Parck

Nice little café on the edge of the Haarlemerhout. They have outside seating overlooking the park as well as indoor seating. I had lunch here and was presently surprised with the nice open face sandwich that I got.

I’ve had lunch here once and dinner twice since they opened. On the plus side, the atmosphere and location are fantastic. The restaurant is situated at the corner of a park near some monumental buildings on the Dreef. I know they have a certain local crowd of regulars for lunch, which is good.
However the menu is uninspiring and the food is mediocre. The service is absolutely glacial. Like, they have ancient sloths from Pliocene cooking and a group of small forest creatures just awoken from their hibernation serving. These sloths/​forest creatures are all sincerely nice and probably capable of far better service, so whomever is running the front of the house should consider hiring someone else to do it (hint hint).

Avoir un restaurant comme celui-​ci en face de chez soi est assez difficile. Sa terrasse avant attire au moindre rayon de soleil tandis que sa baie vitrée arrière donnant sur le parc permet de profiter du cadre sans pendre en compte le temps…
Bien évidemment, en bons Français habitués à manger à des heures indues, nous y sommes toujours allés de nuit, et nous avons même été accueilli à 21h, sans réservation, ce qui est assez rare dans ce pays.
La déco et l’ambiance sont très agréables. Le seul bémol vient de la nourriture elle-​même qui n’a rien d’exceptionnel. Les gibiers sont toujours secs et le menu né mérite pas un tel prix, mais n’oublions pas que nous sommes aux Pays-​Bas donc tout est relatif ;)

Went there for a company occasion, we had a choice from 3 starters, 3 entrees and 3 desserts (a la carte doesn’t work well for 80+ people).
Had a «Cream of Porcini mushrooms, cream of parmesan and braised celery» as starter. Despite the upscale name, this was nothing more than a canned mushroom soup with some dried chunks of mushrooms thrown in, and a splat of parmesan cream in the middle. For a restaurant of that appearance, quite underwhelming.
My entrée was «Tortellini stuffed with goat cheese, spinach and ricotta with baked Trompette de la morte and a foam of Cepes». This meal leaves me a bit undecided. Again, underwhelming. The tortellini had goat cheese as filling — yes. The spinach was served on the side, the Trompette de la morte were in fact burned champignons. The only highlight was the foam of Cepes, really delicious. But only a spoonful of that was on the plate. Disappointing.
Last but also least was the dessert, a «Tart of Gianuja with belgian chocolate ice and crunchy nougat». Gianuja is a chocolate with about 30% hazelnut content, a bit like Nutella. Too bad the pastry chef took the title literally and served — i kid you not — a cookie with about 15 mm of solid chocolate cream on top. Unfortunately the cream wasn’t Nutella, but something far less tasty. Overall the dessert was beyond ridiculous.
Since the entire evening was planned upfront, there were no real waiting times. But resumes by my collegues confirm: This restaurant still has a lot to learn about upscale cuisine. It looks fancy, but that’s about all there is.

So I made the mistake of showing up at 19:00 on Roze Zaterdag and I was starving — but service should NEVER be this slow. I’m pretty certain that we waited for 10 minutes just to get a menu, 30 minutes to get a drink and overall, spent 2.5 hours here not having a spectacular meal. The tables were not full, there were dozens of servers working and, needless to say, I just wasn’t thrilled.
Having said all of that, the € 26 three-​course meal was just not tasty either. I had the house soup first, which was one of those Dutch «vegetable?» soups with little seabugs in it. It tasted like dirt — I couldn’t even finish it. And remember, I was STARVING. … 30 minutes later … I had the entrecôte, which was was obviously not the best cut of beef ever, and the dousing of bearnaise didn’t save it. I finished with a fruit and yogurt plate that I could have easily made better at home.
Considering the fact that we had dropped roughly € 70 here, I was sooo disappointed. The only saving grace was the tuna starter that my husband ordered. That item was fresh and perfectly balanced and satisfying. But, unfortunately for Parck, one out of six isn’t good enough.