Villa Augustus – Hotel Restaurant Dordrecht — Restaurant in Dordrecht

The room we stayed in was nice enough but felt a bit cluttered with furniture that did not quite fit. It was clean and the bed was very nice. The ground floor of the inside of the hotel felt way too cluttered and a bit chaotic. The staff at the desk were friendly enough and seemed to care about their work. The gardens around the hotel are a lovely quiet place to chill and read a book or have tea with friends. The veg garden looked really nice and you could see people working in them. They had flower gardens that looked really lovely. The fruit they grew their were interestingly pruned and trellissed. I enjoyed chilling in one of the quiet corners. The restaurant is where the experience fell flat. We decide to stay here for my birthday and my wife mentioned it to the server when we asked about what is special on the menu. The server did not respond to that at all and had little to no knowledge about what they had on the menu. They did not seem to care at all about the service industry at all. Took way too long to get a menu, too long for drinks, too long for plates to be cleared between starter and mains. Did not check our drinks at all between courses or after. They lost money not asking about more drinks at a table celebrating a birthday. We had the chance to order more when courses were delivered. The food did not look as if it was prepared with any sort of joy or pride. It was underseasoned and the proteins were over cooked but the veg was under. I know that we ordered dessert but it was not really memorable for chocolate cake. It did not feel like a birthday dinner. Breakfast the next morning was so much worse. A total failure in communication and quality control. We looked at the buffet that was made with ingredients out of the gardens on the premises. It was sad looking to be honest. The first thing we noticed was there was an enormous fly stuck in the butter. The veg looked way over cooked and unappealing. The croissants were all way too dark and dry. The cold cuts were in disarray and looked way picked through. So we chose to be seated and order from the menu. Our coffees came 10 minutes apart and the waiter made it his duty to correct our ordering a doppio cappuccino saying that it was actually a flat white. It is not the job to correct the guest in that way. My wife's hot meal came almost immediately out. Meanwhile I am still waiting for a meal that had no hot elements at all. We asked several times about my order and one of the waitstaff said it looked that our orders were put in separately. The staffer that took our order looked to be expressly avoiding eye contact and did not come back to our table. My plate was brought out by a different staffer over 20 minutes later. I immediately saw that they had picked through the buffet for several of the items on the plate. The croissant was burnt and it tasted of carbon instead of flaky buttery goodness. The fruit was not ripe at all, not the melon, plums, or berries. There was no butter for the dry burnt croissant or jam. The coffee tasted old. It was just bad all around. I spoke with the floor manager and expressed my frustration. He told me he would take the meal off of our bill. When we paid out at the check in desk we saw we were still charged for the coffees. This place could be a real gem but sadly it seems that some of the student types that work here seem to hate their work. The cooks do not seen to control the quality before sending it out the the floor. They also do not time the orders very well either. The manager did not seem to run a team at all. Individuals in survival mode is what it seemed to be. Until many things are made better I would not come here again and would not...

Having worked in an upmarket catering myself I enjoy visiting restaurants where you know they get the service right and Villa Augustus presented itself as the perfect place for an auspicious start to a poignant birthday. Well the place was certainly able to offer a poignant experience: staff who could have easily acknowledged us upon our arrival ignored us; When were asked to sit down it was at a sticky table still full of used china from the previous customers; the chocolate cake we had organised prior was served promptly, without knife but with the dirty cups from the previous owners left satelliting around the centre of the table; the waitress arrived with only half the coffees and waiting for us to initiate contact after which we were left waiting, and waiting and wondering when the other half of the coffees would arrive. Wondering if those with coffees could better do the impolite thing of drinking their coffee without cake (still waiting for the cake knife). After some more patience-testing minutes I headed inside and explained the situation to a member of staff. Yet no effort was made to redeem the unfortunate event, it was hinted we should be patient as they were short of staff. Returning outside, the rest of the cappo's followed shortly after - to say they were lukewarm would be stretching it. The milk had not even been warmed up.

Villa Augustus is situated in a majestic building in a beautiful location and would love to return there. Maybe when staff have received the coaching so that they can offer a great experience and in return experience themselves the satisfaction of being part of a well oiled team that delivers a...

As soon as you come into the building you're already taken in by how unique and creative it is. You walk into the little cute market and can easily lose yourself in looking at all the unique things they have for sale. Once you've pulled yourself away, you walk, open mouthed through the restaurant, in awe of the busy, open kitchen. Every table and chair is unique, every nook and cranny has something to see! And then. . . . the garden. Go early, and go on a dry day to take a relaxing walk through the gardens and follow all the winding paths through the vegetable patches. And once you're in the restaurant, make sure you're hungry because man, it's alllll tasty.

We started with the awesome table bread and delicious olive oil (which took a lot of discipline not to devour) and then shared the roasted vegetables for starters. Each morsel was amazing! And the pizza..... oh man. I wish I had a stomach three times the normal size just to keep on eating everything they have on the menu. Every plate that went by our table looked great. My husband took the pasta which was a relatively normal dish. Spaghetti with roasted vegetables. But something so simple tasted so amazing.

Sadly, we were too full for a dessert, so we took some home and enjoyed them the next day. I had a brownie and he had some kind of peanut butter bar.

Even the washrooms downstairs were awesome with awesome chandeliers and massive mirrors all in this industrial building, making it so unique and so enchanting.

We were so sad to leave. Villa Augustus, we'll be back (and we're bringing all...