Gastrobar Hartig — Restaurant in Rotterdam

One of the nicest restaurants in the city. I was on Rotterdam for the weekend to celebrate the girlfriend's birthday. Of course that's a big deal! After the birthday girl found out what she felt like eating, Gastrobar Hartig was the best choice that came out on Google or TripAdvisor. And that was indeed nice. After walking all day long, we reserved a table at the restaurant. Arriving 30min early, we had a drink at the bar and we're greeted by a really nice team, even treated to a small foccacia on the house. The concept of the restaurant is sharing. Smaller dishes that you share, so 3-4 dishes for 2 people (with desert) were enough for the both of us. Staff was super nice and, everyone was speaking English and super helpful when it came to get English menus or explainations. On top of that, they offered us a free drink if we'd write a review - which I would have done anyway. All in all, a nice family-owned restaurant that I would check again next time that I'm in...

A visit to the restaurant was disappointing.

We chose the venue based on Tripadvisor’s recommendations, but were disappointed.

The staff were friendly but they wera busy.

The food was ok, but I wonder why the starter main course and dessert were brought to the table at different times. For example, one got their main course 10-15 minutes before the others. There were a long blond hair in a starter.

It was difficult to pay the bill. I had to try three different credit cards that were not accepted by the machine (embarrassing). Changing the machine helped.

I am most disappointed with this. I made a table reservation in time and wrote:

"Some wishies: we are from Finland and my son is moving to Rotterdam to study. This is our first Time in Rotterdam. He has also his 19th birthday. Can you note that Somehow, please 😄"

The restaurant replied, "Thank you for your reservation. We notice it in our agenda."

Nothing happened. I could have paid for...

Very disappointing meal.

We told our server that my companion could not have garlic or onion and were assured that would be fine.

The companion style dining sounds great in theory, but it means that everyone has to choose food that everyone else can eat.

My companion ordered the beef tips. It had been marinated in garlic and he wouldn't eat any of it. We were sitting there with one plate of beef tips between us, that he couldn't touch. For some reason, it was served with raw, undressed spinach.

So we waited for more food to arrive. Eventually we got my pork belly which he could eat, so we shared that. Still waiting for our potatoes.

I sent back the now cold and greasy beef to get heated up. And waited. And waited, while the servers managed never to look at us.

I was seriously considering eating a protein bar.

I'd say it was an hour later when we got fresh beef tips.

Other people seemed to be happy with their meal, but I...