Calla's in Den Haag

To attention of owner of Calla's restaurant.

At first we gave it some time as truly believed that emotions will come down and we’ll let it go… It didn’t work and therefore I would like to share our story visiting Calla’s about a month ago on 16 October 2018.

We were with a group 4 and had a special occasion to celebrate birthday of a very special friend of ours. We were looking forward to this time together. As based on previous experience Michelin star or even guide listed restaurants provide if not unforgettable but at list exceptionally pleasant experience.

Let me drop a disclaimer here: clearly Calla’s is not this place. It was a terrific disappointment.

The dinner menu consisted of 7 courses "premium menu" for 99, - EUR each. One of warm starters (cooked oyster) was not fresh. It was quite a risky decision to eat it.

Just after serving the appetisers and starters we got informed that they didn't not have duck meat in stock which supposed to be served for the main course. This information should had been communicated in the very beginning, but not just before the serving. Anyway, instead of duck we agreed to have deer meat, which was pretty mediocre and to rare with a quite questionable aftertaste. Could be not ousters alone… Besides that the food was decent for an average creative dining, but not for a Micheline star restaurant.

Now here is the fun part. What completely got out of control at Calla’s is service and staff quality. We were with English speaking friends celebrating birthday and it seemed to complicate a communication already.

There is that nice balcony on the second floor which we wanted to have a picture with. Just after opening the window a waiter ran to our table screaming “It’s not Okay, you should close it”. “It’s not Okay” to talk to your guests in a place like this. It should have started with “Excuse me sir/ma’am”. Anyway, we closed it but that was only the beginning of his achievements that evening. He allowed himself to argue with us on that matter later trying to make his point during our dinner. Afterwards in the middle of the evening while taking another picture we’ve got a comment that: “It’s enough, you are not alone here”. This is just not the way to communicate with ladies. Period. But on her birthday and in a "Michelin star restaurant". Ridiculous. This waiter's manners of a highly skilled client service individual of Michelin star restaurant got recognised again.

Here It's nice to admit that the wines which we selected ourselves were quite good. However, the service kept surprising us that evening. After an ordinary Cava for aperitif and quite decent Bourgogne Chardonnay with starters we ordered a vintage Amarone bottle, which for some reason was not decanted in the very beginning as it supposed to be. Just before serving from the bottle directly to the glasses we had to ask for a decanter ourselves to save at least the wine experience. The waiter's responded quite creatively on this saying that we don’t have time for this as the next course of food is coming :)
in the end we did get our Riedel decanter which as it appeared hasn’t been properly cleaned since they got their Michelin star in 2002 or so. We asked for another one and after a short argument we did get it eventually. Everything would be fine, but it wasn’t the cleanest piece of glass I’ve seen either. The third attempt worked well though, we finally got what we asked for and could enjoy a bottle of nice wine. But only 3 decanters for the whole restaurant and 2 of them dirty. Seriously?

It seems like being to embarrassed after the performance we experienced along the evening the "main waiter" of the night decided not to attract our attention by stopping to respond on our requests and denying any attempts to communicate.

Therefore, we had no other way but to take it to the next level and talk directly to the chef. Who with no resistance apologized immediately admitting that it was his fault for what had happened like it was no big deal. In order to compensate our frustration he kindly offered to exclude a bottle of Cava from the bill as a gesture, which of course wasn't accepted. In the end high dining experience is not about a tiny discount on a bill. It's all-in for life-long happy memories which were dramatically ruined that night at Calla's..
Finalizing the story, the only conclusion I could make is that the chief and the staff are getting too high by the fact that 16 years ago this place got an M star, however in reality it just shouldn’t be there anymore by far.

Hence, it's might be a wise decision to revise official ratings of Calla's restaurant to express a token of respect towards all clients who might experienced somewhat same attitude and quality issues. The staff policy should be revamped drastically. Not only exceptional client service should be taken as a main focus but manners, wine education and serving knowledge together with overall desire to make clients happy. On top of that quality of food and cleanliness of kitchenware might need to be controlled on a more serious level.

The Michelin's guide team and other authorized/official reviewers might want to pay attention to this feedback as well to consider a proper independent assessment for coming years to make sure that Calla's actually represents the level of ambition it's so proud of.