Bennies — Restaurant in Amsterdam

Bennies was highly recommended by local food guides, so we arrived with genuine enthusiasm. The place looked inviting with a pleasant atmosphere.

We were greeted by a waiter who seemed to be having a quieter day than our excited selves. It took about 10 minutes to receive the drinks menu, which came with Dutch communication despite our English introduction. Twenty minutes later, our server returned for drink orders – still in Dutch. We requested a food menu, which arrived after another 20-minute wait. While the tables that came after us were already served with the snacks.

A full 50 minutes after arrival, we finally placed our food order. The mussels had an unusual flavor profile that wasn't quite to our taste, and the tartar carried a slight bitterness. The fries and bread were perfectly fine though, and the cheesecake was delicious.

At almost 20 euros for a modest portion of mussels, the value didn't quite align with our expectations.

The open kitchen concept, while trendy, creates an interesting mix of cooking aromas and cleaning products that might benefit from improved ventilation.

The place clearly has potential and some stellar offerings like that cheesecake, but our particular visit had a few timing and...

i don’t understand the hype of this place or we were just very unlucky. the food was kinda mid, wasnt bad but wasnt impressive. overall it was overpriced considering the embarrassingly small portion and the quality: the fried chicken was overly burnt and the batter was very hard so the meat inside was very dry; the grilled bimis (which i did not take a photo of) where also overcooked that they were so black. the star of the show was the cherry cheese cake: it was only salty 😂 we were so shocked i thought they had mistakenly put salt instead of sugar. when we told the waitress as a feedback she replied “oh really, you guys were the first ones that say that, but i will tell the kitchen” …. 😂 so that brings me to the last point, the service was meh. they were not rude but so inattentive, were not helpful with the feedback and pushing responsibilities to each other to serve our table.

the location is not the best but the vibe and the interior was nice, but for the experience we had we will...

Beautiful place. Loved the furniture and the light.

Great wines too.

The food has so much potential but for now it didn't quite cut it. butter: whipped, lemony, delicious baguette: nice but not a baguette, more like a boule tuna carpaccio: rich, zesty, delicious seabass tostadas with dill: not 2 but 1, no visible dill but chives (some dill in the mayo), not much flavor to the seabass, very overpriced fried chicken: 2 well-cooked chunks, but the taste of the tarragon butter and lavender honey wasn't strong enough, and we didn't get any artichokes, very overpriced bbq veggies: green asparagus, nice and crunchy, but barely charred, bbq flavor a bit artificial fries: great, with lovely slightly sour mayonnaise

Also there was not enough water in the teapots for the tea to give off its flavor, as half of the leaves didn't touch the water at all.

We wanted to order the 'frikandel' but didn't when we were told it's not...