Restaurant De Beren Zoetermeer — Restaurant in Zoetermeer

I have been a loyal customer of De Beren in Zoetermeer for some time. I’ve always enjoyed the cozy ambiance and the beautiful location by the lake. However, my recent visit was deeply disappointing and has made me question whether I’ll return.

The experience started poorly as we were seated at a visibly dirty table. Despite waiting for some time, none of the servers approached us to clean the table or provide menus. We had to call someone over to clean it, and even then, the server placed the menus on the dirty surface without addressing the mess.

I ordered a three-course meal, which included an appetizer, main course, and dessert/warm drink. Unfortunately, every dish took an unreasonably long time to arrive. We spent three hours at the restaurant (12:30–3:30 PM) just waiting for our meals. By the end of it, we were so frustrated that we asked to have our dessert packed to go.

When we made this request, the cashier informed us it wasn’t possible to take away crème brûlée. I then asked for an alternative dessert, such as apple crumble - which is placed on cake display and part of the three course menu, but she refused, saying it wasn’t possible to change the order. When I pressed for a solution, her response was simply, “There’s nothing I can do.” Eventually, we ate the crème brûlée near the door because we had already left our original table to leave the restaurant.

At checkout, another staff member asked if everything had gone well. I began to explain my concerns, but she repeatedly interrupted me and dismissed my feedback with a curt, “Sorry, there’s nothing I can do.” Her tone and lack of empathy made me feel unheard and disregarded. As a paying customer, I expect a certain level of service when dining out—something that was entirely absent during this visit.

I left feeling extremely disappointed, not just with the delays and lack of organization, but with the unprofessional behavior of the staff. As a business owner myself, I cannot imagine treating my customers this way. It’s evident that the staff lack proper training in hospitality, from handling complaints to offering solutions.

I sincerely hope De Beren will take this feedback to heart and invest in training their team to provide the quality of service that matches the restaurant’s otherwise charming setting. A little effort in this area could make a world of difference for...

First off, one star is too much... This chain restaurant is not something wow but the quality is somehow acceptable in few branches but this one! I've ordered Koffie DELUXE which was the best choice among the coffee menu (one coffee and one cup cake). The WORST CUP CAKE ever! Cold like coming out of the freezer with lowest possible quality of frozen cream on it which tastes as hell, it was like peice of chalk. I don't expect to bring me such a prepared frozen muffin but if you dare to do that in this kind of restaurant with moderate pricing, then at least buy and serve something with higher quality. You are getting about 2.5 euro only for damn frozen muffin which costs you less than 10 cent! I've asked for a pen and wrote something beautifully on a napkin for the manager! She/he read it but she didn't care at all.. S/he didn't come to our table, s/he didn't ask for what is the problem.. Nothing.. But they did something!...

It’s just a fancy version of KFC. Extremely extremely small portions. Bad presentation and tastes are extremely bad. I ordered the pulled chicken fries and I got a bowl of fries with one chicken wing or less chicken meat with some sauce that was not even enough for the whole bowl. The BBQ wings were super market shelf wings with no taste & some spurts of bbq sauce. The kids chicken strips are exactly sane as McDonalds or KFC but double the price. Then we had spicy crispy chicken which was sweat but I keep looking for spice & couldn’t find any. In the whole bowl worth 17 euros there were 4 small pieces of chicken rest vegetables sautéed n glazed in sugar. So I would maybe just go to McDonald’s or some other burger joint where I can get burger in half the price. The service was just ok, asked for sauce hot it half way through the meal. A water...