Café Samabe — Restaurant in Haarlem

PLEASE READ THE WHOLE REVIEW: We went to this restaurant with some friends; the decor was magnificent, ambience was great and staff were really friendly. Absolutely cannot fault any of the above. HOWEVER, having worked all over Indonesia and being familiar with the cuisine, I found the menu (1) Confusing (2) Trying too hard to turn a Nasi Campur into a separate spread of tiny dishes that look good but taste mediocre (3) Overpriced. Some of us ordered the rice table sets (approx €30pp) which is essentially deconstructed Nasi Campur; the portions were tiny and a few of the dishes that were replicated in the group were lumped together as one small portion but expecting two/more people to share. One of us ordered a separate main dish (€33) that was meant to come with its own rice and side salad but ended up having to split the rice portions and salad as everyone’s portions were lumped together (in reduced quantity). This is really poor showing considering how much it costs per person. The dishes look great presented on a hot plate but the portions really need to be revised. Perhaps all the dishes should be placed on individual plates like the original Nasi Campur. Taste-wise, the dishes lacked seasoning and hardly had any spice at all (a bit presumptuous and inauthentic). I used to manage small to large dive resorts in Indonesia that hosted international guests and even our humble kitchens were always able to produce dishes surpassing what I’ve tasted here at Samabe. There is a difference serving wholesome tasting food to serving pretentious looking food that lacks flavour. Authenticity is definitely the missing element here, to much...

Café Samabe is an Indonesian restaurant situated in the heart of the old parts of Haarlem/NL not far away from the Grote Markt. The restraurant is in the ground flour of an old building with a high ceiling and a lot of flair. We were there for dinner.

The young staff made a really good job in service, they were competent, friendly and very professional. The recommendations were very good and always appropriate.

The food was excellent. We deciced us for the recommendation of our waitress and took one of the rice tables (no. 3). It was a combination of many different Indonesian dishes with meat, fish and vegetables. In our case we had for example Rendang - braised beef in a coconut sauce -, Ayam Base Bali - chicken thighs in a coconut sauce -, Sambal Goreng Telor - eggs in a spicy sauce -, Nasi Puty - white rice - and Nasi Kuning - yellow rice -. For start we became three different rolls with gambas, meat and vegetable and for dessert Burbur Injin - made of black rice and coconut. The dishes very really fantastic, an aromatic trip through the Indonesian cuisine for all senses. We enjoyed it very much and loved the typical spices, flavors and preparations. They cooks did simply a fantastic job.

The restaurant has justifiably a Bib Gourmand of the Guide Michelin....

Great food, but poor customer service from the moment you arrive. I told the lady “I have a reservation at 21” and it felt like she either didn’t hear it or misunderstood, because she simply said “oh, our kitchen is closing”. I made a reservation for 21 o’clock and the website says you can stay at the restaurant dining up until 23. When I got there, they say the kitchen was closing? Then why do you allow people to make reservations past, idk, 20 o’clock or something if the kitchen closes at 21-21:30? Anyways. We ate and the food was really great, I gotta give them that. But the wine I ordered also came wrong. Can’t complain much on that though, because the wrong wine they brought was actually pretty good. Throughout the whole time, we felt like there was a lack of thoughtfulness from the staff. We wanted to order more drinks, but no one would ever show up so we could order anything else. Maybe because it was almost closing time (22 o’clock) and they just wanted to go home, but it felt like they didn’t care much about us. Great food...