Café de Slager — Restaurant in Zaanstad

Café de Slager — Wonderful Food and Even More Wonderful People

We had lunch at Café de Slager, and everything about the experience was lovely — the food was clean, fresh, and delicious, and the atmosphere was warm and welcoming. But what truly set this café apart was not just the meal, but the people behind it.

The night before our lunch, we actually came by the café late at night, around 11 PM, in the rain, when we were having trouble checking in to a nearby hotel. Even though the café had already closed, all the staff — who were clearly on their break — stood up and kindly offered to help in every way they could. They offered us food and drinks, tried calling the hotel on our behalf, and used their Dutch mobile phones to help us communicate since we didn’t have one.

We didn’t get the names of those kind-hearted people, but we especially want to thank the lady in orange, who we were told is the owner’s wife. Her warmth and generosity turned what could have been a stressful night into a moment of comfort and humanity.

We returned the next day for lunch, and everything was perfect — the food, the service, and the atmosphere. Good people deserve good things, and Café de Slager is full of them. For anyone reading this, you deserve good food and great service — and you’ll find both here. To all the amazing café staff: you...

Definitely WOULDN'T RECOMMEND visiting this restaurant. The staff are EXTREMELY incompetent. The waiter came over to take our order without even having giving us a menu card first. How is someone supposed to know what to order without a menu card? When we asked them for the menu, they told us that they didn't have a menu for drinks, but only for their food. After the waiter returned with the menu card, booom...! The waiter just left immediately, and they seemed to have just disappeared into thin air, never to be seen again. We had already been waiting for 30 minutes since we got the menu, and the waiter was nowhere to be seen! And then I had to request another waiter to take out order after having waited for more than 30 minutes. It was quite the ordeal just to order food at this establishment. To be honest, the restaurant wasn't even busy when we visited. There were only a handful of tables that were occupied. I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone. Paying customers deserve to be treated much better than this! It's almost as if they were going out of their way to drive customers away. And I definitely don't want to come in their way of achieving this goal that they seem to have set for themselves: driving...

Came here for my Opa’s 90th birthday supper. English menu wasn’t translated properly, and lacked a lot of details in both the English and Dutch versions of the menu (like a beef option not specifying it had mushrooms in it). My main course, the pumpkin ravioli, was good but the duck my grandparents and mother got were not what it specified on the menu (it was a tiny leg piece with barely any meat instead of the breast it was supposed to be) and was also too salty. The appetizer I got was the burrata salad which needed much more balsamic vinegar and was also too salty. The staff were nice but most seemed inexperienced and one waitress seemed to have to take over the other tables. The managers need to do more training for them.

The place itself was nice and historical, although the steps to get into the place need to be fixed as they’re a tripping hazard for my elderly...