Fratelli Den Haag — Restaurant in The Hague

Gorgeous view in the Binnenhof, if you are seated advantageously. Beautiful decor too. Very clean loos.

The quality of the food was good (fresh ingredients , clearly just cooked, authentic presentation), but...

Desperately restricted choices for vegetarians. Either oil-soaked pasta, ricotta-filled ravioli or vegetable pizza. The veggie options are also not marked, so ordering is error-prone and laborious (obscure regional Italian names for hams etc. don't help). When my veggie teen ended up with a ham-covered pizza, the waiter's reaction could not have been any more unempathetic and uninterested.

We had to stand there and argue that yes, we had indeed made a reservation. Luckily, my husband spotted our (super simple, bog-standard) surname on the list himself and had to point it out to the receptionist to prove it. Not exactly a warm welcome.

You get three different wait staff, each with different levels of Dutch fluency. While the non-Dutch (Italian?) waiter made an effort to speak Dutch, they then immediately ask to go on in English. As an expat, I don't mind English, I prefer it even, but pick a lane. This was awkward and confusing: one waiter preferred Dutch, the other English, and the third mixed them.

The staff were rushed off their feet, clearly understaffed. So you feel like a number in a factory.

While we were served and seated relatively quickly, getting wait staff attention was nigh on impossible. It took something like thirty minutes and two reminders to finally get a dessert menu (by which time we were so irritated we asked for the bill instead). We also pretty much gave up on our refill of sparkling water.

If you're not a fast eater, the pizza dough quickly gets so hard that it is impossible to cut, even with steak knives.

The noise levels were unbearable. They have crammed far too many diners in a space that hasn't been well designed for even remotely healthy decibel levels. It was near impossible to have a conversation, exhausting and at times painful even.

For us, the clear conclusion is: never...

Summary:

I'd rate the food 4 stars. Customer service 2 (and only because of the third waiter as described below).

Review:

Delicious Italian cuisine, poor customer service. Our waitress took our drinks orders and disappeared. What we presumed was the manager instructed another member of staff to attend to us and bring us bread. He did not. We asked for bread again (after finishing our first drinks) and also placed our orders for food. Our table was not cleared of our finished drinks. The bread arrived late (almost at the same time as the meals). It was not until a third waiter arrived that things improved - this staff member was attentive and thoughtful - ensuring our table was cleared and taking drinks/ desert orders. It should be noted he was a waiter for another table/ section and appeared to be the only member of staff doing their job efficiently. We were waiting a long time to receive the attention of the hosts to order food and drinks.

The timing and teamwork of the employees would benefit from a bit more 'oomph'.

I had the tiramisu for desert and it would have benefitted from more alcohol and coffee (it was almost entirely cream, but nonetheless tasty!) My main meal was excellent.

Overall I'd say as long as you plan a decent wait for your drinks and food you'll have...

At first, the lady at the desk was busy with a guest. So I asked another girl to help me for a spot for 1 to ask if they still serve dinner, in which she responded with that she finished her shift and she likes for me to wait until the lady of the reception is finished (strange, no sense of hospitality, it will take 10 seconds to seat me). I got seated by the gentle lady of the desk outside. At 21:15

I ordered the Aperol spritz which was great and another lady took my order. The insalata mista was very quick, and good with tomatoes filled with cheese and artichokes. I finished it very quickly, but my plate was not taken away until the main course arrived, so I had a sense they forgot me. A recommendation is the Linguine Al Scoglio (all the shells were full), It can be spicy for guests, but for me it was perfect, so let them know beforehand if you don't like spicy.

When I finished, the lady of the desk came to get my plate 5 minutes later. I ordered a Tiramisu, and had a pleasant conversation. The tiramisu was great, she assured me if was made 100% mascarpone.

In total it was €45,25

I finished at 22:28

Overall it was a pleasant experience and I would love to come back with...