Piloersemaborg

From our diary

Dining and staying at Piloersemaborg

When someone asks us where we most love to dine and stay the night, we do not have to think for long. Piloersemaborg. We have been there several times now: in spring, when the trees in front of the borg were still bare, and in summer under full leaf. And every time we drive away with the same feeling. Everything is right here. That is why the borg is number one in this book.

You drive onto the yard and first see the tall stepped gable, with the family crest still set in the wall. The borg dates from 1633, built for Johan de Mepsche. Around 1700 the great barn was added and it became a working farm. It is the last borg farmhouse the province of Groningen has left. Not a castle, then, but a farmhouse with grandeur. Gravel, a big lawn, a small terrace against the wall. It does not feel like arriving at a hotel, more like arriving at family who happen to live in a listed building.

We have slept there in two ways. The first time in a box bed, and to be honest, that is what we came for. A bed built into the wall, behind little doors, the way farmers here slept for centuries. It is snug, it is special, and it is exactly the kind of night you keep talking about at home. The next time we chose a garden room, with its own terrace on the garden side. More space, more light, and in the morning the door wide open. If we had to choose? The box bed for your first visit, the garden room the time after. Really, we just want to do both again.

Then the evening. The restaurant is in the borg itself. White tablecloths, candles on every table, red leather chairs, paintings on the walls and a large chimney piece with a wood stove. Upstairs, under the roof with its sloping walls, there is another dining room, and by candlelight it may be even lovelier. You are not sitting in a restaurant. You are at the home of someone who happens to cook very well.

And Dick Soek does. He has cooked here since 2005 and in 2012 moved his whole restaurant from Leens to the borg. Organic, local, fish from the Wadden Sea and vegetables from the garden. You can see how that reaches the table in the May 2025 menu we took home afterwards. A savoury waffle with chicken liver mousse and porcini powder. A Wadden oyster from the oven with breadcrumbs, parsley and lemon zest. Their own sourdough with farm butter. A Paris-Brest filled with curd and a little vegetable garden. North Sea crab on a cream of roasted carrots. White asparagus with wild garlic anolini and a light morel sauce. Turbot in filo with sorrel sauce. Leg of venison with its jus. And then a choice between a baked pear with Lazuli, a cheese from De Oudwijker in Cothen, or a crisp cinnamon cream with rhubarb. One summer evening we had strawberries with meringue and elderflower. This is not a kitchen that wants to impress with tricks. It is season, flavour and craft, course after course.

And then the part we are most enthusiastic about: the price. Aperitif, wines, water and coffee are simply included in the menu. No puzzling over the wine list, no sums at the end of the evening. They import the wines themselves, and anything you liked you can take home by the bottle at shop prices. For two, dinner, a night and breakfast come to around € 410, with the wine already included. Anyone who has eaten at a starred restaurant and then seen the wine bill knows what that means. For this quality, in this house, it is almost too good to be true. We know of no address in the Netherlands where you get more evening for your money.

What completes it are the people. Dick in the kitchen, Hilda Soek and host and sommelier Theo Mulder in the dining room. You can tell it is their home, and that they are genuinely glad you are there.

Our advice: take a box-bed room on your first visit, walk around the yard before dinner and simply let the wines come. There are only five rooms, so book early. And count on wanting to come back, just like us.

Price and practicalities

Our visits

Several times, in spring and in summer. We slept once in a box bed and once in a garden room.

For two, count on

approx. € 410: dinner, one night and breakfast, wine included

How we get there

room € 190 with breakfast + menu € 109.50 × 2

Room

€ 190 per night, the least expensive room, with breakfast

Menu

€ 109.50 p.p. (4 courses, with wine)

Package

€ 409 for two

Note

Aperitif, wines, water and coffee are included in the menu.

Rooms

5 rooms: 3 garden suites and 2 box-bed rooms

In charge

Dick & Hilda Soek, Theo Mulder

Location

Den Ham, Groningen

Booking

Directly via piloersema.nl

Worked out from their own website and booking system for a weeknight in November 2026. Check your own date with the address.