Rubens Burger — Restaurant in Haarlem

We were recommended Ruben's Burger by a friend, and we decided that after a long day of cycling some burgers would be the perfect thing to bring us back to life. The first thing we noticed about the place was the decor; they were going for an industrial old-school burger bar look, and they completely nailed it! The only downside to their setup was that the tables were extremely close together, so getting out of our seats and manoevering our way out of the restaurant was a challenge.

The service was on-point and they were happy to cater for our vegan member, offering to ask the chef to recommend a vegan-friendly alternative sauce. The friendly service was enough to keep us happy despite the very long wait time for our burgers, although there were a lot of tables around us that were left dirty after the guests have left.

As for the burgers themselves, we went for the magic mushroom burger (without the cheese and truffle mayonnaise) and the Burger Mediterrane. Choosing was difficult as there was no English menu, so I would suggest that they get some English menus printed for those that don't understand a lot of Dutch. The beef in the Mediterrane was cooked to perfection (if you like rare meat) and paired amazingly with the homemade tomato-pesto mayonnaise they added on top - if only we could get a recipe for that mayonnaise! The peppers were a nice addition as well, adding a sweet hint to the savoury party. The magic mushroom patty did not disappoint - too many times we have been fooled by a mushroom burger patty that was simply a huge mushroom between two buns. This time though it was a mix of ground up mushrooms (not the magic kind) and the perfect spice blend to bring out the best in these mushrooms. They had crispy vegetables to add a bit of crunch, and the finishing blow was the Jack Daniel's BBQ sauce which was the chef's recommendation for a vegan alternative - this chef knows his sauces!

We would definitely recommend this restaurant if you are ever in Haarlem and have a burger craving. The burgers aren't cheap but we thought they were well...

We went there first when they were opened at Haarlem. They were cooking great burgers at the beginning, and we took this one step further-we ordered several times with deliveroo. There was always something wrong with the orders, and these were not related with deliveroo but the food itself. Everytime we told them to cook these welldone, and they cook it medium well. We ordered dessert next to our meal once, they forgot to put it but of course got the payment.

Today we ordered our regular mediterrenaen burgers with fries and god that was, that was completely terrible. The taste, the texture, everything. They (I hope it is beef) put worst quality carpaccio in the burger. They claim theirself as a organic meat using burger maker stuff - please keep everything on a certain standard before trying to go for “biologisch”. They are not a good quality restaurant anymore. I will definitely prefer McD for the next time. At least I will be SURE about the quality, without any HESITATION.

We paid 37,5€, God, I definitely do not give this up to Ruben’s! They absolutely do not deserve this money.

I hope my stomach will be allright tonight, with this strange taste in my mouth.

Edit: Hey! They called us and told us that they put HAM instead of Carpaccio! We do not eat pork! Oh, my, God :D Which one is worse? They do not know how to cook or put pork instead of beef? At your...

Visited the restaurant inquired about method of payment they except all credit cards, except America Express. No problem, understood. Checked into our hotel and we went back about 2 hours later. Place was busy, 2 tables available and hostess indicated that we can take any of the 2 tables. Which we did. She approaches our table and asked, “you were here earlier, right? We said ‘yes we were’. She says: I’m sorry but our Wifi is down and we can’t take credit cards. However, there is a ATM not to far maybe you can get cash.” Now you have a restaurant that is full of customers how are they going to pay? In today’s world, not many vacationers carry hundreds of dollars in their pocket because of security reasons. My appearance is not like your average local person, in addition we went down road and they had no problem with the Wifi system. I would think that in the 21st century our appearance should not cause the Wifi to suddenly go off. Everyone should be welcome regardless of how they appear. The internet is a powerful tool. I hope that all us think seriously of our behavior. BTW the food may be excellent, but dignifying any human is more valuable than any 5...