Babbelaar Oostkapelle B.v. Oostkapelle

Service: Dine in Meal type: Dinner Food: 4 Service: 4 Atmosphere: 3

Friendly service and a really good Cappucino Food: 5 Service: 5 Atmosphere: 4

Meal type: Dinner Price per person: €20–30 Food: 5 Service: 5 Atmosphere: 5

Service: Dine in Meal type: Dinner Price per person: €1–10 Food: 4 Service: 3 Atmosphere: 1 Recommended dishes: Frikandel Spezial Und Pommes Frites

Let's face it, you don't go to an eatery with an almost homely name like De Babbelaar to expect culinary delights. But a decent meal? That hope is still alive in Oostkapelle. Last night I went with my family to this establishment, where the Zeeland veal burger — a promising regional dish — is on the menu. Reality turned out to be an illusion. The burger itself had the consistency of those little meatballs you find in a microwave version of spinach stew. One of those burgers that you chew with the feeling that the meat could beg you for help at any moment, not fully cooked and without the slightest hint of spice or character. As if the calf had lived exclusively on a diet of unseasoned cardboard during its lifetime. And then that salad, which looked so timid and modest. A wallflower of a dish, stirred from a refrigerator life that had lasted far too long. Fresh? Not at all. Perhaps the only fresh thing about that salad was the memory of a time when vegetables still tasted like something. What was left was a limp, lifeless pile of greenery that you would rather bury than eat. But, let it be said, the fries they were excellent. Golden brown and crispy, as if the potatoes themselves were having a little party in the frying oil. And the mayonnaise? Creamy, just the right balance between sour and soft, almost poetic in its simplicity. So good, in fact, that I briefly thought about just forgetting about the rest of the meal and just focusing on the fries and mayo. In short, De Babbelaar turned out to be more of a place where you would want to keep quiet about the food than chat about it.