Villa Nieuwmarkt must have been open for close to ten years under its current name I guess. I think it has changed over the years and I will try to explain why.
My first visit was in '05 I think when me and a couple of housemates were too lazy to make our own lunch (hungover?). Villa was famous locally for their club sandwiches - enormous sanwiches with large amounts of chicken, bacon and other good stuff. You could also have a great dinner for a very decent price, especially in this neighborhood. Finally, to me it was the perfect place to take a girl for drinks - friendly staff that only bothered you when you needed them, great atmosphere and conveniently located.
Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, hungry for that enormous club sandwich
I returned to Villa Nieuwmarkt... Only to find out that
They closed their kitchen during day hours!!
No club sandwich. No big beef burger with fries, another one of their former anti hangover plates.
Not realizing this, we started with coffee and water. After our second coffee, we were more then ready for lunch. The waitress (who was by herself and, how do I put this nicely, not as appetizing as I was used to) put on her sad face and said she had to make the sandwiches herself as the kitchen was now closed during the day.
Even though I could not find the club sandwich or the big beef burger anywhere on the menu, I was not alarmed and started visualizing sad face girl making my chicken sandwich, applying large amounts of mayonaise and probably even taking a spoon or two herself.
Turns out that was not what happened backstage. She came back a good twenty minutes later, with half warm undecorated prefabricated really tiny sandwich that she had to sell for almost five euro. Now I understood her sad face. She must have felt bad having to sell this crap for this price. By herself.
Too bad when a restaurand goes from epic to average in just a couple of years! read more