Restaurant Blauw Utrecht — Restaurant in Utrecht

We found Blauw quite by accident while searching for a restaurant that would be open on a Monday night. Did not make a reservation; instead, the three of us arrived at opening time. The wait staff were wonderful. On hearing that one of us had a few allergies, they showed a page at the back of the menu listing various common allergies in Dutch - and in English! We quickly took a photo of the page and used it to good effect during our entire stay. The food... what can I say? It was fabulous. On the waitress' recommendation, we didn't over-order; we all got the smaller rijsttafel. I would highly recommend the goat satay and the tofu dishes, by the way. Our allergic person was given a few different dishes, and for dessert, beautifully arranged sorbet that made me wish I had allergies, too! Nice and quiet, as well, even though we were seated toward the center (but against a wall). My only complaint was the water. We'd been travelling for two days and were all dehydrated, but we could not get tap water. Instead, we had to pay for their version of still water, bottled especially for them. It wasn't terribly expensive until you noticed that the water carafes weren't nearly full, and the bottoms were made to look like they were full of water when they were not. That was our only objection to the dinner. I wish we had a Blauw in my own neighborhood; I'd be there every week. As it is, I'll look forward to...

We were really looking forward to this but were pretty disappointed. The photo is only of the sides that came with the rice plate — there were about 5 more of those with meats filled all the way up on them. The flavors were not very good and everything felt overly oily. This was the worst tasting menu I’ve ever had.

Another huge problem was being misled in terms of the amount of food we would be getting. I appreciate the generous portions but we clearly and explicitly asked if the rice plates would be too much food for two people — we were told it would be the perfect amount and could even split an appetizer if we wanted to…? This was not the case. We left almost half the food despite eating to the point of being stuffed and uncomfortable because we didn’t want everything to go to waste. Also as Americans, we’re used to larger portions so this really isn’t us being difficult on purpose. It was actually a huge turn off to us in terms of food waste that the restaurant would rather make more money and cause unnecessary food waste. Hugely disappointed and honestly don’t think this place deserves the praise it gets.

Maybe try it if you’re from the Netherlands but if you’re a tourist, I...

The food is great, but after the last experience I will not be coming back. We ordered the chef's menu, and they have been so slow with the food that we only got to the main course almost 1,5h after coming to the restaurant. I wouldn't mind, we were having a good time, had it not been for the waiter who impolitely complained when we were paying that we exceeded the 2h timeslot we reserved for. I understand that it is important for the restaurant to plan and schedule visitors, but the staff has effectively caused a problem, and blamed us for it. Not the experience you expect after an otherwise successful evening. My honest recommendation is, if the restaurant is short-staffed, advise customers during ordering that they are unable to serve the chef's menu timely - we would have been just as happy with just the rice table, which is absolutely the hallmark of Blauw. Especially that, frankly, the dessert was disappointing - the spicy chocolate cake was dense and too spicy for most of us (why was the desert the most spicy part of the...