What can West-kruiskade offer expats and tourists? - Rotterdam City guide

Rotterdam is known as the most multicultural city in The Netherlands. More than 170 nationalities live here. We are quite proud of this fact. The most diverse street of Rotterdam might be West-Kruiskade. The international vibe is a big draw for locals, expats and tourists. We’ll tell you about all the hotspots in this guide.

Like all big international cities Rotterdam has a Chinatown and West-Kruiskade is the spot. Here you can find the most so called Toko’s. Small shops by mainly asian owners with exotic products. The West-Kruiskade is a world on it’s own with food and products from all over the globe. This street is full of energy and during the celebration of Chinese New Year it becomes even more hectic.

Supermarkets offer global products

Most of the shops and restaurants are inspired by the Chinese and Asian culture. Wah Nam Hong and Amazing Oriental are two of the best known Asian supermarkets. Both are must visits if you’re into Asian flavours. Amazing Oriental hosts many food events. 

Cravings at the Kruiskade

At Poh you can eat one of the finest Vietnamese Noodles and Kiem Foei is considered the Surinamese takeaway of Rotterdam, it also offers Javanese, Chinese and Caribbean dishes. Enjoy dinner at Soi3, a Thai restaurant and according to some one of the best in Rotterdam. 

Or perhaps Takumi, a Japanese restaurant which is already very popular in Germany and since opening in Rotterdam one of the busiest Japanese restaurants. Super Crepe presents Chinese style crepes and handmade dumplings. Enough tastiness to enjoy.

Street art collected

Besides good food you can see beautiful street-art here. Local and international artists like Insane51 and Wild Drawing have made beautiful paintings on several walls in the street. There are plans to establish a real Street Art Museum. The Rotterdam Street Art Museum wants to create the most beautiful outdoor street art museum in The Netherlands, joining forces with solely the top street artists of the whole world.

Even more art

But there’s more public art on display in this quarter. At the Calypso building you can take a photo with a waterfall. How instagrammable. Off course it’s not real, but it sure looks like one. Artists Monique Benthin & Rick Messemaker copied the Icelandic waterfall Seljalandsfoss!  

In the little neighborhood park ‘Oude Westen’ (it’s entrance is next to the Amazing Oriental Supermarket and in the back there is a kindergarten) you can find a statue of the Giant of Rotterdam. Rigardus Rijnhout lived from 1922 till 1959 and he was 2.38 meters tall. In 2011 a life size statue of the Giant was erected to commemorate this local hero. 

A little bit further up the road you can get a direct reference from Tony Montana. The local artists Arno Coenen & Iris Roskam (also responsible for the ceiling of the Markthal) made The World is Yours. On a former electricity building on the Tiendplein they placed a globe and the famous line from Scarface. They took that message because Tony Montana is an idol to the local youth.

Rent at Calypso

The Calypso building, yes indeed: the building with a lifelike waterfall, at the end of the West-Kruiskade marks the beginning of the new city center and was completed in 2013. During that time lots of people were skeptical about this flat, since they didn’t like the color scheme. The red and orange represents the fire after the city was bombed during World War II. Nowadays it is welcomed with open arms and a popular building for expats and short stay-residents. We at Riva also have apartments for rent at Calypso.

Hopefully you’ll enjoy our ideas for visiting Kruisplein and West-Kruiskade during your stay in Rotterdam as an expat. Stay tuned for more tips and tricks for other districts!