Hans & Gretel pancake house — Restaurant in Zeewolde

After having had it on my wish list for a very long time already, we finally managed to plan a trip to go here yesterday. This place is surreal. It feels like you're stepping right into a childs dream. The level of detail is magnificent. The special effects inside, the hidden corridors for kids to crawl through, the slides going through the restaurant, a shower in the middle of a restaurant, breath taking amazing. Outside also a lot of super fun things for kids to play with. Amazing that there's no parking fee and not even an entrance fee. The food is quite a bit more expensive than a normal pancake restaurant, but all the extras here make it worth it, if you have kids with you. Food was fine tasting and portions are big enough to satisfy even the bigger eaters. Nice collection of about 5 draft beers to choose from.

Few comments/points of feedback: The COVID19 precautions here are a total mess. I'm amazed that the government allows this place to be open. You should go through the entrance and sign yourself up. Loads of people walk through the separate exit though and thereby bypass the entire mandatory registration idea. Nobody or nothing stopping them from doing so. The restaurant inside is insanely crowded. Tables are close to each other. People and staff walking between the tables make it absolutely impossible to retain a 1,5 meters distance from one another. Choose to sit outside and it's better already. The cash register is the worst when it comes to trying to keep a distance. There's only one place where everyone has to pay their bill and that's right in a small room where people enter the restaurant and leave it again. No spit screens of any kind anywhere. It's also the only room you will have to go through to go to or get from the restrooms in the basement. There's no clear lines so it's just a huge bunch of people in one small room packed tight to each other waiting to pay their bill while other people squeeze through the masses of people to move. Absolutely insane and irresponsible. The little "ghost house" has a broken window with really sharp glass edges sticking out and some pieces of broken glass lying on the floor in front of it where kids can crawl into. I reported it to staff who said to immediately take action on it. Nothing happened with it though. Totally irresponsible. There are a few structures where kids could potentially climb on rooftops which would be very dangerous. They chose to put up signs to state do not climb on rooftops and put a lot of real barbed wire on top of it. Not entirely sure if that's the most kids friendly way of...

CELIACquality of servicecost

The playground is great for kids but we had a really bad experience with the restaurant's hostess/staff. We had initially booked an inside table at their restaurant at 1.45pm on May 29, but my 5 year old daughter got immediately scared with all of the inside decoration (there are 10+ different versions of Hansel & Gretel's witch, which my daughter found to be really scary). After trying to calm her down, and talk about it, it was impossible, and so we went to the hostess to request her if she could assign us an outside/terrace table, for which, from the very beginning, even without fully checking, she was unsupportive. I insisted that we could not stay inside, and that we would really appreciate if an unassigned table outside could be assigned to us, but she insisted that they were full. But that was not true, as I'm showing in the attached pictures (taken 15 mins after being denied a table because "they were full"). We had to get out and order to go, as my daughter almost had a panic attack, with no empathy from the restaurant's staff either. We traveled from Amsterdam to that place, so it was a bit more than 45 minutes of travel to end up having such a bad experience. I would advice you to reconsider traveling there if you have young children: fun playground, with average food and a nasty restaurant hostess (unsympathetic staff). Tough thing, considering there are no other lunch alternatives nearby, unless you bring your own food. Will not go...