Bistro Bommen Berend — Restaurant in Groningen

Bought the 3-course menu offer from them, the idea is nice and gives a nice discount when ordering a starter, main and desert.

We ordered starters and they all come came pretty fast, though the order of Bruschetta where not worth the 10.5 euros, they were some tomato on a lightly toasted toast bread, not even proper baguette bread. The edges of the bread where rock hard and middle being soggy and soft.

The one star review is because of the 1-1.5 hour wait time to get the main dish out, we noticed people come after us, sit down and order their food, eat their food and pay and leave yet we still had not received our main meal.

When ordering a burger you get a side of mayonnaise and french fries, but in our group two people ended up ordering burgers, instead of giving everyone their own portion of french fries, they bundled it all together in one small medium to small bowl. For 21.5 euros, I'd expect everyone to get their own portion of fries. The buns of the burger were quite soggy by the time we got the food as well.

For desert their Luikse wafel was okay, the icecream was nice but the waffles tasted dry and old, not fresh and soft.

Atmosphere was okay, we were seated next to the kitchen and bar and toilet, so every few minutes you can hear the "DING" of the kitchen (hoping it'd be your food but nope).

Overall, will not go back again as the wait time with a group was horrible and not worth while for the...

Right, first of all, this place is fantastic. As a small boy during the eighties I must have passed this place a thousand times. Don’t get me wrong, I allways wanted to visit and dine there. Now this place is not just any other bistro or restaurant. At least what I have experienced while having a wonderfull breakfast there. The interior reminded me of a long time ago and it felt like I was time travelling. With the thought that I have seen the changes through the years in the centre of Groningen and it made me realize just how special bommen berend really is. Thinking about the primary school just around the corner that I use to attend , the Vroom en Dreesman building just opposite to the bistro and last but not best:The record shop the Carrilion. Places long gone but the memories still vivid. The playlist in the background was from the eighties and memories just flashed by while dining with my wife. It was such a pleasure and now I’m convinced that I’ll visit them more often than I should. It just made me feel good. As for the breakfast wich was good and plentifull. The service is a ten out of ten and I wished more bistro’s had the same service as they brought it. Kind, very friendly...

We had a dinner there and the food was mediocre. We ordered meat trio, ravioli and fish. Well, the fish was good, but it was just simply cooked, without any "special", so it cannot count as a cook's mastery -if you have a good product, all you have to do is not to mess it up. The meat trio, on the other side, needed some talent, that unfortunately was not presented, as the steak was hard to chew, as well as a strange piece of meat skewer. The ribs were good, nevertheless. But the most disappointing thing was the ravioli, it tasted as a cheap supermarket staff. For the honesty sake I must admit that the bolognese sauce was good. The service was very good, but you don't go to the restaurant just to experience...