Review of De Dutch – 10030 Jasper Ave

After viewing the website and seeing some unique selections of food, it was decided we would have an Easter brunch there today. As with anything downtown, parking was a challenge and it took 3 loops around the block to find a meter. We could have parked at a pay lot for $14 for 2 hours but I opted for driving around for 15 minutes and wasting $14 in fuel instead! 😉

The decor is outstanding and it’s much larger inside than one would imagine. Seating was almost immediate which was nice as we expected it to be much busier than it was. The menu itself is very comprehensive and pricing was somewhat reasonable. A meal for the 4 of us for brunch came to $72.55 plus tax. Meals were just under $15 on average, orange juice was $4.25, coffee was $2.80 and chocolate milks were $3.25 ea.

3 out of the 4 of us ordered the unique Pannekoeken http://www.dedutch.com/menus/ as we had never tried before. I had the Abby Perogie which was decent. My wife had the hash which she enjoyed and our daughter had the Strawberry Chocolate and Whip. Our son ordered a burger but he is historically someone who rarely steps outside of his comfort zone when it comes to food! There was a tremendous choice of various foods and the rest of menu seemed very impressive also!

These Pannekoeken are essentially a meal between a pancake and an crepe with a number of different toppings to choose from. I also ordered toast with my meal as that was an optional extra. My toast didn’t come with the meal and after asking for it sometime later, our server unapologetically said she would get it. I was almost done my meal by the time it came out 10 minutes later and then I needed to ask if there were any jams as well. I guess I would have just brought those out at the same time… It was also baffling to me how a restaurant specializing in these types of “pancakes” makes you ask for syrup? One might think you would receive that automatically when 3 out 4 of you purchase the Pannekoeken. It too took another 5 minutes for that to come and we were almost half way through our meals when it finally did. Overall, I just found it disheartening to have ask for jams, syrups and missing orders and there never seemed to be any urgency to get those to the table.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coffee was replenished often but at no point was my wife’s water refilled nor were the kids asked if they wanted more chocolate milk. Seems you get one glass maximum? Understanding the restaurant was somewhat busy, though not packed, I was disappointed in the service overall.

I will say that all of us were happy with our meals and the portions were certainly enough that no one left hungry. I do know that this restaurant has many great reviews and I certainly won’t mask my entire opinion off of one experience as I do plan to go back one day.

I would rate De Dutch a 5.5 out 10 for overall service and food value on this visit.