Restaurant Pompidou Amsterdam – Don’t Bother

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.

restaurant pompidou amsterdam - outside

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.

restaurant pompidou amsterdam - inside

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.

Restaurant Pompidou Amsterdam – Don't Bother

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.

restaurant pompidou amsterdam - outside

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.

restaurant pompidou amsterdam - inside

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.

Restaurant Choix Du Chef The Hague (Guest Post)

Today I am very happy to present the first guest post on dutchgrub.

The post is by Andy, a tech entrepreneur currently living in the Hague.  He hails from Nieuw Amsterdam, better known as New York City.  When he’s not writing code, he enjoys cooking and tasting food from around the world.  In fact there’s nothing he won’t eat.  Except for bitterballen (really, what is in that?).  His current project is Sensobi.com.

Last night I had the best meal I’ve had since moving to the Hague.  It was a cold and snowy night which kept a lot of diners in, and we wanted to go somewhere close to home.  Luckily we live near a nice stretch of restaurants mentioned in the Michelin Guide.  On a less busy corner of this street sits Choix du Chef, a restaurant I have been curious to try for about a year.  The reason: the premise of the restaurant is that there is no printed menu.  Instead, you choose between one to six courses at the start of the meal, and then you wait in anticipation for the chef’s selection that night.

restaurant choix du chef the hagueRight from the start, we knew that this restaurant was unlike any we had ever been to in the Hague; the service was extremely attentive. They seemed genuinely happy to see us there.  Their well-curated wine list is supplied by de Gouden Ton; I knew this because the jovial diners seated next to us happened to run the store.

The first course was a house-made smoked salmon, served with a relish of diced daikon radish and Jerusalem artichoke coulis.  The salmon was lightly smoked, so it sat somewhere between cured and raw, imparting both the silky texture of raw fish and the savory flavor of the smoke.

The second course was a medley of grilled quail, served atop a moussaline of potato, something called “Dutch cabbage,” and pureed beets.  The meat of the bird was tender – even the breast had an airy quality to it.  In France or New York, technique of this kind would be expected for a fine-dining establishment.  But here in the Hague, in a restaurant on a hidden back street, it was nothing short of delightful.

After living in New York for a decade, adjusting to the dining scene here has not always been easy, though there are certainly bright spots.  To know that a restaurant such as Choix du Chef exists in my new city (so close to home no less) gives me hope that there is more to discover in the coming year.  Eet smakelijk!

Basic facts: 2 course dinner: 28 euro, courses get cheaper the more you order.

Other places I’d recommend nearby: Oker, Alexandre

La Oliva Amsterdam – No, Really, Don’t Bother

About a year ago I stumbled upon La Oliva, a then brand new tapas and pintxos bar in the Jordaan. I tried it out and posted about my disappointment. La Oliva is perfectly located on a pretty corner smack in the middle of the Jordaan. And the restaurant looks great with its stylish decor and display of cured hams, wine bottles and pintxos. Unfortunately the food is average and high-priced and the service pretentious.

Over the last few months I had heard several positive reviews of La Oliva and some dutchgrub readers left comments saying that the food was delicious and the service nice and helpful. So I decided to try again and did a few days ago when I was in the area.

Unfortunately I must say that I was right. I wanted to like La Oliva, because it looks great and Amsterdam needs a good tapas bar. But I didn’t because it’s all about appearance and not about food.

la oliva amsterdam - pintxos

The pintxos were lukewarm and stale, especially the tortilla. And the ingredients were of inferior quality, which really ruined the Serrano ham appetizer. And to add insult to injury, the little tart with tomato sauce actually seemed to be deep freezer quality. Then we had some tapas and a dish from the main menu, which were small and rather bland. The wine was ok but very expensive at € 40,= for an average bottle of tempranillo.

All in all we paid more than € 150,= between the three of us for average food and wine and left as disappointed as the first time. So, no, don’t bother about La Oliva. Really.

Lunch at La Rive Amsterdam

La Rive is one of seven restaurants with a Michelin star in Amsterdam. It’s located in the classy Amstel hotel and was rumored to but didn’t receive its second star in November 2009.

I had lunch at La Rive as part of Dining with the Stars, the Michelin star only edition of the Amsterdam restaurant week. The deal was a prix fixe lunch for € 40,=.

The overall experience at La Rive is impressive. The Amstel hotel is very classy with its marble entrance hall and doormen in tuxedos. The restaurant is just as exclusive with old school wooden furniture with golden rims, paintings of the Dutch masters of the golden ages on the walls and table cloths starched to the max. I often find that Michelin star dining experiences are overly formal and spoil much of the fun and this kind of expensive but middle of the road decor is part of the reason.

restaurant la rive amsterdam - decor

I was positively surprised by the service. First of all it was as professional and present as you would expect from a Michelin star restaurant. There are more people looking after your well being than you can imagine – receptionist, host, floor manager, waiter, bus boy, sommelier and probably a few others I forgot about. And everything is taken care of constantly – your glass topped off as soon as you take a sip, your napkin replaced as soon as you leave the table and your satisfaction with the food checked and double checked. While this is to be expected, I also found the service very friendly and with a good sense of humor, which nicely loosed up the formal atmosphere!

The food was absolutely amazing. I was most impressed by the consistency of the elaborate dishes. It’s really unbelievable how each and every of these complex compositions looks and tastes exactly the same!

restaurant la rive amsterdam - amuses

As is often the case, the amuses were the highlight! So unexpected and just a little crazy. And so fun to try and experience the daring flavors and textures.

The menu was set although La Rive was happy to serve a vegetarian version or accommodate any other dietary requirements. For the carnivorous foodie there was an excellent Wagyu tartar for starters, garnished with mushrooms and paté. Next was cod with ox tail and red cabbage. I thought this worked really well as the ox tail and cabbage supported the cod really well and subtly contrasted its flavors rather than being overpowering. The main was roasted duck with Jabugo ham.

We were a little underwhelmed by the dessert, a mixed platter with mille-feuille, praline, and anise sorbet. It seemed slightly ordinary and was missing something to tie it together.

Overall the lunch was incredibly well executed. The quality of the ingredients was superb, the consistency of the dishes amazing and the service and decor impeccable. As with other Michelin restaurants, we did feel like we were missing the fun. Maybe we need to grow up, but for now we would be happy with a more daring and innovative menu and a more personal and less formal ambiance.