Papa's Beach House — Restaurant in Haarlemmermeer

As a location, it is at a prime spot illuminated by the sun next to the shore of the lake Haarlemmermeerse Bos and within walking distance of Sandy Beach popular amongst the locals.

As a consequence of it's prime location this restaurant gets very busy, particular on sunny days. And the end result being that the service is SLOW!

It took TWENTY minutes just for our drinks to arrive and another twenty for the food to make its appearance. When it finally did arrive the food was hit and miss. The salmon salad (Pappa Dum) was good and well presented. The caesar salad was dry and almost no caesar dressing...oh, and a word to the chef.... cucumbers have no business being part of a caesar salad. Their burgers could do with some help. For starters, the bun is hard and difficult to manage, and the burger itself was a lump of dense meat that looked like it was premade and defrosted at one point in it's life, not home made or freshly packed minced meat.

This place has the potential to be amazing. Sadly, because they have a near monopoly at the lakeside they feel they can get away with slow snail paced service whilst charging €14 for a burger and almost €5 for a 33cl glass of draught beer.

I'd sooner bring a picnic full of coldcuts than spend €20 a head...

The location is beautiful. Nice atmosphere. However whoever described the staff as "headless chickens" was spot on. Our waitress seemed surprised we wanted to eat (at a restaurant!) She gave us some water and said she would be back. We then had to flag her as she was ignoring us for quite some time. She knew very little about the menu. Said the starter would be a "surprise" Eventually a second waiter came by - seemingly clueless that his colleague had taken our order. He too knew little about the menu. One of my companions is lactose intolerant and ordered the vegan starter. This was messed up. We had to ask for knives and forks (what a concept!) The waitress left our food to be cold while searching for additional utensils. My companion summed up this restaurant well "it is weird" We wanted a quick meal before our morning flight. We got an exercise in patience. The restaurant has potential. The food was tasty (hence one star - the service is negative five stars!) Sad it is so poorly run. And sad this was our last night in Netherlands as all our other dining experiences...

The location and the atmosphere are great. However, I have come here many times and it's always the same story: the service is incredibly inefficient and slow. There's no proactive attitude from the staff at all. You have to wave several times and wait an eternity for everything: to get drinks, to the get the menu, to order, to even get utensils to eat (while the food gets cold)! For having a menu with fix starters, they take quite a long time to arrive. And you will be lucky if they bring you the right order at first. Otherwise you'll have to send it back and the long wait will restart. Plus, there doesn't seem to be any manager running the business, just 3 young waiters clearly surpassed by the situation, although the restaurant was not completely full, and who obviously need some directions on restaurant service. If you care about your customers and there is no sufficient staff just leave the tables ready for the next customer with menus and utensils already on the table. This will save you time and also customer frustration....