Akbar Indian Restaurant — Restaurant in Amsterdam

I have been going to Akbar for more than 30 years but less so in recent years with Covid and not going out as much as I used to be. This was a birthday dinner for one of my daughters and Akbar was chosen as the Butter Chicken at Akbar is their all time favourite meal so both daughters had that and it was as good as they remembered. I had the Lamb Karahi which was excellent. The boyfriend of the birthday girl decided to have the Lamb Vindaloo undeterred by the FOUR pepper spiciness indication on the menu and the owner did explain it was quite spicy when the order was placed. It was VERY spicy and a portion of Raita was needed to quench the spiciness. Chatting to the owners they pointed out that their Vindaloo has always been quite hot because many of the regulars, mostly Brits, like it that way. So this is the place to go if you like your Vindaloo spicy. They also do a Phal that has a spiciness indication of SIX peppers. Many years ago I did try the Phal there (before it was on the menu) and I can confirm it is very, very, very hot and for those brave enough to try it I would recommend putting a toilet roll in the fridge. We also had a range os starters to share between us and lots of beers.

An interesting feature of Akbar is that it is almost impossible to get internet connection on your smartphone. Whether this is good or bad is a moot point. It does mean you chat to each other rather than checking your smartphone. However, my daughter inconveniently had her birthday on the same day that Naples played Ajax in the Champions League so we needed to keep popping out into the street to keep up to date with the score.

Akbar is my favourite Indian restaurant in Amsterdam and I will be going...

Restaurant owners son was constantly checking out my batty which made me feel hot under the collar. I ordered a Vindaloo which was luckily no way near as hot as we have it here in Amrica. Just as well as I was starting to sweat about potentially getting rear ended.

I must say the owners were very friendly towards me even when I was ordering bags full chilli to spice up my Vindaloo.

The restaurant was very dated, it reminded of a run down back street eatery in the west slums of Dhaka. Having said that Dhaka does a cracking Vindaloo.

The restaurant meal is expensive for European standards but I guess that's because a) the exchange rate from taka is not good and b) they have to cover the costs of takeaway packaging also.

The naan was ok but I would have preferred to have eggs rather than yogurt as I come out in an awful rash in the nether regions.

I fancied a lemonade but the waiter did look at me funny when I told him as long as it's not sprite as it messes with my waterworks something rotten.

Before I visited the restaurant I attended a yoga calming session at the local gym, just to ensure my karma was in a good place as Sanjay the son is able to pick up on negative energy customers.

Having said all this I think the customers make the restaurant a great atmosphere with lots of honest and trustworthy punters.

I would eat here again should I be on a night out in Amsterdam after downing a barrel load of beer as the location is fantastic for stumbling in from the Leidseplein when tipsy and of course Sanjay makes you feal warm...

Bad people, malicious nature. They send us out at 9.20 pm in the evening saying that all items are finished when they were serving other customers as we didn’t opt to drink.

I am sure that they aren’t serving Halal food which they claim as they got angry with our query about the name of the restaurant.

Unhappy with their behavior and wrong attitude. Don’t recommend for anyone

After the response from the owner

There were two staffs, one was the old man and another young man. The young man was polite and told us quite humbly to find another restaurant however it can't be right that even bread was also not available at that time. It was clear that they weren't ready to serve by all means. My unhappiness was about the old man who passed all the...