Borrel

Food was pretty good overall. I went there with a bunch of friends, everything tasted fairly good, but the Indonesian foods didn't taste authentic, but still tasted good regardless. I ordered the lekkerbek n chips, which was fairly good, but nothing special. Fish is perfectly cooked, batter is delicious. The dipping suace is delectable! Portion is kinda small, overall 3.5/5 I also ordered the thousand layered cake, had this growing up, suprisingly really good! Tastes authentic, only issue is that it's really small and not sweet enough. Overall 4.5/5.

November 3, 2024 on Google

Pretty good Dutch food, meh Indonesian food. We came as a party of 5. BOERENKOOL ($20): (4/5) Larger portion than I expected. The sausage was HUGE, super juicy but didnt taste greasy, and well-seasoned. The kale & potato mash was a little bland but the bacon bits saved it. The gravy made it less dry but was also a little bland. SNERT ($20): (4.2/5) Friend's order but I tried a bit of it. Looks small but very filling cos the soup is thick. Good flavour and generous with the bacon, sausages, etc. LEKKERBEK 'N' CHIPS ($20): (idk/5) Only tried a little of this one, the fish was okay. Friend said it was a 3.5/5 for him. BAMI SPECIAAL ($21): (3.7/5) Based on my Indonesian tongue, the babi kecap in it was sweet enough & very soft, just wish the rest of the bakmie was as sweet. They got the smokiness just right tho! Portion was kinda small. NASI GORENG ($21): (bad/5) Portion was super small for this price, esp when it barely had any protein in it, just an egg. My friend's order and I didn't bother trying cos she was so disappointed. Genuinely, how do u fk up nasi goreng??? At least everything else was decent. SPEKKOEK - THOUSAND LAYER CAKE ($5): (5/5) Super small and pricey (but don't complain cos thts just how it always is, it's VERY tedious to make). Friend said it tasted good--exactly like the one you'd get in Indo. If I come again, I'll only come for the Dutch food. Ambience was nice, good decor! I wanna come back n try the bitterballen.

November 3, 2024 on Google

Came here for a friends birthday and the staff and service was tremendous! I absolutely love the vibe of the restaurant and I also loved how patient they were for a group of us. This is such a unique restaurant/cuisine because it's a Dutch and Indonesian style restaurant. I ordered the fries and it was fun trying all of the various sauces - very good and neutral order for a big group of people. I grabbed the Boerenkool which is a kale mashed potato dish with bacon lardons and slices of Dutched smoked sausage and gravy. I think the dish was okay but my friend tried other dishes that I got to try like their steak and it was tasty! I've gone to Amsterdam and had a Boerenkool there and I liked the Kale mash there and found the gravy more fatty so I think it's all up to personal taste. I'd love to return since there's not many Dutch-Indonesian restaurants in the city.

March 15, 2024 on Google

Having spending some of my childhood in the Netherlands, I grew accustomed to Dutch culture and some of the culinary offered. I’ve been coming here for sometimes mostly when I crave food from Febo, Indra pura or Fritz shops. They offer foods that’s very close to what I am craving for. Their bitter ballen, chicken satay, lekkerbek (fish and chips) are great delicious and well made 10/10 I did not like the frikandellen as much, I felt it was too tough and meaty, but it was close enough to satisfy my craving. 9/10. Service is very good, they work hard to make sure the guests have the best experience. 10/10. Over all it’s a great place to visit maybe call it home away from home? I think it’s a good idea to explore and try this place if you haven’t and as the Dutch saying goes “Verandering van spijs doet eten “ which means mix things up once in a while to keep things interesting.

February 24, 2024 on Google

Cozy space with great vibes. Finally came to try the food after being curious about the space for awhile. We had a great time! The tables are close together but we got to have a nice chat with our table neighbour and share recommendations on the menu. We ended up ordering 2 appetisers and 3 mains - the Indonesian fried rice dish was our favourite! Super fragrant and was the perfect combo of salty, sweet and spicy. Definitely get this with the satay chicken skewers (that house made satay sauce - yum!). We can’t wait to come again to try the rest of the menu! Service was great and food came promptly! We spent less than $100 on the food for 2, and were stuffed! Highly recommend this local gem! Thank you to the team that served us and fed us!!

May 15, 2023 on Google

Cozy, warm atmosphere, friendly staff, and good service. It was my first time trying Dutch cuisine, and I liked it. We had bitterballen, snert, frikandellen, boerenenkool, and poffertjes. The food was tasty, full of flavor, and well-presented. Four stars due to reasonable criticism: first, portions are tiny, and I didn't feel satisfied with the dish; and second, the problem is that the menu is limited; there should be a broader spectrum of Dutch dishes, for example, notorious Pannenkoek was not on the menu; for desserts, there is only one option. Overall it was a great experience, and I would come back again and recommend it as an introduction to Dutch cuisine.

December 29, 2022 on Google

I came here once for genever, once for rijsttafel, and finally here just for dinner. I really wish it was better. The flavours just don't cut it for Indonesian food. We had a lot of indo food in Amsterdam, including rijsttafel a bunch of times at various places. This was as good as the worst place we tried there. I do recall (pre-COVID) the rijsttafel here being disappointing but this city is incredibly limited for this food so I was just grateful to have it at all. This time... as nice as the staff are, they can't make up for the poorly flavoured food. The satays were edible, but not good. Tasteless. Just some overcooked chicken skewers. The nasi goreng was bitter and bland, and the plate was just ugly and brown. Not even a cucumber for colour. And where was the egg?! The bitterballen were actually perfect. I don't know why I ordered them though because I didn't really get the hype about them in Netherlands, so I don't know why I thought that would change. I'll say Borrel's are almost identical to the ones we had in The Hague. So, they do succeed there. Very authentic. The fries were just terrible. They tasted and felt like they had been fried, cooled, and refried about 10 times and then sat out all night under the headlamp. Rock hard and full of grease. And didn't even taste good. We had loads of Dutch fries in our visits and to say these are anything like the ones there is not even reasonable. I don't really know what to make of it if they can't make good fries... It's hard to find good Indo/Malay food in Toronto, so I appreciate Borrel trying by doing not only the white Dutch food but also the Netherlands great Indonesian cuisine culture. I just think there are other restaurants in Toronto that do Indo flavours so much better. Also, if you haven't had genever... do it when you're here. It is almost impossible to find in Ontario, and it's not available in any LCBO or any other Toronto bar as far as I know. I have to give kudos to Borrel for going through all the trouble of bringing this spirit to us. I think it seems like the Dutch food is generally well-done, so if I ever do return, I'll just stick to that (and genever!) and go elsewhere for Indonesian food.

October 10, 2022 on Google

The atmosphere in this restaurant is beautiful and the service is exceptionally friendly and attentive. Unfortunately, as a vegan, the food is a miss for me. We had the bitterbolen, fries with curry ketchup, mash potato and sausage meal as well as the gado gado salad and overall everything was underwhelming. The bitterbolen were my personal favourite out of all the options. I really appreciate that they try to cater to vegans but it must be done with flavour in mind. On tap microbrewery beers and cocktails are fabulous!

September 24, 2022 on Google