De Gouverneur — Restaurant in Maastricht

We visited here Saturday 2nd October 2021, we'd walked in from our motorhome camping place 3km north of the city and this was one of our first stops. It was a bit cool, grey and gloomy today, however still being a little wary of COVID we wanted to sit outside and to be fair the outside seats had heating elements built into the parasol struts.

This place is super easy to find, it's at Boschstraat which is appears to be at the northern edge of the large square and probably market area, there was a flea market on today.

The café was quite busy and with a good mix of people of all ages and backgrounds. The beer selection was huge, however my first choice wasn't available and I guess that is always an issue with such an extensive range that not all will be available all the time. Service was quite slow but I suspect that was partly because they were very busy. I went inside to use the facilities and was very impressed with the seriousness with which they treated COVID, so it's vaccination certificate or evidence of a negative test before you can enter plus identity check. It's really nice inside, very nice in fact and reminds me of some of the great cafés across the Netherlands, the typical long bar, large range of taps, plenty of dark wood, super clean. On reflection having noted it was empty inside, I think that I would have rather sat in here.

Staff were friendly, attentive but as mentioned service was quite slow, also having asked for an aged Orval, Loz got a young one less than 3 months old and my drink was not served for a good 8-10 minutes after rather than the Dutch Bargains Imperial Pale I asked for I got a Dutch Bargains Imperial Stout, it was really very nice and I decided to drink it as I was unsure how long I'd wait for the correct beer.

All in all this could be a great place but I think that it needs to work on a couple of areas. Btw the food...

The friendliest waiters and the largest beer selection I've ever seen! Our waiter (pictured) was super helpful for navigating the menu, and he let us sample the Ossenwurst, which is essentially Dutch dish of raw Oxen meet served with Amsterdam Onions (little grape looking things). Such an interesting treat, where the meat is very soft and the onions provide a sweetness that is nothing like the usual onion taste. Definitely worth sharing with a group to try it!

The bitterballen were as expected, a sort of beef gravy ball that has been fries. Still delicious! Also got the Luxe bittergarnatuur, which was like a grab bag of fried items (i.e. cheese curd, meatballs, and spiced rice?). Also very delicious and was fun to bite into them not knowing initially what filling was in each shape.

Lastly, the beers were from the restaurant themselves. Again, our waiter was more than helpful to help suggest a beer that appealed to our taste. I recommend the Gouvernar IPA, not too hoppy and taste...

We were waiting for some snacks for way long, when we finally asked the waitress she said “the ticket got lost in the kitchen, we will prioritise your order”. The food arrived eventually. When we asked for the bill, i asked for a discount because of the really long wait. The waitress said; “ we dont do that, and we brought it eventually as fast as we could” i responded; “ if we didnt ask you for our snacks we would still be waiting for them because no one noticed” . From a person with tons of horeca experience the answer;”we dont do that, and we brought everything as fast as we could( which thats 101 what you should have done)”, is not costumer friendly nor adds to the costumers satisfaction. Shit can hit the fan, but handling a situation with just offering two or three drinks for free, is not going to damage your day revenue. Its all about the...