Café the Schreiertower — Restaurant in Amsterdam

Schreierstoren is a beautiful venue with a lot of history and a prime location in the center of Amsterdam. With several floors available to rent, it is suitable for small to large parties. I went last weekend for a wedding party, and we had both a bar/dance floor and a calmer seating area in the back, an arrangement which worked out nicely, as older guests could find a space to sit down and rest in between the dancing. We had our own music playlist for the wedding, and were able to control it via a laptop conveniently placed on the bar.

All went well, young and old guests as well as the newlyweds had a wonderful time, up until we had the audacity to play the wrong song.

For context, the bride’s Greek grandmother had arrived as a surprise guest at the wedding. Having never left her own country before, this was quite a big deal. She had prepared her own surprise: a Greek dance performance for the wedding party. With performance, I mean her and a couple of relatives displaying a series of Greek dances on the dance floor.

To start of the surprise, we scheduled the epitome of Greek songs (famous with an international audience): Zorbas! The song started playing, grandma + 2 family members hit the dance floor, but not more than 30 seconds passed until one of the bartenders cut us off with the explanation that Zorbas is the only song that is forbidden to play at the venue. "The lights in the ceiling of the floor below will fall down", she explained.

There are several issues with this explanation, the most obvious being that the bartender had no issues letting us play and dance — en masse — to a variety of other Greek songs throughout the evening. Furthermore, anticipating an 85 year old woman to cause enough trouble to damage the interior a floor below seems exaggerated.

I’m not sure if Schreierstoren actually has a ban on Zorbas, but whether or not this action was caused by the bartender alone or rigorous rules set by the establishment, it is no doubt based on a form of cultural prejudice I would not expect from this venue. The bar staff are in their right to put an end to bad behaviour, but anticipating a stampede-like situation (I’m not entirely sure what they imagined would happen), from a lady with a stature of 1.50 metres, makes little sense to me.

I understand that the venue might have negative experiences with this number in the past. Still, I would encourage the staff not to make prejudiced assumptions based on arbitrary elements such as the song they heard when an incident happened. We were a wedding party, not a fraternity initiation. I would suggest the staff should be permitted to use their good sense of judgement rather than complying with...

Ambiance of the restaurant was very cute, but the issue is with the staff.

When we entered, we asked for a seat in the back room as there was some space available and we preferred to sit in a warmer area. The lady was quick to tell us it’s unavailable and then proceeded to give us a dirty table (we literally saw the couple leave in front of us). We were going to stand and wait for them to clean the table before sitting, but the lady said in a rude tone “You can sit down, we’ll clean it”. Why would we sit when the table is still covered with beer spills, crumbs, and used paper coasters?!

Then my Dad and I went to go use the bathroom, and when we got back the lady was welcoming new guests and greeting them, “Welcome! You can choose to sit in the front or back room”. She let 2 groups go to the back! 1 was a group of 2 and the other was 4! We were a group of 4, and 3mins ago she repeatedly said we weren’t allowed to sit there and ushered us to sit down near the entrance at a DIRTY table.

Now I hate to say it, but I can’t help but feel this was an issue of race. My dad wears a turban and the rest of us are evidently Indian. She essentially dismissed us, didn’t ask if we wanted water when we came, or even consider our seating request. We were so turned off and disappointed so we left.

Hoping no one else has this type of experience going forward, and that this lady in particular learns to be respectful and treat all customers equally...

This visit was totally unintentional but glad it was made because the food and ambiance plus an amazing staff makes a happy tummy!

We came in early afternoon and were really wanting to eat some nice food to start our day in Amsterdam. 🇳🇱

We ordered: the brunch: this comes with 1 toasted bread (option of brown or white) with 2 slices of cheese and a plain croissant along with butter and jam. You can optionally go for ham or bacon for additional €2/- The best part of this one it comes with a small glass of orange and option to choose from coffee or tea. We upgraded our coffee/tea to a Chocomel hot chocolate 3 fried eggs (option of sunny side up or well done) with some salad and could add ham or bacon too for an extra €3 I decided to add extra ham to the brunch and save a euro! 😉 2 slices of ham were good enough for my egg-side.

Additionally we ordered a Lotus pancake with cream - not very fond of Lotus biscoff but the sheer quantity of its crumble made me happy!!

Overall very satisfied and would definitely recommend! 🤤

Slightly expensive but then the views while seated outside in the winter sun overlooking the canal.. it was worth it! ☀️ 👏

PS: the bathroom is 2 floors down the stairs and is at level of the canal waters… even the views from the bathroom...