Fieret's Vishandel (Sluis): the fishmonger Knokke swears by

Par Gabriel Goldberg 6 August 2026 8 min read

Some addresses are passed on quietly, between people who know. Fieret's Vishandel , Kaai 18-20 in Sluis , the Netherlands, is one of them. A ten-minute drive from Knokke-Heist , inside the retail complex that makes this small Zeeland town the shopping destination for the entire region — Flanders and the Netherlands alike — hides one of the finest fish shops I have ever walked into. And I mean it: for me, one of the best fishmongers in the world , value for money included. Fieret's Vishandel counter: fresh North Sea grey shrimp (Crangon crangon) on special at 2 kg for €29.95, next to cooked pink prawns at €8.49 per 500 g, white scoops standing in the stainless-steel trays. Why Fieret is a class apart The first shock is visual. A counter several metres long, laid out with military precision, every steel tray filled to the brim: North Sea grey shrimp ( Crangon crangon , FAO fishing area 27, printed on the label), cooked prawns, whelks, crab claws, peppered smoked salmon, smoked eel, Canadian lobster, king crab legs, red mullet, squid, sole, turbot and pieterman — the weever fish, the quiet glory of the Belgian coast. The second shock is the pricing. A cooked lobster at €10.95 apiece. Twelve French oysters at €9.95. Two kilos of fresh grey shrimp at €29.95. Prices like that should not exist at this level of quality. Cooked Canadian lobsters lined up on ice at Fieret's in Sluis, king crab legs in the middle, handwritten signs reading 'Gekookte Kreeft € 10,95 per stuk' and…