PuuRR aan de Binck — Restaurant in The Hague

After having seen their sign several times while driving through Binckhorst, we upon various occasions tried to eat here. On two occasions we were sent away during lunch as no tables were available, it was not even allowed to wait for a table, as they do blocks of 2h sittings - MUST HAVE reservation. Let me be honest, unless you have 2 Michelin stars, you do not need to pretend to be so exclusive that you only work by reservations of 2h slots. Corona or not. On our third attempt, I asked why they are not open to spontaneous walk-in business, which is a shame and absolutely not necessary for a place like this. And whoop whoop we got a table outside at 2pm for lunch. The menu: average. We asked for a wine/drinks card - waitress preferred to tell us what they had rather than offering a drinks menu. Had I known that G&T was available, I would have taken one. Lunch menu: Dutch classics and some hyped hipster combinations: working with brands such as Brandt en Levi. People raving about this place either have not been to the rest of The Hague area or don't know where to put their money. 2 Oystermushroom croquettes €13.5; Brandt & Levi hotdog €16.5; glass of wine around €7 - prices I associate with Denneweg or Noordeinde - not Binckhorst. Quality of food was great, don't get me wrong. It was delicious, good atmosphere (on the terrace) and friendly staff. The place offers workshops and meeting spaces. The dinner options look like fine-dining, but let's be honest - you cannot do it all! Concept lacks fine-tuning; reservations for a croquette and hot dog? As the cafe is located in an up-and-coming area in Binckhorst, I can see great potential. To us, the building, location, and little harbour made us stop. Was it worth it? after 3 spontaneous attempts - it was a nice new try! I missed a drinks menu as I would have loved to see something else than chardonnay or verdejo. Great building, great staff - concept and pricing...

I was disappointed with my overall experience at Capriole Café unfortunately. While the staff were all very friendly, the rest of the experience left much to be desired.

The food on the chef's menu was basic and just okay. It was presented very well, but it tasted bland mostly. For instance, I ordered monkfish which I was surprised to find on the menu in the first place because it's generally hard to prepare. The monkfish had a bland favor, as expected, and made me realize I too can become a chef in my amateur kitchen. I must say I did enjoy the daring combination of salmon and grapefruit in my starter dish and I wished to see more of that.

Further, for a 3-course meal the portion sizes were quite small. I guess it's no surprise the menu itself had an option for fries on the side. That was hilarious to see.

Worth mentioning is that the restaurant lighting with all the tiny Christmas lights (temporary hopefully) was awful. Also, the chairs were somewhat uncomfortable and reminded me of my local fastfood joint.

All this in mind, I would not recommend Capriole Cafe for its chef's menu dinner as it was okay. There are much better alternatives in this...

Terrible service level. They will try and offer you the smalllest possible table at the entrance and sell it as the best table in town. “You get the whole view of the restaurant!” As if the restaurant is worth looking at. “IKEA” type ugly brown tables with equally ugly plastic black chairs. And then if you insist, they will make you sit at a table right next to the back door. Delightful. Moving on to food - at best, average. Pretty basic. Lacking a lot of flavour. Do not believe in salt. Chicken need to be covered with sugary syrup to show that it is Korean 🤣 The chef clearly has no idea of what flavours associate with what. Avocado mash had no salt pepper or even lemon. Go there (a) if you wish to be treated as an appendage since you came without reservation (b) is the last place in town...