Let me start by
saying that our at table waitress who took the orders was excellent,
I tipped because of her! Even though she forgot my wine! She
effortlessly and without eyebrow raising changed from my dodgy Dutch
(grammatical flaws which floor a lot of people!) to English and back,
with a smile and warmth.
The natural, bearded, ginger who came to our
first table forgot my companions order and returned, with quite a bit
of attitude to ask if we were going to order a second drink only to
have to go and sheepishly but slowly fetch it.
That is the main issue
they are SLOW!! I mean really slow, every order (especially the wine)
took 7-11 minutes, the last wine took 17! I know I was checking!
It peeves me when
the help think they have to regulate my drinking, it usually means
they are too useless to deal with customers who drink too much.
When
I went to the w.c. I cold see three waiters just standing, waiting
for the chef to finish making two long rows of plates (getting cold!)
so they could take them to table. And yes our meal (we ordered the
same) was seriously tepid, apart from the fried octopus.
Normally I would
have been impressed by the meal but having just got back from a road
trip through Northern Spain and down to the Algarve, the 'roodbaars'
with mussels and octopus (there was another fish mentioned in the
bouillon which was supposed to be but was not on the plate) with
celery root, was definitely above the general A'dam average standard.
However in comparison, to the food I've eaten over the last month it
was middle of the road served in a skinny girlie's portion. Typical case of the more you pay the less you get! The idea clearly, that you have room for
(and need) dessert or leave hungry!
In my painful
experience the best of A'dam cuisine (No, I haven't eaten everywhere - if I find better I will say) is over thought,
stupid expensive, with little real 'feeling' for food, it can't touch the simplest Spanish plate of
something cooked for taste, price and enjoyment. Those three
will always beat a plate conjured from arrogance and no feeling for
food, surely? aparantly the creme caramel Catalan style was perfectly executed - but y daughter can do that too!
The blonde who came
to demand a dessert order was unbelievably rude - she sat down on the
table next to us, was absolutely somewhere other than service
oriented, unpleasant and obviously a bit stupid cos she didn't seem
to know that a) croutons are carbs and b) that it is not the function
of the staff to ignore clearly given requests. If she had said (as
they do more often in restaurants,) that is not possible or we
won't/don't do that, I would be fine but to completely ignore me and
then try to lecture me with a fact that I know to be untrue?? Sad!
Perleeeze (please) Only in Amsterdam.
I am sooo regretting tipping
them at this moment
