Aan De Linde — Restaurant in Valkenburg aan de Geul

Tonight 25/12/2023 we visited "Aan de Linde" for the Christmas Dinner. It was a 5 course menu at a price of €84.50 per person.

Let me start with the good things.

The staff was friendly, welcoming and very attentive. The restaurant is cozy with a great ambiance. Even while it was packed, there was not a lot of noise-pollution. We could have a conversation without having to scream to each other.

And now the less good stuff...

The seats are too low for bigger people. The seats are also too firm even though there's a cushion on the seat. My bottom started hurting after a mere 30 minutes.

And as for the food...

The appetizer wasn't very appetizing. It was a lukewarm pumpkin-soup with some curry flavored foam on top and a single bite of something brown in a crispy cup... it tasted like peanutbutter... which definitely isn't my thing. This was accompanied by a tiny 2-bite loaf of bread with a Mango chutney and garlic-butter.

The Amuse wasn't very amusing either. It was raw tuna and semi-raw langustine (which had a very snotty texture) on a bed of chuka-wakame, a dollop of caviar and a blood-orange sauce/dressing. It honestly didn't taste like anything and the tuna was brown-ish, like it had been frozen for a while. it didn't look fresh to me. I've had better raw tuna than this.

Then we got a soup, it was a broth from forest mushrooms and truffle, this was actually the best so far (and turned out to be the best dish of the entire evening).

We were then served hare, on a sauce of somethingsomething with dark chocolate... Ofcourse they put the meat on/in the sauce, so there was no avoiding it. All i could taste was chocolate. it was totally overpowering the flavor of the hare-meat. After scraping off most of the sauce, the hare was actually pretty enjoyable.

The main course was a deer-steak with steamed vegetables, a singular potato-croquet and a port-sauce. The steamed vegetables were undercooked, almost raw. The meat was good, the sauce as well, but definitely not what i expected from this place and especially not at this price.

Overall, with the exception of the soup, everything was either served lukewarm or even almost cold. The place was packed, there wasn't an empty table, but it seemed they could not handle this volume of people. Once the food left the kitchen, it probably stood on the counter waiting for delivery for too long, which probably resulted in the food not being hot enough once it reached the customers. The only time i got something hot, was when we got the soup, because some plastic Christmas decoration fell in and i got a fresh bowl. In comparison to everyone else's soup, mine was actually steaming hot (you could see the difference in hot vapor coming off).

As for Desert, they really messed things up. We ordered 2 times cheese and 2 times the chocolate Desert. We got 3 cheeses and 1 chocolate. I ordered my Chocolate without the white chocolate because i don't like it. Unfortunately, they substituted that with some Brownies, which i like even less (not their fault). There was a stewed pear, coated in chocolate and brown sugar on the bottom. After scraping off the chocolate, it was ok, but the combination totally missed its mark. I would have enjoyed a simple bowl of super-market grade ice-cream with whipped cream on top a hundred times more than this stuff.

I cannot speak for their regular menu, but judging by what we got for dinner and had to pay for, i will not likely be returning to this establishment. I've had better food in less expensive and less fancy places than this. Even my mother's home-cooking is better than this.

The total bill was over 400 euro's for 4 persons. The wines are incredibly expensive and i would not recommend this restaurant to anyone with a...

The restaurant is well located, and from the outside it invites anyone to enter. There is also the possibility of viewing the menu at the door, with the different dishes at different times of the day. In terms of reception, the staff certainly knew how to welcome you calmly and attentively. They voluntarily store your belongings and coats. The menus are simple, all of them in Dutch and without translation. The order was Tap water, the house burger and a fish dish. As starters, we were immediately offered bread with Jam tomato, salt and butter. Regarding the food, the Burger was delicious, accompanied by well-prepared fries. One point to improve is the cut of the bread, the bottom part was short and the sauce ended up undoing the entire support. Regarding the fish, it is aesthetically beautiful as well as complex in flavor. Well prepared and with fresh products. As for the starters, a good tasty and fresh starter. Unfortunately, not everything is perfect and there was a lack of attention/enthusiasm on the part of the waiter who served the tables. The product was not explained, nor was there any attempt to sell or talk. Finally, tap water was charged at 1 euro per glass. Nowhere on the menu does it say that tap water is not served, or that such a price is...

We were very excited to have a romantic evening in this restaurant while we were visiting Valkenburg & made a reservation for the terrace. However, it was raining quite hard so we called 10 min before arriving to ask if we could still sit outside because we were worried to get wet..and the woman on the phone said the terrace was covered and assured us we wouldn’t get wet. But when we arrived we had to wait 10 minutes to be greeted and the woman (I believe she was the manager because she was dressed differently than the workers) very rudely told us we couldn’t sit outside at the terrace because it was too wet & told us we couldn’t eat there. I explained to her that we called and she said “I can’t control the weather.” She was very arrogant and treated us really horribly. I am really shocked with treatment like this at a nice restaurant. We won’t be returning and will tell our friends who are visiting not to go here. They should treat their...