Café Carbòn — Restaurant in Amsterdam

I made a reservation and was initially seated at a high top table with the promise that I would be moved to a regular table once one became available. We noticed an empty table and asked if we could switch, as my feet were uncomfortable dangling from the high chair and the table was too small for our food. However, we were told that we had to wait for the next available table as new guests had a priority.

Another table became vacant, but we were informed that other guests who had arrived before us were being seated there instead. I felt particularly disappointed when a table of three, who arrived a lot later than us and had been seated at a larger high top, got to switch to a more comfortable table halfway through our meal as soon as another guest left.

Although there was a young waitress who was very sweet and apologised for the issue when I brought it up, I left feeling quite dissatisfied due to the uncomfortable seating and a lack of attentiveness in service.

The meal was priced at around 35 euros per person and it is worth noting than mains do not come with sides and they do not serve tap water. While the food was alright—the tartare tasted distinctly like ossenworst, minced and sausage-like, which was not what I expected—the rack of ribs and lamb rack were...

The meat, oh dear god the meat!

As a confirmed carnivorous entity I found Café Carbon fulfilled all my animal protein requirements. Steak and beer, such a simple combination. And when done well as was the case here its a devine one.

Café Carbon sits in "the pipe", a traditionally working class area that is joining the ranks of urban gentrification. Attractive young people that zip around on bicycles and motor scooters need their protein as well and naturally the environment needs to have just the right mix of industrial cool. Café Carbon ticks that box. The staff all seem to be unusually attractive and yet are friendly and attentive. To be fair that kind of describes nearly everyone under the age of 30 I meet in Amsterdam. Must be something in the water. But the food! The food is really really good here. The mixed starters with those dutch balls of deep fried tasty stuff (sorry but my dutch vocab lacks the word) and the small chucken nibble things slid down the gullet chased by a Heineken with little resistance. The ribs that my mate had and my sirloin steak, cooked perfectly to specification, were both scrumptious. The Steak fries and ridiculously yummy ceaaer salad rounded off a fabulous meal.

Café Carbon. ...

Super cute place, and I was looking forward to check out the steaks here. We made a reservation for a group of 7, unfortunately, one person got sick, which I mentioned upon arrival.

Later on the staff complaint, and mentioned that they could have used the space for another group then.

The food quality seems to be alright - The rips were a bit dry, and did not get off the bone as I would have expected, but tasted good. Unfortunately, out of two Côte de Boeuf, one ordered medium, arrived very rare, the other ordered medium arrived almost well done. I would have complaint but after the plates were on the table we did not see the waiter anymore for a while.

Which brings me to my next point: I am quite sure they wanted to get rid of us fast, and over our visit we were able to order twice drinks, as we were in a separate room, this was quite annoying.

That all paired with higher end prices made a rather negative impression and we paid and left right away, once food...