Visrestaurant Crabbetje — Restaurant in Leiden

I’m in two minds about this place… A group of us went to dinner here, recently, and had a mixed experience. In fairness, the ambience of the place is fine, the staff were nice enough and were accepting of our constraint that we needed to be in and out within two hours (we had a certain football match to watch on tv). This place used to be a really old fashioned seafood restaurant that had all the classics on the menu and which was usually a pretty nice and fun place to dine… a menu which now seems to have shrunk significantly… that’s not necessarily a bad thing as fewer options on the menu often means that each dish is cooked better (hmmm). My first complaint about this place is that the menu is vague… eg on the list of mains there are 4 dishes, two of which are marked “if available” - “our list of choices grows thin, Gandalf”. Also if you choose a set menu then what you get is a surprise. Well, guess what, I actually like to know what I’m ordering. After a little prodding we found out that the mani was sea bass which is always a good choice. The starters were all very tasty, although the ones on the menu were tiny, literally 2 mouthfuls… the mains were mixed. The sole was well cooked but the sea bass was slightly overcooked, the gambas seemed fine… furthermore both fish mains missed enough sauce so were quite dry. The sole had no sauce (not even a little lemon butter sauce) and the sea bass was accompanied by a dollop of something orange (no idea what it was). There weren’t enough potatoes or vegetables…. The potato was a little stack the height of chess pawn and the diameter of a 1 euro coin, gone in one bite; the vegetables were a few slices of courgette, carrot and a few strands of samphire, all cooked in butter…. no one ate dessert but we ordered a few cheese plates, each of which had 4 morcels of cheese… all fine, except for one of us who doesn’t like sheep/goats cheese it is apparently impossible to leave that off the plate as that would require more work in the kitchen…. Not sure I understand the logic of how leaving something off a plate is more work than putting it on but hey I’m no chef…. Beyond that the cheese was served with only a minuscule amount of a plum or fig jam or chutney… and no bread or crackers (a major fail imho). Ah well. In short we won’t be going back…. The starters were lovely; the mains were fine but a few tweaks to the sauce and sides would make them so much better; the cheese was very nice but, again, would be better with a few tweaks = bread. I don’t understand why anyone would mess with a time-honoured match-up cheese and...

We went to this place for our anniversary dinner, we ordered the Chef's special menu and, unfortunately, it was rather disappointing. This course of meals that comes as a surprise is presented in a a-la-Michelin star restaurant style, however neither the food, nor the service is on par with that (the service is less important in my opinion, but it still counts). The food is fine, it's not bad, but it's not special enough to warrant the form and the price. Moreover, we ended up leaving still hungry (it's a common misconception that Michelin restaurants serve small dishes, so you leave hungry, but in reality, there is enough food for you to be satiated). The wine was good, however too much for the quantity of food. The other dishes from the 'normal' menu looked much better, and it might be more worth it to go to this restaurant for a regular meal rather than the Chef's special experience. But we have not tried that, so I cannot...

I've lived in Leiden for 22 years now...but had never been to this restaurant. and, after tonight, i really regret this. the whole experience, from the moment i walked in, was wonderful. great ambience, staff and food...it was mussel week and i had the mussel menu...it was WONderful...i started out with a few oysters...sampled all 3 available and then order two more of the one i liked best(gillardeau). then came 4 'mussel themed' appetizers...all of which were VERY good, presented artfully. then a bucket of steamed mussels, accompanied by 4 mayo based 'sauces'...and finally, a mini dessert sampler...all of which were superb. and it was SO reasonably priced, as well... i could not recommend this restaurant highly enough and plan on...