Café Brasserie Monastère — Restaurant in Delft

Wonderful meal on every level. We really recommend for a quiet date and great food. We wanted somewhere low-stimulation for dinner after an overwhelming travel day and the soft lighting and decor, gentle ballads music, and all-locals clientèle made this a relaxed but classy experience. (I know some people prefer more noise and bustle, which is why I marked atmosphere 4stars but for us it was perfect.)

We hadn't reserved, but they were nonetheless able to seat 2 of us inside on a Saturday night, albeit on the smaller bistro tables around the edge of the restaurant. There are more formally-set dining tables with table cloths in the centre of the space, and lots of tables out in the square, but we were happy with our banquette sofa and bistro chair table.

The menu had enough bistro classics to satisfy this Frenchy, and the cooking was en pointe. We ate steak tartare and saumon fumé for starters, both of which were subtle, perfectly textured and good portions. For mains we had moules-frites from the regular menu and rack of lamb from that day's specials. Both were exceptional. The cooking on the lamb was some of the best I have had in years, absolutely perfectly pink, as ordered, and super tender. It was a really thoughtful plate of food with lovely trimmings, higher in flavour-complexity and skillful craft than suggested in the price tag.

Wine selection was great and affordable, with plenty of choice by the glass. And the service was immaculate, genuine, friendly and professional. We will be back on our next trip for sure.

Bread, starters, mains, 2 big waters, wine and beer...

Unfortunate dinner experience. We ordered a bottle of wine, our starters and main courses in the first 10 minutes we sat at our table, around 8 pm. Almost after an hour and half, when we were already finished with the starters, we were told one of the main courses was not available and we were told to choose another dish. Still, we accepted to wait longer for the main course, but since the food still did not arrive by 10 pm, we asked to cancel the rest of the order. Our waitress, apologised for the situation and said today the main chef was absent. We asked for the check, expecting perhaps there might be some reduction for the poor experience overall, but we were fully charged with empty stomachs. Sadly, we won't be returning, it is a shame for a restaurant with...

Very poor service. We were given a table for 2 and after a few minutes ordered 2 drinks, one still water and one zero alcohol beer. They came 5 mins or so later but witu sparkling not still water. About 5 mins after that we were asked what we wanted to eat and we ordered 2 club sandwiches. We waited, and after another 15 mins or so, the same waitress came and asked if we wanted to order something! We were already very annoyed by the wait so we paid for the beer and left. Absolutely awful service. She did not know what she was doing at all How can someone forget a simple order of 2 club sandwiches from asking us to going directly back to her workstation which was less than 1.5 meters from...