This year’s restaurant week in Amsterdam will take place August 27 – 31.
The idea of restaurant week is simple: Participating restaurants provide a three course dinner for the fixed price of EUR 25,=. For guests this is a great way to discover new restaurants, especially the more upscale ones that budget usually does not allow dining at. Guests sign up for a table through a web site.
I find two problems with restaurant week:
- It’s very hard to get a reservation. Last year, I was too late and when I tried signing up, all tables were already taken. This year I made sure to sign up on Aug 1, the first day of registrations, at 3pm, when registration opens. I managed to get reservations on three nights, but the registration process was quite an ordeal with friendly messages to try again later, session time outs, and the site simply not responding.
- The participating restaurants in many cases are quite ordinary. Sure, there is Altmann, Bice, Pulitzers and Restaurant Café Roux. But many participating restaurants certainly do not fit the definition of upscale. Brasserie Schiller, Gespot, Lokaal 4 or Pasta e Pasta – to name but a few – should have a menu for EUR 25,- any day…
So I settled for Odessa, Klein Jansen and Te Pas – no Michelin ambition, but good quality, less formal restaurants that I am very keen on trying in late August. Will of course let you know what I think.
Are you going too? Drop me a note which of the participating restaurants you found most appealing and which ones you are missing.