De Zakken Drager

I have come here often and it’s one of my favorite places to eat in Utrecht. It’s located in a narrow street in Utrecht, next to the Vredenburg square. When you enter, it seems like a small bar, but when you take a better look, you can see a kind of glassed patio, surrounded by one of the beautiful inner gardens Utrecht has in abundance. There is a gigantic old tree outside, within a beautifully kept garden.
The ambiance of the place is friendly, cozy and casual. The menu changes quite often, so be in for a surprise each time you eat there. The food is always of very good quality. As I am mainly a vegetarian, their menu’s delight me because they really put effort in good vegetarian meals: no just skipping or subbing meat, but real thoughtful and tasty compositions of veggies and sauces.
I remember a starter of quinoa and slices of orange that was just divine. And a baileys ganache as a desert that send me through the roof. It was that good, really it was. And I’m not a desert kind of person.
Yesterday I ate here with a friend, we had the salmon and wakame tartar (with soy sauce maiyonaise) and the salmon and asparagus as starters. We shared them, and they where both lovely, although the wakame salmon won by far. So tasty. All the Japanese flavors in a Western dish. We had some Rioja red wine to accompany it.
As an entrée, I picked the gnocchi with red pesto and. braised artichokes. My friend had a veal terrine. You know that sometimes, when you have artichokes, you have these hard pieces of shell still in there? Well. Not these. These were baby soft and so tasty.
The personnel is always very friendly and accommodating, always with this nice feel of quality but in a casual way.
The only minus I can think of is that it can get rather noisy when it’s crowded, it’s a small space. Sometimes, when the weather is really good, they open the glass windows and that does help. But all in all, one of my fav’s, which somehow never disappointing.

Slow service and cold food. Sorry to say, but this wasn’t very good. It started out good, with the entrée of Aubergine with Humus. But the main course took them a long time and then it came cold, not only the salmon but the whole plate. And after asking them to give it a little more heat, they were ungracious about it and explained «this is the right way to eat it». They then did the hole dish new, which was nice, but again it took them a long time. The service was nice, but very slow. And they ran out of bottled water. The food looked great, but the taste was average. So, I am not coming back…

Great little hidden gem in Utrecht. It has it’s own garden which you can always see when you sit in the back of the restaurant and it’s always quiet. Though sometimes maybe a bit too quiet…
I like coming here for some iced green tea, a view of the garden and just a really simple lunch. The menu is simple, the food is simple and quite homey actually, but somehow, the Zakkendrager still manages to make some part of me feel warm, snuggle-​y and content.
If you’re a simple food kind of person, like gardens or just like some peace and quiet every now and then, the Zakkendrager is a great place to have lunch and I’m still looking forward to coming here for dinner.