Cantine de Caron — Restaurant in Amsterdam

Overall experience was 3 out of 5

Starters and sides: 3 / 5 Main: 3 / 5 Oysters: 5 / 5 Dessert: 4 / 5 Wine: 5 / 5 Service and staff: 1 / 5

For starters, we tried the ceviche, the beef tartar and the roasted leek. They were all good but very average. I’ve had better tartar and the leek was very “okay”. Each were about €13 to €15 I think. For main dishes, we tried the chicken (poussin €25) and the courgette flower (€23). The chicken was absolutely amazing. Portion was good and while the chicken itself was a bit dry, the sauce and the mash made a nice balance and the flavor was amazing. The courgette flower however was a total disappointment. Basically a can of beans, too much beans. And the beans were also hard and undercooked. When we told our waitress about it, she said they’re supposed to be undercooked. This dish was a waste of money. We also had a side of fries that was pretty dry because it was too fried. A table of 4 shared one portion of fries and half of it was untouched. That gotta tell you they were not good.

On to the dessert, the profiterole was a showstopper. It was the best thing from the night. The cheese was also good but didn’t match the price. In better restaurants you pay the same price and you get a more interesting selection of cheese and nuts and fruit. We also tried oysters and they were very fresh and light and delightful.

Lastly, the service and the staff. The place is cute and aesthetic. But the it felt like the waiting staff were a group of untrained students that hate life! Our first waitress took so long to take out orders even though we called her many times and made many eye contacts. She totally ignored us and she was so sour when she was talking to us. Then I think her shift changes and the second waitress was better. There was also a big gap between the starters and the main course. We paid about €90 each but there wasn’t even complementary breads or free water on the table. We had to pay for the water as well text to the bottles of wines...

Excellent food, outstanding service. I wish I knew the name of our waiter, but then again, really everyone was so attentive. We were a group of 6, with demanding wine requests 😊 First of all. The location is awesome. It’s a pop-up venue in The Machinegebouw at the Westergasfabriek. At first I thought the building would be too big to do this cuisine justice, but it’s perfect. Now the food. Bread at the table and butter, excellent. They made sure we had enough without asking for it. Starter, we had: TOMATENSALADE met Brillat Savarinkaas, 10 jaar oude balsamico en olijf - Awesome and very tasty. We could’ve done with a bit more cheese. HARDER TARTAAR met venkelsalade, dragonmayonaise en ansjovis - Outstanding. Delish. Portionwise it was perfect. LANGOUSTINE BISQUE met zeebaars en Hollandse garnalen - also awesome. Tasty, good portion. One person in our group had, GEGRILDE BROCCOLI MET ORZO met reypenaerkaas, citroen vinaigrette, knoflookcrème en eikenbladsla - apparently that was good, we take his word for it. The majority of the table had, POUSSIN met sauce vert, kippenjus, gefrituurde aardappelen en eikenbladsla. - This deserves a standing ovation. Bravooooo. The simplicity of the poussin, simply WOW. We started eating with knife and fork but soon switched to using our hands as to make sure we got every piece of meat. Yum!! The potatoes were the other star of this show. Magnifique!!!!! Wow wow wow. The crispness of those potatoes, mouth watering. Truly sensational. For dessert, I think we sampled pretty much all of them. All good, all tasty, all worth it, even if you’re a bit full. Just go for it. An Espresso martini to top it all off will made us all long for that next visit, can’t wait. Highly(!) recommend Cantine de Caron. Bravo chefs and...

The park-side location is fantastic, but getting there via public transportation is a hassle—expect a long walk, sometimes in the dark.

Stepping inside, the dimly lit, cavernous industrial space feels like a welcome refuge. With our reservations in place, we were swiftly led to a table along the far wall, offering a somewhat oblique view of the kitchen. We didn’t mind—it felt private.

We opted for the €45 prix fixe and added a side of roasted root vegetables, which surprisingly turned out to be the standout dish of the night. The mackerel appetizer was fresh and well-executed, while the beef tartare struck a nice balance in seasoning. The weever filet was both visually striking and intriguingly minimalist. The only misstep was the beef bavette, which came out far too rare for a requested medium rare—something must have been lost in translation. Desserts were pleasant but unremarkable, except for the profiterole, which was shockingly oversized.

Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable dinner, made even better by the warm,...