Very strange experience here - don't think I've ever been offered leftovers at a restaurant. My friend and I landed in Amsterdam late and were looking for a nearby restaurant to quickly grab dinner. We were seated at Pera and started looking at the menu when the manager came by and asked if we liked lamb, which we replied that we did. He grabbed our menus immediately and mentioned that it was already ready since they had a ton of leftovers from Ramadan. We found this a bit disconcerting but went along with it.
When we received the dishes, it seemed very haphazardly thrown together as my friend had a different dish than I did, and two random chicken wings had made it to her plate as well as the lamb. The food itself was fine, which is why I'm allowing two stars. We were also asked about drinks and had to specify TAP water when the waiter tried to bring over bottled (and really kept asking if we wanted tap).
Finally, the experience ended with us having to get cash and pay an ATM fee since they do not take credit card. The manager said the total was 32 euro, which I found strange since I saw the lamb was 13-14 euro on the menu. I mentioned this tidbit to my friend, and the manager suddenly said 30 euro was fine (?). All of these details made it clear to me that the manager was trying to take advantage of us being tourists, which left an extremely bad taste in my mouth. Pera looked to be packed with locals, but I'd avoid if you're visiting and want to be treated equally. read more