Our story
Sicilian cooking, a Brabant harbour, and no fuss about it.
Pulcinos sits right on the Piushaven, where the boats moor and Tilburg comes to eat by the water. Sicilian at heart, cooked with what’s good here.
The chef
Chef Thomas cooks the way his family does in Sicily.
The roots are Sicilian — bright citrus, good olive oil, seafood treated simply and a respect for letting a few ingredients speak. The produce is mostly Brabant, bought close and changed as the season turns. That’s the whole idea behind Pulcinos: a small, honest menu that moves with what’s good, rather than a long one that never changes.
The kitchen is open, so you can watch the pasta being rolled and the fish going on the charcoal. It’s the kind of place where the chef might come out to tell you what landed that morning.
The house pour
Limoncello from an uncle’s recipe, made in the cellar.
The lemons come from family in Sicily; the method is slow and unhurried — peel rested in alcohol until it’s ready, sweetened lightly, served straight from the freezer. There are house liqueurs too: an amaro built from harbour herbs, a walnut nocino for the cold months. It’s the reason a lot of tables order one more before they leave.
The room
Dinner in the back, borrel at the bar.
A calm dining room over the water for the full menu, and a front bar with the open kitchen for a drink and a few plates. Two moods, one address on the Piushaven.
“You feel like a guest in someone’s home, not a customer.”
— from a Google review · 4.8★