We walked through a heavily wooded area of Amsterdam's iconic Vondelpark to reach this light-filled gem of a restaurant on the green edges. There's a tiny old orange Fiat nestled in the border garden, and just outside the door, a mature koi pond with some fun surprises. You haven't even walked in the door and already so many small pleasures have been delivered.
The Venice-inspired restaurant and bar are part of the Park Plaza boutique hotel. There are cozy dark areas in the bar and the restaurant is lined with windows looking directly onto the park.
Our reservations were for 5:30pm to accommodate my 2 year old granddaughter, which pretty much guaranteed exceptional service. We were the only customers in the house for the first 40 minutes. Yay! Recommended.
In addition to the standard issue high chairs, they offered our little girl a sweet bamboo place setting featuring rainbows, which made her feel very special. I'd never seen this done before.
Careful consideration has been given to so many details at this relatively new restaurant, making the experience quite special and memorable for us.
It was a warm day, so Aperol Spritz refreshed us. The serving of a barrel-aged Negroni became an event, poured directly from the barrel at the table.
Our appetizers:
- Red Sicilian prawns - Yes!
- Black angus tartare - Yes
- Homemade focaccia - Yes
- Burrata - Yes
- A selection of Italian cured meats - Amazing!
Main course:
- Cacio e pepe, served table side from a Parmesan wheel - This consisted of two smallish twirls of linguine. My complaint has nothing to do with the portion size but with the flavor. Sorry. I've had better, much better, and extraordinarily better.
- Green salad - Yum.
Dessert:
- Tiramisu - Fine
Chardonnay Lafoa Colterenzio 2019 - Hurray!
I'd go again... early. The restaurant was jam packed by the time we left, and there's no way the servers could have delivered the same level of service we'd just received. I'd also order tons of appetizers and simply skip the cacio e pepe. read more