Restaurant Pompidou opened recently on Koninginneweg near Amstelveenseweg. In many ways, it’s the kind of restaurant I try to avoid in Amsterdam – recently opened in a trendy location, gorgeous interior design and professional branding and an ambitious French menu. But there was also a part of me that wanted to like Pompidou. It’s conveniently located and has an extensive wine bar with many good wines available by the bottle.
So I decided to give it a try, opting for one of the bistro tables near the wine bar towards the front and set on keeping food choices rather simple.
Unfortunately the inevitable happened and Pompidou proved to be as disappointing as I had feared. As is the case with many similar places in Amsterdam, Pompidou is all about appearance and little about good food and knowledgeable, friendly service.
The host was overly intent on taking our coats that we would have just as well put on the back of our chairs. The waitresses were either chatting when we tried to get their attention or kept showing up at our table when we clearly hadn’t made our choices. Then there was substantial confusion about the “soup of moment” – I assume a soup of the day would sound too ordinary… – which, we were informed, was “either fish or something else”. The staff finally managed to determine that the soup of the moment was fish, which we decided against. True to our original plan we ordered entrecôte.
Pompidou started us off on an amuse, which much to our surprise but rather less amusement was the same fish soup we had just decided against. The bread had little flavor and the tapenade didn’t seem home made. And when the entrecôtes were mixed up between medium and medium-rare, which on further inspection seemed identical, we knew that all the effort had gone into the decoration and none into the food.
Pompidou is certainly well designed, with a large window towards the street, high ceilings painted in fake marble and lit by a large chandelier. And the wine list also looked interesting, two full pages with breadth of various regions and grapes and depth from simple to quality. We went for a 2007 Côtes du Rhône and liked it. So we might come back for another glass of wine, but won’t bother with the food again.
That’s a shame. Do you think it has the potential to get better after some initial teething problems, or was it beyond redemption?
Hi Vicky,
Shame indeed, I was really hoping for Pompidou to be good!
Hopefully some things will improve as their are more guests and the staff gathers more experience.
Then again, it seemed pretty much like a problem of attitude, so I’m not holding my breath.
–dutchgrub
Pompidou is now offering meals on GroupOn. Generally a last ditch effort to stay in business that tends to drive a place out of business. We’ll see if they are still around in 6 months.
Interesting.
They actually did close down, then re-opened a few months later. Everything looked the same, except the phone number on the awning had been removed. I guess the second attempt won’t be much more successful…
They seem to be holding up quite well though… The remark about Groupon being a last resort to stay in business is absolutely bogus; a lot of reputable restaurants offer Groupons to attract new customers. It’s a way of showing off your restaurant to potential return customers.
http://www.iens.nl/restaurant/27849/amsterdam-pompidou-art-wine-dine/recensie?score=5
Hi STH1984,
I haven’t been back to Pompidou although I saw that they are still around. So we’ll have to see.
I’ll let everybody decide for themselves whether they want to dine using Groupons or not. As for my part, I have tried it twice and was not happy about either the restaurant nor the arrangement I was offered.
What does seem like ‘absolute bogus’ are the reviews of Pompidou on IENS. I really hope for them to do well, but find it hard to believe that they outscore most restaurants in Amsterdam…
–dutchgrub
Is it really that bad? I have just bought a 5 course groupon deal and I just got scared by reading these negative comments…
SHIT! i bought groupons for the 3 AND 5 course meals! 😉
the menu looked good, if well prepared…
c’est la…
and i’ve had mixed experiences with groupons, btw…
lots of things HAVE gone wrong/been off…
but there were perfectly good experiences i’ve had, as well…
like the full moon dim sum/chinese restaurant in den haag.
check it out…gedempte buurgwaal…found it with a groupon.
anyways…thanks for the heads up…