In Den Rustwat — Restaurant in Rotterdam

High expectations, sad reality.

The place: I don't know, I just don't like grey chairs which look already dirty, spotted. Despite of that, it was a cosy restaurant.

The food: It was o.k but for this price (7 course menu: 80 euro) I expected much more because I ate already for cheaper and much better (Hanting, Ruisenor for instance). I would say that I even prefer less shick restaurants to this (vigo seafoodbar, Catch by simonis). All together for me it was lacking idea, excitement, complexity. A diner what you easily forget. Sorry to say this, but that's how it was. I have to mention that I ate only fish. My GF ate meat, she said that those dishes were good but not exceptional. I ate about 3 small slices of bread and some apetizers and also the big part of the dessert of my GF so in this way and with a half bottle of wine I was not hungry in the end. The 7 course menu alone might have been a little bit on the shorter side. Timing of dishes was o.k, the whole dinner took about 3 hours.

The wines: Wine card despite of the text on the website is not available. Someone who knows wines well realized that prices are about 4 times higher... I love Aalto but 116 Euro for a 2016 vintage is ridiculous if it is in a shop for 30-40 euro. Our wine was close to 60 euro but felt like a 10 Euro Bordeaux, quick check, yes it is 15 online. I understand that prices are in a restaurant higher, I have no problem paying double price, but 4 times? Btw, the waitress should drink more... Just because it was a pain to watch how she opened the wine. :) I would suggest for her, studying inserting position of the corkscrew, not dropping the corkscrew, not lifting the bottle and tilting, shaking it, making use of the double lift function of the corcscrew in order to extract the cork easily, using a drop stop and serving the wine in a more elegant way. The waiter with glasses did a better job.

Service: I hate happy birthday songs, but if I already had to indicate my date of birth on the website and if the other waiter knew that I have birthday I wouldn't have minded a small surprise (offering a free liqueur for instance) as this is basic in every restaurant.

All together, we do not understand the hype about this restaurant at all. For this prices there are much better choices out there. For us it won't be a restaurant to which we would love to return or which one we would...

We visited In Den Rust Wat again this weekend. The last time we were here it was Friday the 13th of March 2020. Corona was just starting and we could hear other guests whispering about it. My wife asked me if we should even go, of course I said 😅 and luckily we went because two days later our “intelligent” Lockdown started.

This time we still were in partial lockdown (QR code and closing time 22h). IDRW has a classical and conservative image, but we were seated in the ‘new’ more modern looking new part of the restaurant. At first I wanted the traditional side of the restaurant but at the end I was very glad to see their ‘other’ more modern side. Ambiance 7/10 but because of the cosy fireplace and the art on the table 8/10.

We were greeted by the Chef and I had several talks with the Chef, during and at the end of the dinner. To summarize the evening: IDRW has improved drastically!! It was very good before in 2020, but if you would have told me this restaurant had ⭐️ or ⭐️⭐️ Michelin stars: I would have totally believed it!! Its their goal now to get a star the Chef told me. And I told him we experienced that they really went, not one, but two steps up the ladder!!

Service was great, not stiff at all. They even accompanied the four of us with two people with umbrellas all the way to the car park 😳 And it was raining and storming so the guys umbrella gave up and flapped the other way 😂 Poor guy but 10/10 for service.

The dishes and wine were amazing, I was really surprised. The pictures and menu speak for itself.. Some dishes at the beginning, the wine was on the safe side (nice to drink without the dish). But as the evening proceeded the wines became less winebar and more cuisine (really jumped out when paired with the dish)!! Cuisine 9/10

We had a fantastic evening with good company (critical foodies!)… I will not be surprised at all if this restaurant earns their Michelin star this year. They totally...

Overall good food, but the staff might have some prejudice against non-western Europeans. I went to this place with a group of Dutch friends couple of times. We made the selection of dishes when we made the reservations. On the dinner table, when the main course arrived, one of our plates were not served right, say, we ordered chicken but one of the plates were prepared with beef by mistake. So the waitress had to quickly decide in her mind which member of our group had to receive the wrong plate. And such mistake happened on two nights when we dined in this place and quite "coincidentally", I was the lucky one to get the wrong dish in both occasions. The only thing I can think of is that in those two occasions I am the only visibly non-European on the table. It's impossible to say for sure this is the cause but I'd say that the odds are pretty darn strange. To add up to the unpleasantry, when I requested to correct the dish, the waitress didn't even respond to my questions and simply walked away and acted like it didn't happen. Though I don't speak Dutch, I don't think I was being rude so their way of handling this were pretty shocking.

So my recommendations: In general, large groups please be cautious in going there. They made mistakes with our group orders in two of the four time we were there, and refuse to do anything about it. For non-Europeans, I won't make conclusions as to whether they are prejudiced, but you can form your...