Month: June 2009

I admit that I was sceptical on my first trip to recently opened restaurant l’Ozio in de Pijp. Amsterdam is full of restaurants with stylish interior designs and low quality food. Especially in hip neighborhoods like De Pijp. And in general, Italian food in Amsterdam is sub par with boring menus and cheap ingredients. So what to expect from l’Ozio, a stylish Italian restaurant in a prime location in de Pijp?

To make a long story short, I was pleasantly surprised!

The interior design is modern and simple, made of quality materials and utilizes the available space perfectly. The walls are white. And the back half of the long dining room is lit through a skylight that covers the entire ceiling. The restaurant also serves as exhibition space with new shows every few months. The current exhibition by Armida Gandini is interesting. Much better than the usual restaurant art. Probably worthy of an exhibition in a gallery.

Everything went smoothly with the reservation and we were welcomed in a very friendly way. So surely the food would have to be expensive and disappointing…

Far from it! The dinner menu is varied with a distinctly northern Italian character. Starters include a fried cheese with pancetta as well as mountain speck with ricotta and tartufo. We enjoyed the antipasti platter of parma ham, bresaola, pancetta and salume. And the mains were even better! We went with crespelle artisanal style with a sherry sauce and a mozzarella in carozza – mozzarella on bread, deep fried. The wine list was equally inspiring with a focus on the northern Italian Alto Adige and Piemont regions. We settled on a Lagrein, one of several unusual grape varieties on offer. The wine was good, dry with rich fruit flavors.

Service was friendly  and knowledgeable throughout the entire evening. And the bill at less than € 100,= for two including starters, mains, wine and coffee was quite tolerable. I’ll definitely be back!

Restaurant l’Ozio is located on Ferdinand Bolstraat, by Heinekenplein, next to where 18-Twintig used to be.

Restaurant l’Ozio Amsterdam
www.ozioamsterdam.com
Ferdinand Bolstraat 26
1072 LK Amsterdam
Tel: +31 (0)20 470 81 83

I admit that I was sceptical on my first trip to recently opened restaurant l’Ozio in de Pijp. Amsterdam is full of restaurants with stylish interior designs and low quality food. Especially in hip neighborhoods like De Pijp. And in general, Italian food in Amsterdam is sub par with boring menus and cheap ingredients. So what to expect from l’Ozio, a stylish Italian restaurant in a prime location in de Pijp?

To make a long story short, I was pleasantly surprised!

The interior design is modern and simple, made of quality materials and utilizes the available space perfectly. The walls are white. And the back half of the long dining room is lit through a skylight that covers the entire ceiling. The restaurant also serves as exhibition space with new shows every few months. The current exhibition by Armida Gandini is interesting. Much better than the usual restaurant art. Probably worthy of an exhibition in a gallery.

Everything went smoothly with the reservation and we were welcomed in a very friendly way. So surely the food would have to be expensive and disappointing…

Far from it! The dinner menu is varied with a distinctly northern Italian character. Starters include a fried cheese with pancetta as well as mountain speck with ricotta and tartufo. We enjoyed the antipasti platter of parma ham, bresaola, pancetta and salume. And the mains were even better! We went with crespelle artisanal style with a sherry sauce and a mozzarella in carozza – mozzarella on bread, deep fried. The wine list was equally inspiring with a focus on the northern Italian Alto Adige and Piemont regions. We settled on a Lagrein, one of several unusual grape varieties on offer. The wine was good, dry with rich fruit flavors.

Service was friendly  and knowledgeable throughout the entire evening. And the bill at less than € 100,= for two including starters, mains, wine and coffee was quite tolerable. I’ll definitely be back!

Restaurant l’Ozio is located on Ferdinand Bolstraat, by Heinekenplein, next to where 18-Twintig used to be.

Restaurant l’Ozio Amsterdam
www.ozioamsterdam.com
Ferdinand Bolstraat 26
1072 LK Amsterdam
Tel: +31 (0)20 470 81 83