De Zakkendrager — Restaurant in Utrecht

Pure and tasty cuisine: Between Vredenburg's 'new' marketplace and Oude Gracht you find this outwardly rather unshining, though picturesque place on a narrow alley. The surroundings of this ancient part of the luminous and dashing city of Utrecht are medieval here in style and ambience, combined with highly commercial activity. Lightful, stylish and ecclectical are decoration, atmosphere and dishes at De Zakkendrager: 19th- century Dutch 'empire'-elements are linked with modern cleanliness and a representative British-style bar. Architectually, South-West France is rather far away. Not so on the plates: The dishes served are inspired by the Gascogne. Fresh, high quality ingrediences are composed in a fine, down-to-earth manner, without pompous and superfluous exaggerations. The concept works. Some more gravy with the meat and the poultry might be great though. The service is young and friendly, efficient and working under a certain pressure. This might as well be due to the place's popularity. Taken into account that a lot of customers additionally dwell in the most charming, even enchanting orchard - a beautiful rose garden with old trees behind the house - there is actually and understandably some...

The garden of the restaurant is really amazing. Great atmosphere! The food started off as average, the poached salmon was served with an enormous amount of mayonnaise which made the flavour quite bland. The lobster croquettes were a better starter. When the main dishes arrived I was very pleased however, I felt like these were more traditional dishes which both tasted really good, finally the dessert was also nice. I did feel like the staff could use some extra training or experience, they where a bit all over the place, and we had to remind them about things several times. They were clearly trying though and friendly so perhaps due to corona closure, if some time passes it'll improve. Finally I was just somewhat disappointed with the wine, especially the fact that we got a bottle with a screw top rather then with a cork was not particularly french to me. All in all I think there's room for improvement but I would recommend and will likely return.

Edit: I did return and I was not impressed, mistakes where made, and the quality of both the food as well as the service where not good. The garden is a great asset for this restaurant but I will not...

We used to enjoy this place, but tonight's food and service were disastrous. We were seated outside and whenever we needed the staff we ourselves had to go inside and fetch them. Drinks took ages to arrive at the table or didn't arrive at all. Lentil soup that was actually tomato soup with a few lentils added, salad with way too much plain olive oil and with slices of lamb that were cold, raw on the inside and charred outside, tea consisting of only hot water without a tea bag. Of course things can go wrong every now and then, and it is then when you really get to know a restaurant. The guy who went to fetch my tea bag never returned. Our waitress was friendly but the managers she brought to our table when we complained didn't seem to have learned the words "hospitality" and "sorry" in school. Our questions were answered impatiently and in a very unfriendly manner and the management was rude to the staff in our presence. The salad that we had sent back to the kitchen was charged and only deleted from the bill at gunpoint. Needless to say that this was our...