Jopen — Restaurant in Haarlem

The modern interior architectural design of this church turn brewery/pub is very cool! We had hamburgers and beer which were very delicious. We did, however, have an unpleasant experience. My sister ordered her hamburger medium rare and then I ordered mine medium well. Our waitress paused, and then she said that the kitchen just makes the burgers however way they come out. A few minutes later the party of four sitting next to us (Americans like us) also ordered burgers cooked to their specification. She did not say the same thing to them, and they did get their burgers medium rare. My sister's burger, however, came out medium well which made her very unhappy. It may not seem like that big of a deal, but we couldn't understand why she told us we could not have our burgers the way we wanted them cooked yet she did not say the same thing to the other customers. As for me, I was actually happy with my food, but it distressed me to see my sister so upset, and I don't think our waitress was very nice. Besides that, I actually liked the place and would give it another try. Maybe our waitresses just having a very bad day. I actually made it a point to go up to her at the end and thank her. If not for the unfriendly service from the waitress I would've given this...

Jopenkerk is a brewery at Gedempte Voldersgracht that opened in the early 1990s in a former church building. This is a fun place for a round of beers and a neat little history lesson for those sightseeing around Haarlem. Opening hours are 10am to 1am daily.

Jopen brews a range of Dutch and specifically Haarlem style beers. They are famous for two Monastery recipes which were discovered in the Haarlem city archives dating back to the early 15th century. The oldest of the historic beer recipes is Koyt beer from 1407. We tried this recreated beer, finding it dark and sweet with hints of caramel. It was a good beer, well worth trying. We also tried a stout on draught that was decent.

Worth having a look at the beer guide at Jopen. They have quite a few limited edition beers and interesting information to read if you want to learn about the brewery, the historic recipes and the church building.

There is both indoor and outdoor seating. Bartenders and waitstaff were friendly during our visit. We really liked our visit to Jopen and would gladly return for another round during future...

We come to Jopen regularly because we absolutely love the beers, best brewery by far and Haarlem is a stunning town, with very friendly people!

We usually always enjoy the food, and tend to have the high beer or lots of nibbles but this time sadly was not great. Now I've seen pictures of the Sticky Chicken from other customers, I'm pretty sure mine wasn't cooked properly. I was fine with it being cooked in a water bath but the skin was sloppy and slimy with no colour, the glaze didn't stay on the chicken either. The vegetables were cold and mushy. I couldn't get a lot of the chicken off the bone as it was very tough and stuck to it but in a not cooked way. My partner had a burger which was burned but he did say it would have been a good burger otherwise!

Might have been a bad day for the kitchen guys but it was our first experience of the new menu and it wasn't great sadly.

Beer and atmosphere is always 10 out of 10 though, so will always...