Café Lust! — Restaurant in Amsterdam

There is something in the water in De Pijp (forgive me). Step a block or two off the Ferdinand Bolstraat and you enter neighborhoods of high density housing that are both peaceful and friendly. And on every intersection of these bucolic back streets you find at least one bar if not two, or in this case a bar and a preschool where the kids do yoga and are fed 100% organic food. The point being these really are neighbourhoods in the old fashioned sense of the word. And in that same old fashioned sense of neighbourhood we place Café Lust.

Sitting outside in the afternoon sun with a book, a beer, and bitterballen, Café Lust feels like home. Stay a while and you will see at the table next door a family (mum dad and two delightful kids) having an early meal. Then a young couple clearly dating who you end up talking to because the waitress draws you into a conversation on traveling. Then an old couple having an evening drink, greeting friends and sitting in that comfortable, companionable, affectionate, silence that comes with a matured relationship. And thinking back I can imagine a natural progression, childhood, young love, parenthood, old love, in a wonderful circle with a place like Café Lust as the constant, the warm backdrop to a neighbourhood where people live a life.

I should mention the food. Try the ribs! And of course the bitterballen, The Netherlands answer to what to have with your beer. The staff are wonderful, and the atmosphere charming. Café Lust....

Absolutely horrible. We went for a pub quiz. The quizmaster was an hour late - rude and unprepared. Someone from our group actually proposed they read the questions if the person hired to do this found it so difficult.

They then kicked out our group of 30 people in the rain because there was another group scheduled to arrive. Quizmaster read the results atop the terrace benches as people were standing in the rain!!!

Said the'd give "a bottle of prosecco" to all seven teams to say sorry, but the only had four left! Inexcusably poor service.

I would never step into this...

Probably the worst cheeseburger I've ever had. The meat was substandard, stale lettuce, tasteless tomato accompanied by 3 round tortilla chips?! What purpose they served, I have no clue- a strange garnish maybe?? The fries came 10 minutes later. Nothing special, straight out of a packet.

If you're going to charge 16 euros for a hamburger, it better be special.

Suggestion. The cook should never smash the bun down with the spatula. In the end it resembled a 'pannekoek'. Visually unappealing and tasteless.

The service was...