names are supposed to help, but they actually create a chaos – very typical of the Bazaar – that creates even more confusion. Resorting to Google Maps does not help much, and don’t get me started on the Bazaar’s online map.
In this guide, when describing stalls or shops I will try to do two things: include the name, location, and phone number as mentioned on the official Bazaar map, as well as give some instructions on how to find the place with the help of Google maps. Note that the official names are often not what you might actually see when you are there, so I will try to include as many names that I can find for each place.
Overview
The main street of the Bazaar is Buitenlanden, lavishly (and confusingly) also called “Boulevard” on signposts in the Bazaar. This street runs northwest to southeast, and ends on its southeastern side on the Randweg, which runs northeast to southwest. The corner of Buitenlanden and Randweg is roughly the heart of the Bazaar.
If you were unfortunate enough to enter the Bazaar through parking lot P4, you will need to tread through the somewhat desolate Hal 05 and Hal 04 before you find the “Boulevard”. If you are really unlucky, you’ve arrived through parking P5, and you might have gotten lost through Hal 01, Hal 02, Hal 03, Hal 07, Hal 05, and Hal 04, before you found your way out onto the sunlight, and had a first sight of any noteworthy food.
The best way to enter the Bazaar is from the entrance across from parking lot P1, at the intersection of Ringvaartweg and Randweg. This is also a good opportunity to check out the flea market on the Ringvaartweg, just outside the Bazaar itself. When entering the Bazaar from this direction, you will find the few Bazaar shops that are open on weekdays - Amazing Oriental (open every day), and the fruit and vegetable stands of Groenteboer Tuncer (Tuesday-Sunday). On weekdays, cars can drive all the way up to Tuncer, so the cratefulls of produce bought here can be directly loaded onto the car.
When entering from the direction of P1, on the left side of the Randweg (the southeastern side) are Halls 31, 32, 33, and 34. Halls 32-33 are also called the Versmarkt (fresh produce market), and Hal 34 is “De Souk”. But in fact, the entire complex of halls 31-34 (also called “De Oosterse Markt”, the Eastern market) is joined together, full of great shops, and yes, also food.
Across from Halls 31-34, on the northwest side of Randweg, is Hal 30. The wall of Hal 30 across from Halls 31-34 says in large letters “Mihrab”, but according to the official map, Mihrab is just the fountain inside the building, directly after the entrance. Hal 30 contains the food court, and many other restaurants and shops.
On the southwestern side of Hal 30 is Buitenlanden/Boulevard, which has several street stands and a few large restaurants.
A food tour through the Bazaar
The main food attractions of the Bazaar are the food court and mihrab in Hal 30, and the fresh market (“De Oosterse Markt” / “De Souk”, “Versmarkt”). The Randweg has some nice shops like Amazing Oriental, Groenteboer Tuncer, Wahid Plaza, and Buitenlanden features some restaurants and food stalls, including the legendary Café Klein Mokum. Hal 30 also has some hidden gems that are a nice find.
There are many more interesting things in the Bazaar (the gold market across Buitenlanden from Hal 30, the flea market on the Ringvaartweg, and more), but if you’re here for the food, these are the areas you should probably focus on.