Restaurant Hotel Buitenlust — Restaurant in Utrechtse Heuvelrug

We stumbled upon this extremely charming restuarant-cafe-hotel as we wandered around Amerongen. We hade a coffee on the front terrace and when there was a brief and sudden shower we moved up under the verandah. The waiters were attentive, professional, well-groomed and very attractive. Later we had lunch inside and had the same experience...and the food came quickly, looked appealing and was delicious. The place has been carefully modernized and restored...so instead of adding plastic everything like they would in Canada...or ripped off the verandah...it has all been lovingly redone so there is still plenty of charm and character remaining. I would love to come back and stay a night in one of the 5 hotel rooms above while on my next cycling trip. ||||A side bar about Amerongen itself: We found practically every shop in Amerongen closed either because the owners were on vacation or because they were only open Thurs-Sat. The ones that were open don't open until 11:00 am. So I guess they don't actually need the money and the shops are just a side line (or a tax write off). This was in the high summer season so I guess they aren't geared toward tourism in the town despite having the castle and a few other attractions. The old center is affluent but many many houses are for sale so I guess the young "consultant" type yuppies who thought they'd like a taste of country living weren't as upwardly mobile as...

I'm not a person to typically write negative reviews, nor make complaints about service, but my experience at Buitenlust today was absolutely atrocious. I have been visiting the café for many years, and unfortunately the service has gone completely down hill. After the young waitress spilt Irish coffee upon me and my bag (an understandable error), there was absolutely no apology given (not an understandable error). The bag and my coat are both expensive; the bag is now damaged and stained, and the coat requires dry cleaning. The table remained sticky and uncleaned, and no attempts were made to rectify this. Upon payment, we explained this situation to the maître d'. Again, no apology was forthcoming, and we were simply informed that the message would be given to the waiter. In the past I would have recommended Buitenlust to those visiting Amerongen. After today's negative experience, I would not recommend it to anyone. It's a shame to see a once great café so...

With my wife we had to celebrate our 25 silver marriage. A few month ago a colleague has recommended restaurant Buitenlust to me. Let's give it a try. It was a nice summer evening. We could sit at the large terrace in front of the nice building (see pictures) in the historic 19/20th century center of Amerongen. The straight forward food is exquisite and of a very good quality. Service is friendly and adequate. Time between courses exactly right. In 2 hours you can take you 3 dishes meal. Price is not cheap, but worth. They charge you extra for the frites and small salat at the main course. We had 2 each of the following: prosecco aperitive, starter, main, coffee, water, frites, salat. And a bottle of water. It just costs us over EUR...