Eethuys-Café 'De Generaal' — Restaurant in Baarn

We came here in June of 2022 and enjoyed it very much, however the same could not be said for our visit tonight. A near 3 hour evening for only 3 courses meant that we waited around an hour per course, through which a series of issues arose. Firstly, there were several complications with our drinks. Having ordered 2 ginger ales and one ginger beer, (other drinks were a Heineken, spa blau and spa rot) we were initially served 2 ginger beers along with the other drinks. We notified them of the error but then they only brought one ginger ale when we had ordered two. Finally, needing only one more ginger ale, we were served 2 instead. Not a good start. Furthermore, we noticed the tomato soup was missing something, and indeed it was, the meatballs, unlike our last visit which contained succulent and delicious meatballs, all the soup contained this time was a measly basil leaf that had sunk to the bottom, which was disappointing to see. However, the saga continued and we were served our mains. This time 3 half chickens, two steaks and a fish. Whilst the fish was noted to be good, though I didn’t have it myself, the half chickens were of upmost disappointment. Only 1/3 of the chickens were fully cooked, with the other two containing blotches of red all within the chicken, indicating that it was simply raw. The management were quick to rectify this by sending this back to the kitchen. 10 minutes later, we received the same chickens, except one of them was still red! They explained that they pre-boil their chickens etc and that it was a vein or something that was cut, however, I don’t recall putting a chicken in an oven for the necessary time and it turning out red (raw!) Furthermore, one of the diners requested for the mash that comes with the steak to be replaced with fries, despite this being noted down, by which the server even said afterwards that he had it noted down, they still received mash with their steak, having to enquire about the whereabouts of their fries, only to receive it after they had finished their steak, not very convenient. The desserts were acceptable, as I myself indulged in the half-baked chocolate chip cookie, despite it being listed for two people, I easily finished it, having been left starving from an undercooked chicken. In kind compensation for the chicken incident, they offered a free coffee or tea. This was kindly welcomed and even came with a complementary stroopwaffel, however when we got the bill, we were still charged for the tea and coffee! It was only after we told the server that they had to change the bill to rectify this error. All in all, whilst these errors are fine individually, after all no restaurant is perfect, a sequence of errors as mentioned above can simply not be accepted for paying customers. We hoped this would become a tradition that on the second last night of our stay we come here, as we are visiting travellers from Australia, but after tonight, we will have to seriously consider looking elsewhere unless something...

We went for dinner here tonight and the food and experience was pretty bad. It took around one hour for the main course to come out. During that period we asked twice why our food was not coming and they said, sorry we are busier than we thought and you are not the only ones waiting a long time!!! It was quite frustrating. When the food did come out it was rather cold. The fat in the middle of the rib eye had become a little hard. We were all just waaay to hungry to send it back and just eat the meal. It was clear our food probably sat there for a little bit. My father in law ordered white wine with his main course, an asparagus meal, and he had finished the meal before the white wine had come out. Absolutely terrible service and the food was not very good. I gave two stars because the waitresses were very nice and friendly (even though they clearly had little experience). Would not...

We wilden het na de overname van de Generaal weer eens proberen. Helaas was het een aanfluiting.

Bij binnenkomst werd er opgekeken door het personeel, geen gedag zegt en verder volledig genegeerd. Na netjes blijven wachten toch door gelopen en werd ik wel te woord gestaan.

Eenmaal een mooie tafel aan het raam toegewezen gekregen, ging we zitten. Wauw, wat een mega onvriendelijke stoelen en tafels. Niet te doen om hier 2 uur op te zitten. Verhouding van zithoogte en tafel klopt ook niet. Deze tafel moest nog afgeruimd worden na het diner van onze voorgangers, wat 10 minuten duurde. Ook bijzonder dat de bediening die de tafel toewees niet meteen het gebruikte servies afruimde.

Vervolgens werd onze bestelling opgenomen en kregen wij ons couvert. Dit werd bij ons beide op een andere manier gedekt en niet beginnend met de vork aan de linker zijde. Drinken wordt geserveerd zonder dienbladen.

Ons voorgerecht was soep, in een klein kommetje met de inhoud 1 grote soeplepel voor 9 euro. Smaak was redelijk ok, maar erg prijzig voor deze kleine hoeveelheid.

Hoofdgerecht was een entrecote van 25 euro per stuk, medium gebakken. Mijn vermoeden is dat deze eerder worden voorgebakken en bij bestelling in de oven worden geschoven. De buitenkant was zwart, hard en taai. Mijn entrecote was voor 20% eetbaar, die van mijn zus was rijp voor de prullenbak. De oven gegrilde groente bestond uit 2 halve wortels en 2 asperges waarvan de wortels erg hard waren. Er was 1 bakje friet voor 2 volwassen. De standaard sausen bevatten melk en er kon geen lactosevrije saus gemaakt worden. Na gemeld te hebben dit erg slecht te vinden (mishandeling van zulk mooi vlees) 2 glazen wijn aangeboden gehad ter compensatie.

Verder ziet het personeel het een en ander over het hoofd als gasten hen proberen aan te roepen. Daarnaast is het achter de bar vies, chaotisch, overvolle prullenbakken en ver van een georganiseerde standaard.

Al met al valt er nog wat winst te behalen qua etiquette, gastvrijheid, kwaliteit en eten wat er uit de keuken komt. Voor ons een grote...