Charcoal — Restaurant in Delft

I always passed by this place but this week finally visited with a group of friends. We had the flatbread and borani as a starter (on the house!). It was really tasty! I had the Asian vegetables and I also tried their gado gado but both of them were too spicy for me, unfortunately. But my friends had the Enterecote and Fesenjan and they really enjoyed it , But I wish they had more options for drinks, especially beer and wine because these go hand in hand with bbq and seafood. Overall, we all enjoyed our time in Charcoal and the owner Melvin was very kind to explain to us each dish in detail and he personally took interest in serving every table in the restaurant! I can't wait to try their seafood next time I visit.

EDIT 28/12/2024: I had to come back to edit my initial review from 2 years ago noe that I've visited Charcoal again. They have significantly upgraded their food and wine menus; now there's plenty of wine options to pair with your food. And their food menu is better structured with dishes where the flavors complement one another. Not to mention that they're also very delicious.

I'd especially recommended their mix grill, ebi tempura and grilled mussels. The grilled shrimp cooked the right amount, not too tough or elastic. And their tempura is quite light. The grilled mussels are a great appetizer with plenty of cheese and herbs.

The service is fast and the staff are attentive. The only downside was that being a bbq restaurant, they need a better ventilation system. We found that it got quite smoky inside...

Unfortunately very disappointing. We had a reservation for 3 people, but when we got to the restaurant there were no free tables. Moreover, there was a queue of people waiting for a table and everybody waiting had a reservation. The staff absolutely did not honor the reservations and did not offer any recompensation for the long wait. Finally (after around 40 minute wait) we got a table and it seemed like it will be a nice evening. Unfortunately, the timing did not improve, we ended up waiting an hour for some of the starters to arrive, with the rest never coming. The food was served at random order and the service was very unprofessional. The side dishes that we got were not the ones that we ordered, and when we confronted the waiter about it he laughed at us and told us to eat what we got. This led to a confrontation with the owner who not only refused to apologise for delivering wrong dishes, forgetting starters and some drinks and refusing to bring what was missing, but also demanded respect and said that if we don't like the horrible service we should leave. How can a restaurant owner treat his clients like that, we just came for a nice dinner to a high ranked restaurant and got treated like nothing, what happened to customer service? You can get more respect in domino's. Granted the food was good, but considering the high prices combined with the absolute impolitness of the staff, I would not reccomend...

Beautifully looking place, delicious menu, remarkable reviews from the outside. For few years I was passing by wanting to come in and have a nice meal. Here we were with my family on a Saturday afternoon. I seat outside and was breastfeeding my baby at this moment while my husband was standing next to me to make sure my mother and older daughter could see us well. It was busy during the market. Here comes the waiter with a straightaway sentence it wasn’t a public bench and I should have gone to feed my baby to the places by the canal. I went speechless. Not a “what would you like to drink?” Or anything suggesting the basics of hospitality industry. Minutes later the owner of the place came and basically repeated and when I objected he rudely suggested we leave his place. Honestly?! When did we spot to be human? When did we loose the sense of common sense and the purpose of even opening the restaurant. Such a beautiful and promising place and such a measurable rude and small personalities. Coming back for this industry it was a shame to witness this approach, to be involved in it and later to explain my 5 yo daughter why she couldn’t eat and was asked to leave the place. Never in...