Restaurant/Grand Café "La Citadel" — Restaurant in Heemskerk

Summary: cozy place, good meals, friendly staff for a decent price. I recommend this place to locals living nearby looking for a good meal and friendly service.

I had dinner here with my wife as we live a few blocks away and wanted to try out this local restaurant instead of going to Amsterdam or any of the more popular places in Beverwijk and Heemskerk.

Staff was friendly to provide us with another table which was next to the window instead of the one in the middle of restaurant we got first. We had a starter with gamba's and mussels which were really good. The main dish was a salmon steak as you can see in my photo below. It was good but not great. Personally I didnt like the coating they gave it too much. But as I said it was still good.

Atmosphere was nice and cosy, not my taste personally but all in all, it fits the restaurant.

I would recommend locals from Broekpolder to try it out more as this place arguably does a better job then the ones often considered more popular nearby. I think we will go back again sometime...

I ordered a ribeye steak but what I received looked and tasted nothing like ribeye or like beef at all. When I raised the issue, the chef showed me a piece of meat from the fridge and insisted it was beef, not pork — but based on the appearance and taste, it simply didn’t seem like beef at all. You can see on the photo that this is clearly not beef

Some of the staff were very friendly and helpful, which I appreciated, but unfortunately not everyone was. Overall, I left disappointed — both with the meal and the way the concern was handled. I genuinely hope this was just a mistake and not a regular experience.

I was there before and experience was...

Prachtig ingericht restaurant aan sfeervol pleintje in nieuwbouwwijk. De sfeer en inrichting van het restaurant is meer overweldigend dan het eten. Echt niet slecht, maar ook niet echt geweldig. De visbonbon vooraf was meer een salade met zalm erover. Maar teveel dressing waardoor je de zalm niet meer proeft. In de salade onder de zalm geen garnalen en paling aangetroffen, stond wel op de kaart. Misschien vergeten. Hoofdgerecht eendenborst met sinaasappelsaus. Die was echt te taai en weinig smaak. Ik begreep dat het vlees van een goeie slager uit Beverwijk komt. Misschien toch eens vragen hoe je dit vlees het beste kan bereiden en er meer smaak aan krijgt. Het dessert hebben we niet genomen, maar hebben het bij koffie gehouden. De bediening, vooral de blonde mevrouw, is top. Enthousiast, houdt alles goed in de gaten en zorgt voor een goede sfeer. Nu nog een kok die net even een extra zetje geeft aan dit toch wel...