Key Takeaways
A local restaurant with a big role
Gooday is a Chinese–Indonesian all-inclusive restaurant and takeaway in the town of Appingedam in the north of the Netherlands. It serves a mix of Chinese, Indonesian, sushi and Western-style dishes and works with a buffet, a wok counter and a busy takeaway service.
A detailed 2025 menu
The printed 2025 takeaway price list shows how wide the offer is: soups, snacks, rice and noodle dishes, meat and fish plates, vegetarian options, sushi sets, house specials and shared rice tables. Prices sit in the mid-range, with most main dishes between about fifteen and twenty-three euros, and white rice included.
Loyalty, QR codes and easy payment
Guests can save stamps on a paper loyalty card, order food by scanning QR codes on flyers, and pay online through Dutch bank transfers. The mix of paper cards and digital tools shows how a classic neighbourhood restaurant now lives in both the street and the smartphone.
Part of a wider food story
Gooday is one example of a larger Dutch love story with Chinese–Indonesian food. National museums, historians and broadcasters now treat this restaurant culture as an important part of everyday heritage in the Netherlands.
Story & Details
A warm light on Wijkstraat
On a cool evening in late 2025, the lights of Gooday shine over Wijkstraat in Appingedam. Inside, families and groups move between buffet islands. Some guests fill their plates with sushi, grilled meat and salads. Others stand by the open wok counter and hand bowls of vegetables, meat and noodles to the cooks, who toss them quickly in high flames.
Gooday presents itself as an all-inclusive restaurant. Guests pay a fixed price for a two-hour visit and can then eat and drink as much as they like within that time slot. A slightly higher price at the end of the week reflects the busier nights from Friday to Sunday. The idea is simple: relaxed dinners, plenty of choice, and no surprise at the bill.
At the same time, the restaurant runs a steady takeaway business. People from Appingedam and nearby villages call in orders, tap on an ordering website, or scan the QR code printed on flyers and on the 2025 “takeaway price list”. The kitchen sends out familiar cardboard boxes of rice, noodles and sauces, just as many Dutch families have known for decades.
Inside the 2025 takeaway menu
The 2025 printed menu gives a clear snapshot of what Gooday offers to take home. It opens with three classic soups: chicken soup, tomato soup and shark-fin soup, each at the same modest price. The next block lists starters and side dishes, from kroepoek and mini spring rolls to fried banana, satay skewers, peanut sauce, spicy sauce, pickled vegetables and crunchy fried dumplings.
Rice and noodle dishes take up a large part of the page. Fried rice and fried noodles with meat and egg form the base. From there, guests can move up to “special” versions that add satay and a quarter chicken, or they can choose toppings of sliced chicken fillet, sliced pork tenderloin or Chinese prawns. A separate line of “miefang” dishes uses thin rice noodles instead of the usual nasi or bami. These versions are slightly more expensive, which matches the printed note that any switch from plain rice to nasi, bami or miefang comes with a small extra charge.
Meat sections show how the menu is organised around sauces. Pork dishes include grilled and roasted versions in sweet-and-sour, soy, curry, peanut, sambal, mushroom and pineapple sauces. Names such as Babi Pangang and Koe Loe Yoek appear beside these descriptions, familiar to many Dutch diners. Chicken dishes repeat this pattern with chicken fillet in those same sauces, plus a richer plate of Peking duck with spicy sauce. Prawn dishes follow again, this time with breaded prawns and prawns in curry, spicy, mushroom, sambal and roedjak sauces, as well as a special with Chinese mushrooms.
There is space too for Indonesian plates such as Gado Gado and Daging Roedjak, and for beef tenderloin prepared with mushrooms, curry, spicy sauce or Chinese mushrooms. Vegetarians are not left out: mixed vegetable stir-fry, a rich dish with wild mushrooms, broccoli, baby corn, peppers and bamboo shoots, and a soft vegetable omelette offer meat-free routes through the same flavour world.
House specials, sushi and shared feasts
Toward the end of the menu, Gooday gives pride of place to its “specials of the house”. Names such as Gon Bao, Yu Siang, Taosi and Hao You mark different families of sauces. In one column, chicken, pork, beef, prawns and fish fillet are combined with nuts in a spicy brown sauce. In another, the same meats appear with ginger and a mild garlic kick. A third set uses black-bean sauce, and a fourth shines with oyster sauce. Each line pairs a clear description in Dutch with a foreign-sounding name that regulars recognise.
The printed list also points to a separate sushi takeaway menu, with fixed boxes of twelve, twenty, thirty or sixty pieces. These sets need to be ordered ahead of time, and they often sit beside the hot dishes in delivery bags, a sign of how sushi has joined the old classics in modern Dutch-Chinese restaurants.
For people who do not want to choose item by item, Gooday offers shared menus. One of them, called “Gooday Fang Special”, is designed for two people and brings together mini spring rolls, Babi Pangang, egg dish, satay and a choice of extra main plates. Two rice tables go even further. One joins Chinese and Indonesian favourites in a long list of dishes per person from four guests upward. Another, called simply “Chinese rice table”, covers a similar spread from two guests. These sets turn a normal evening into a small celebration and help guests taste many flavours in one go.
Stamps, QR codes and a small Dutch lesson
Alongside the food, Gooday uses a paper loyalty card. The card has twelve empty boxes for stamps and a column of short rules. One stamp is given for every fixed amount spent on dine-in meals and for every smaller amount on takeaway. A full card gives a ten percent discount on the next visit. Only one card can be used at a time, and the discount does not apply on public holidays or together with other offers. On the card in the photograph, two red stamps already sit in the first row, proof of repeat visits.
Digital tools sit next to this old-fashioned loyalty system. Flyers and the takeaway menu carry square QR codes. When scanned with a phone, these open the online ordering page where guests can pick dishes, add notes, choose delivery or collection and pay through iDEAL, the standard Dutch online banking system. The restaurant’s main website and its shorter WordPress page show the same mix of information: buffet details, reservation phone numbers, and links for ordering food at home.
A tiny language lesson hides in the printed Dutch text. The words “meeneem prijslijst” literally mean “takeaway price list”. “Spelregels” are “rules of the game” and sit above the loyalty card instructions. “Rijsttafel” is “rice table”, the big shared meal inspired by colonial-era Indonesian feasts that was later adapted for Dutch households. For many Dutch readers, these words feel everyday and cosy, but for visitors they also offer a quick way into local food culture.
Gooday in the story of Chinese–Indonesian food
Gooday does not stand alone. Across the Netherlands, Chinese–Indonesian restaurants have a long history. The first Chinese eateries opened around the ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam in the 1920s. After the Second World War and the end of Dutch rule in Indonesia, many people with ties to the former colony arrived in the Netherlands and brought their food traditions with them. Over time, cooks combined Chinese techniques with Indonesian flavours and with Dutch tastes. Dishes such as Babi Pangang, Foe Yong Hai, Tjap Tjoi, nasi and bami goreng became standard on menus and in Dutch homes.
Researchers, museums and heritage foundations now describe this mixed cuisine as a core part of everyday Dutch life. The Dutch intangible heritage list includes Chinese–Indonesian restaurant culture as an example of living heritage. A television programme from local broadcaster Omroep Tilburg, available on YouTube under the title “Chinees-Indische restaurant-cultuur als immaterieel erfgoed”, follows former restaurant owners and guests and shows how important these places are for memories of family meals and weekend treats. The video can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cAlnxaMYSg.
In that wider context, Gooday’s menu reads like a textbook. It combines old classics such as Babi Pangang and Foe Yong Hai with newer ideas like all-you-can-eat buffets and sushi. Reviews on regional tourism sites and travel platforms praise the wide choice, friendly staff and clean buffet lines. Commenters highlight the wok and grill corners, the option to pick ingredients and watch them being cooked, and the feeling of getting good value for a relaxed night out.
As of November 2025, price levels at Gooday are a little higher than they were a few years ago, especially for extras such as swapping plain rice for noodles or miefang. That change mirrors wider food and energy costs in the country, yet the restaurant still positions itself as a place where families can celebrate birthdays, meet up with grandparents or enjoy a simple Saturday evening without cooking at home.
Conclusions
A living snapshot of Dutch food culture
Gooday in Appingedam shows how a single restaurant can capture a much larger story. Its 2025 takeaway list, loyalty card and online ordering tools come together as a clear picture of Chinese–Indonesian food in the Netherlands today. The dishes mix Chinese, Indonesian and Dutch influences. The service blends buffet ritual with modern delivery habits. Paper stamps live next to QR codes and banking apps.
The restaurant is part of a national chain of memories: family trips to “the Chinese”, plastic bags filled with warm boxes on a rainy night, birthday meals built around rice tables and sizzling plates. At the same time, it keeps adapting, adding sushi, digital payments and new house specials.
Looking at Gooday in this way makes it more than a place to eat. It becomes a small piece of living heritage, one that connects a quiet street in Appingedam with a century of migration, taste and shared meals across the Netherlands.
Selected References
[1] Restaurant Gooday official ordering and menu site: https://www.restaurant-gooday.nl/
[2] Restaurant Gooday WordPress information page with opening hours and reservation number: https://restaurantgooday.wordpress.com/
[3] Visit Groningen profile of Gooday as an all-inclusive restaurant in Appingedam: https://www.visitgroningen.nl/en/locations/1126543849/gooday
[4] Dutch intangible heritage list entry on Chinese–Indonesian restaurant culture: https://www.immaterieelerfgoed.nl/en/ChineesIndischeRestaurantcultuur
[5] Public history article on the development of the takeaway Chinese restaurant in the Netherlands: https://publichistory.humanities.uva.nl/blog/how-the-afhaalchinees-conquered-the-netherlands-from-authentic-cuisine-to-dutchification-of-chinese-indonesian-dishes/
[6] Museum article on Chinese food and migration in the Netherlands: https://amsterdam.wereldmuseum.nl/en/collection-stories/how-chinese-is-chinese-food
[7] Historical overview of Chinese restaurants in the Netherlands from Rotterdam’s Chinatown foundation: https://rotterdamchinatown.nl/?page_id=2
[8] Article on how Chinese food won a place in Dutch weekend life: https://dutchsino.com/how-chinese-food-conquered-the-hearts-of-rotterdam-and-the-whole-of-the-netherlands/
[9] Television episode on Chinese–Indonesian restaurant culture as intangible heritage, produced by Omroep Tilburg, YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cAlnxaMYSg
Appendix
Babi Pangang
A grilled or roasted pork dish in a sweet-and-sour sauce that became a classic of Dutch Chinese–Indonesian menus, often served with white rice or fried rice.
Bami
Fried wheat or egg noodles, usually mixed with small pieces of meat and vegetables, and used as a base for many Chinese–Indonesian takeaway dishes.
Chinese–Indonesian restaurant
A type of restaurant common in the Netherlands that mixes Chinese cooking methods with Indonesian dishes and Dutch tastes, serving items such as nasi goreng, bami goreng and satay.
Foe Yong Hai
An egg dish similar to an omelette, often filled with vegetables, meat or prawns and covered with a sweet tomato-based sauce, widely known in Dutch Chinese restaurants.
Gooday
An all-inclusive Chinese–Indonesian restaurant and takeaway in Appingedam, known for its buffet, wok counter, sushi, 2025 takeaway menu and loyalty stamp card.
iDEAL
A Dutch online payment system that lets customers pay for web orders directly through their own bank accounts, widely used for takeaway and delivery services.
Miefang
Thin rice noodles, fried with vegetables and meat or fish, used at Gooday as a slightly more expensive alternative to standard rice or bami.
Nasi
Fried rice, usually mixed with small pieces of meat, egg and vegetables, and one of the main bases for Chinese–Indonesian takeaway plates in the Netherlands.
QR code
A square, two-dimensional barcode that can be scanned with a phone to open a website or app, used on Gooday flyers and menus to link directly to the ordering page.
Rijsttafel
A shared meal made of many small dishes served with rice, adapted from colonial-era Indonesian feasts and now a popular way for groups to eat together in Dutch Chinese–Indonesian restaurants.
Tjap Tjoi
A stir-fried vegetable dish, often with a light sauce and sometimes with added meat, which appears on many Dutch Chinese–Indonesian menus as a comforting, mild option.
My Diary - Leonardo Cardillo 