Bistro La Cloche

A wonderful place chosen for us for the Leiden restraunt week. Fantastic reception and service throughout the whole meal. Each course paired superbly with a fantastic wine. I always love an open kitchen and enjoyed watching the chefs attention to detail putting each dish together. Thank you so much for an excellent night out!

We dined at Bistro La Cloche on Friday evening. We arrived at 6pm (when the restaurant opened) and didn’t leave till the kitchen closed at roughly 9:30pm as we waited the entire time to complete our 4 courses. The courses were rolled out essentially hourly and we were quite displeased with having to wait so long for such subpar food. Overlooking the fact that we had to wait so long per course, the food lacked good flavour and consistency. The beef for the first course lacked flavour and was hard to swallow as it was all texture and no taste. The pork spring roll for the second course was accompanied with hoisin sauce which absolutely overpowered everything within the dish. The third course was a duck dish with a reduced liquer sauce, the duck was just alright but the sauce itself tasted like cleaning product and didn’t pair nicely with the duck. The fourth and final course was a chocolate mousse and rum ice cream dessert which was the highlight of all 4 courses. The interesting part of this course was that despite all the tables being seated at different times, we all received dessert at the same time. On top of all of this, there were only two cocktails to choose from: a Negroni and a Gin & Tonic. I’m unsure if the bar staff were new and as a result of this, the patrons that evening weren’t offered more complex cocktails but this was a let down also. To also add, where we sat was dirty and full of crumbs. We sat at table 2 and we were right next to two shelves full of alcohol but underneath there was a space full of crumbs, food debris and also a shard of glass. The table top itself was dirty and had crumbs likely from the night before but they neglected to clean the table after closing and opening the following day. We were disappointed with our visit to the restaurant after being very interested in trying the food and drinks here. It felt like we had wasted our time and money here after our experience.

I’m from Canada, and I absolutely loved the experience. This is my first time in the Netherlands, and I've never had a dinner quite like this before. I really respect the high quality of service here.

Interesting food, very friendly waiter. But it was busy and it took 5/6 hours in the end. Yes, we had a 5 course menu and added an additional 6th one, but we were constantly waiting at least half an hour, more often 45 minutes before the next course was served. But again, the waiter was friendly, food was interesting, wine was good. So still a nice experience

The waiting times are insane. It took us 4h to have a 3 course dinner. After the starter, we had to wait for almost 1h to get the main course. I had ordered duck chest which came raw. I was asked whether I liked the main course (thus 2 stars), I gave my feedback and the best I could get was, "we're sorry, we'll let the cook know". Very disappointing for an expensive place that wants to seem sophisticated.

We ordered food to be delivered on a Saturday evening. The ordering process was easy enough, and the delivery arrived as expected. The food was delicious, as were the (re)heating instructions. Not only was the food delicious, but it looked great as well. I would definitely recommend.

Very good service. Dishes were also delicious.

Did a 3 course menu with wine arrangement. Not bad, but somewhat bland and not really imaginative for the price. Nice cosy atmosphere though.