Café Barrera — Restaurant in Leiden

We visited the cafe today. The place looked nice and welcoming right across the botanical garden. It was not busy and lots of tables were available. We were a party of 4, we ordert cafe and a beer in the first place. The waiter seemed distant. We all speak very little Dutch so we ordert in English- my parents with some German mixup. The order was served in a appropriate time. We still figured out what to order to eat in the online menu. After 10 min we asked the waiter if we could place an order for lunch. He said yes in a minute and then we sat there for at least 20 minutes while he refused to take the order by ignoring us. Walking around our table cleaning, serving other customers and just ignored us completely. He refused to look in our direction. And again there was not much to do at the time. I never felt as uncomfortable in a cafe as in this moment. I have no idea if he had a problem with tourists or especially with German guests. We felt so uncomfortable that we couldn’t finish the cafe. That never happened before visiting the Netherlands. We couldn’t even get the bill because he never came back outside. I paid at the bar and we left the bar with a really bad impression and feeling. Thankfully we found another place to have lunch and the staff were amazing which saved the day and the amazing impression of Leiden which...

Fantastic food, beyond any expectations we had, and a very speedy service on top! We read the comments about slow serving so we made sure to ask the waiter how long making our order will take before placing any orders. He said 20 minutes and then actually brought food out done faster!

We got out starters in a very timely fashion, and as soon as we were done with those, they brought the main course out. The food was very fresh - you could taste it in the fries that they were fried on the spot, the fish tasted impeccable and so did the duck. Some of the freshest-tasting food I had in the Netherlands. Really good place to eat after a fun day...

Quick, friendly service, with beautiful canal views. Great coffee and decent prices.

We ordered a BLT sandwich and a 'provincaaltje sandwich'

The Provincaaltje is a toasted bread pizza with delicious, thickly melted goat cheese, Gouda cheese, tomatoes and herbs. Very tasty!

The BLT might not be recognisable for overseas tourists, but it an open-faced sandwich with plenty of bacon and a tangy white sauce strewn over the top. Good and less than 8 euros.

The latte had a very thick and sturdy cream that passed the spoon test and the taste was well-balanced and creamy with a good caffeine hit. A great pit stop, pick me up...