Van Gogh's Eeterie — Restaurant in Springfield

I’ll start by saying I always would much rather have any business be honest with me and tell me if they can’t provide for whatever it is I’m needing. Much better to say “no” and not disappoint with a “yes” that they can’t deliver.

My wife and I stopped in last night (Friday) during a “parents’ night out” without our little one. We arrived at 6:40 p.m. - an hour and 20 minutes before our daughter had to be picked up. As several other parties were waiting, we asked and were told the wait was 20-30 minutes, which would give us potentially only 50 minutes for the meal service. We mentioned that we had a hard deadline of 8 p.m. and asked if we could get out of there in less than an hour, once seated, and were told “yes.”

Pleasantly, they seated us in only about 15-20 minutes rather than the full 30. But then we waited a very long time, maybe another 15 minutes before ever seeing a server or having even water brought. Because we reviewed the menu prior to getting our table, we had already narrowed down our food choices, but had more than plenty of time to decide by the time our server finally came.

Upon ordering, we watched our available time to enjoy the meal quickly evaporate. Food finally arrived at 7:39 p.m. Now we would have to eat very rapidly to make it back to pick our little up. So, how about the food?

The good: my wife’s Frisan Chicken Salad Sandwich and cup of Ginger Carrot Soup was delicious!

The not so good: I had been here maybe three other times, but had never yet tried the Dutch pancakes. So this time I opted for the savory “Aruba” with its unique mix of jerk-seasoned bakon, ham, rookwurst, peppers, pineapple, brandied raisins, banana, cheese.

I proceeded to eat very quickly, but wasn’t really tasting any of the three meats I remember from the menu. Having never had the dish, and not being used to Dutch food, I thought maybe they were just tiny little bits, so I kept eating, but started to dig around on the dish and literally couldn’t see anything resembling meat. Because we were in such a hurry to get back on time, I had gulped about 1/2 of it when I finally called our server over to say I suspected they had forgotten the meat.

Her reaction, though friendly, immediately told me she had not been trained well in their menu to even know what each item should look like! That’s a really bad mark for a server. It’s one thing for servers to have not tried some menu items, but to not know enough about them to realize something is completely missing speaks to a lack of training by management AND to a lack of care by the server. I had to do a bit of convincing, using a previous Italian restaurant experience of missing chicken, to bolster my claim of the missing trio of meat, but she finally said she would go ask the kitchen.

She returned with a bowl full of the three-meat mixture, and then it was even MORE obvious that anyone working there should have immediately been able to tell the meat was missing! They were not tiny bits of meat at all, but diced pieces very easily seen had they been on the pancake. Wow.

While I’m very glad they brought the meat, honestly they didn’t handle the issue like a top-notch establishment would. Given that 1/2 of my entree was literally missing half of what was supposed to be on it - not any of which was my fault - they should have at least offered to remake the entree for me (though we surely wouldn’t have had time to wait). Or they could have offered to comp my meal or invite me back to try it again on the house, or . . . be creative if you want to have a return guest!

To simply offer the missing meat just before we asked for “to go” boxes with a light apology wasn’t acceptable.

Overall experience was not stellar this time around.

I’m a big believer in tips still being for EXCEPTIONAL service, not just an expected add-on at any specific rate and NOT on tax (as the state doesn’t ever help serve me in a restaurant). My leaving nearly 14% this time around was...

Didn't get a chance to eat so not sure about the food. My step-dad made a reservation online the day before my family came to eat and my mom told him they don't actually go through so she called the next day and asked about the reservation. The person on the phone told her it didn't go through and my mom asked what needs to be done and the hostess said they can't take the reservation because they have to be made 5+ hours prior to reservation time which seems annoying since they don't open until 8am and we wanted to have our reservation at noon. My mom asked if they could honor the reservation since it went through online and the hostess said no. My mom called back and spoke with the same person because it doesn't seem right to have an online service that doesn't actually work and they honored our reservation. It was for 7 people.

little backstory last time my family ate at this restaurant, one family member's food didn't come out until everyone else was done eating. My brother likes the food here because they have vegan options and he likes the atmosphere so we went because it was his last day in MO**

When we arrived we were met with the following:

The table was STICKY, I spilt water on myself trying to get the cup released from the table. My step-dad grabbed a spare chair so he could have a place to sit. Once everyone in our party arrived we realized not everyone would be able to fit their plate on the table We asked if we could get a different table or if they could squeeze tables together to accommodate our party. We were met with an aggressive tone from the waitress who said, "we have seating charts for a reason and if you go to a different table, I miss out on tips." We explained the situation and my aunt asked if we could then at least get the table wiped down because of how sticky it was. Hostess and waitress said "that's just the finish on the table" Waitress stomps over to empty tables and pushes them together, they crash, a chair gets knocked over and things on the table get knocked over. We feel uncomfortable and stand up to leave Waitress leaves and says "I was getting you your new table." My aunt says, "yeah, but you did it really aggressively," Waitress rolls her eyes and says "The table was stuck. I was doing what you wanted." We continue out the door and waitress comes over to us and throws her hands up in the air.

I'm not going to come back. I was excited to try it and loved the artwork but between the sticky (gross) table and the aggressive nature of the waitress,...

We used to go here all the time, but after our last visit, I don’t think we will be back.

I ordered one of the most expensive items on the menu that was like a sampler. Nothing was said to me when I ordered it. When the food came out, it was missing 2 of the 5 items. When I asked about it they told me there were out of the other two items. I asked if the price would be adjusted and was told I just received extra of the 3 things I got, even though I didn’t. When I pulled up the menu because they wouldn’t bring one so I could show them, the manager was very hateful and said in a nasty tone “well what do you want me to do about it?” At this point I have been trying to talk to them about it for 20 minutes and my food was completely cold. The manager spent the entire time trying to gaslight me when I had the menu pulled up on my phone.

By the time we got it resolved so that I wasn’t paying for food I didn’t get, everyone else was done eating, so I left my own birthday dinner without even eating.

This was far from the only problem we experienced. Our waiter just kept disappearing and not getting drinks or bringing out our food when it was ready so all 6 meals we got were cold and they completely disregarded what we told them when we notified them that someone had an allergy so they had an allergic reaction. We had eaten here many times and never had a problem with accommodating this...