Drank en spijslokaal "de Meester" — Restaurant in Zandvoort

I was pretty excited about their fondue menu. The food was fine. The service was left much to for the mind to pounder.

I ordered the cheese fondue, and that's all the order. When I asked for the bill, the guy brought the over credit card scanner. Already he has punched in an extra 3% as he put the device down before me, saying "you wouldn't mind paying for the extra 3% for credit card, everything has gone up?"

A closer look at the bill itself, there was an extra item of a dip included in the bill. When pointed out, it was promptly removed.

Could it be a careless mistake? Sure! I was initially glad to offer the benefit of the doubt. But then: I was one person, eating at a time when there was only three other tables, having ordered one item. Hardly a complex bill at a time not busy at all, perhaps 15% of the capacity.

Did he inform me about the 3? Yes. Although I felt pretty pressure not to opt-out than was given a genuine question of opting-in.

Is it the end of the world paying 3% more? No. But its all about the nuisance of how it was presented, and the more I thought about how the extra dip got on the bill, the more shade I found the whole situation was. I couldn't help feeling all a bit played, and that was just the one item that ruined my otherwise very pleasant day.

Zandvoort is a beach side town, receiving a lot of tourists. It's probably an establishment that is not counting on returning patronage. If I didnt check the bill, the €21.95 fondue would have had a 19% "tourist tax."

Whether that was a mindless mistake or a mindful move, I'll...

Oh that was bad. We entered excited for fondu/wine and some appetizers experience.

We had some small unfinished bottle of water with us, I opened to take a sip before checking menu (which was not given), waitress asked not to drink brought water but to order instead (sure, ok, understood, but where is the menu? She said check on website if you need in English - ok! but there are no drinks in digital menu) I also asked if they maybe serve before food jar of water - she repeated - only if you order and pay for water. Ok, so we had pretty long chat about water

Afterwards we chose the fondu (again, we are 2 girls, usually take few things to try and not to overeat). So we are planning to get 1 fondu and few appetisers along with drinks.

After that we have a really nonsense talk for 3-5 minutes where the waitress (middle age lady with short hair) repeated that fondu is for one person, we tried to understand if we shall order 2 as it’s obligatory or she keeps saying for 1 person cause of portion (according to her it’s for 1). She repeated like a parrot - it’s for one person, I swear I had a dream afterwards with this lady repeating on every question we ask - ITS FOR ONE PERSON

Seriously the rude attitude and unfriendly look took us away from this place.

Btw place was 70% empty, perhaps of this waitress, whom I wish only good. Perhaps she was tired (however we came around 6pm in the place...

We were excited to try de Meester given the high Google review average. While we were greeted in a very friendly manner and promptly seated in a friendly manner, we were sadly disappointed in the dishes we ordered. The schnitzel was not crispy and difficult to cut. The mushroom sauce had only a few small pieces of mushroom in it. The chicken thigh satay had a tasty sauce, but there was too much. I do not believe the thighs had been trimmed enough. The fondue was somewhat grainy but did have an ok flavor.

We did like the fresh baguette and herbed butter a great deal. And, de Meester had nice atmosphere and cordial staff as previously mentioned.

Perhaps just...