Recently, a number of new restaurants were opened in the old center of Amstelveen. One of them is Haddock Grill Club (Stationsstraat 9). The name of the restaurant is not related to the fish, but rather stems from the Captain from the Tin Tin cartoons. Many paintings inspired by other characters from Hergé are one the walls.
They are opened from breakfast through dinner and offer quite are wide array of dishes and drinks that are generally reasonably priced. Mainly baguettes and salads are offered for lunch. On the dinner menu there are 4 burgers (beef, pulled chicken, tuna and chickpeas) and besides the roast chickens from the rotisserie there obviously are loads of selections for the grill: beef or chicken saté, lobster, lamb ribs, rib eye and t-bone steaks. Other options are hot dogs and fish & chips, so plenty to choose from.
We went there in their 2nd week and tried the Tuna burger and the Beef burger (both EUR 14,50) and our youngest had chosen fries and croquettes (EUR 7,50).
The Tuna burger was sizeable tuna steak between toasted brioche slices on a bed of zingy lettuce leaves and topped with a basil mayo and sweet and sour cucumber. Very nice flavour combinations, but the tuna itself was quite cold in the center as if it was taken straight from the fridge before flash fried on grill (it must be said that it was indeed cooked medium). Similarly, it also proved difficult to cook the croquettes: one was still pretty much frozen and the replacement one was lukewarm.
The menus get served with coleslaw and only a few fries. We separately ordered a side of grilled vegetables, an oven baked potato and some more fries to bring everyone’s portions to a normal size. The fries were good though and the coleslaw was crunchy and not sweet. Very nice for a change instead of the soggy and overly sweet coleslaws that are now apparently the norm. The grilled vegetables were good, still with some bite, but the potato was waxy combined with the runny cream with chopped spring onions, this side dish was not something that I would care to order again.
I had ordered the Beef burger which was served with tomato chutney, cheddar, a thick slice of grilled pancetta and lettuce. They use sirloin for the burger, which is tricky as it is quite lean cut of meat, but it worked out well: the burger was still juicy and nicely seasoned.
Unfortunately, as you can see, the burger was cooked unevenly and served on a hard crust Italian roll, which is rather unpleasant to eat. The toasted brioche slices used for the Tuna burger would have been a much better combination.
Clearly some hits and misses, which hopefully can be attributed to start-up problems. Recent online reviews seem to be a mixed batch, so I hope that they can resolve their issues. Their concept can be truly be an addition for Amstelveen.
Verdict: 6/10
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