De Veldkeuken

Oh Veldkeuken, I so want to give you at least four stars because I am a fan, really! But you’ve made it difficult for me to do so after our last visit. I understand the lunch rush and that things can easily slip up but this visit was a real testament to how patient a person I am.
We came here on a Sunday afternoon around two o’clock which is an hour and a half before lunch ends for de Veldkeuken. It was busy, but we had the time and a banana to feed the baby so it was all good. We were greeted by a waiter after he had brought out an order for the table next to us before we could really decide what we wanted to drink so I asked for a latte and a menu so le husband could figure out what he wanted to drink. We then happily went on with mashing the banana for our son and fed it to him. By the time we were done with that we were already half an hour into things and my latte had arrived with a server who disappeared before we could remind them that we were waiting for a menu. So, seeing as we’d waited for half an hour I decided to walk over to our waiter and politely remind him that he promised to bring a menu. Soon after, he finally appeared with a menu, we decided quickly and I went upstairs to nurse the baby in piece and quiet. Upon our return we found le husband still waiting. We joined and waited. And waited. And waited.
All attempts to flag someone down failed as they simply were not paying attention to their surroundings. In the meantime baby was growing more and more impatient so I took him outside for a short walk expecting to find lunch upon our return. Sadly, lunch still hadn’t been ordered but we soon managed to finally catch a server’s attention. Now it’s important that you know that lunch ends at half past three and by now it was quarter to four. We asked the server if we might finally be allowed to order lunch as we’d a;ready been waiting an hour and my husband hadn’t even received a drink yet. The server apologized, explained that he couldn’t take orders and would send his colleague over. After five minutes he noticed us still sitting there, waiting, and thankfully decided to take matters into his own hands. He took our order, saved the day and brought the food and tea out within ten minutes. No complaints there except of course the extremely long wait that had preceded these events.
Sadly baby was by now exhausted and ready to go home. What was supposed to be a nice lunch as a family turned into us taking turns with walking outside with our son and sitting inside and eating in solitude. To top all that off, the soup of the day was leek-​fennel and my lunch but tasted of neither and was only very salty. Leek and fennel are both sweet vegetables but not a hint of sweetness in site. If you would have told me that it was a very simple split-​pea soup I would have believed it.
So, after all this, you wonder why I want to give the Veldkeuken a better review? Because I believe in them. I believe in the rustic, organic and completely vegetarian philosophy. I have tasted there delicious pastries and cakes. I love that they have a nice clean toilet conveniently located outside so walkers coming off the estate can use it too. I love everything about them, I just hate having to wait for more than an hour to order lunch.

Great place with a wonderful atmosphere and good organic food. It is in the carriage house of the estate summer residence Oud Amelisweerd that is now a museum.
Most of the food comes from the estate’s gardens nearby.
We had tea and wonderful cookies but there is breakfast, lunch and dinner also.