Carletto - Italian Osteria — Restaurant in Amsterdam

Well, to start with everything, my partner chose this place for a date since it was my first time in Amsterdam and I love Italian food :). The reception was really nice—they greeted us warmly and sent us off to our table with one of the waiters. We were sat next to the oven, which I wasn’t too keen on, but hey unique experience and atmosphere!

The person serving us was trying to be friendly at the very beginning, but as time went on, they kept being rude and rather unfriendly. But well, anyone might have a bad day, right? Wrong. She was being rude only to us-picking up the dishes without asking and snatching them off the table. Personally, I wouldn’t have minded if it was just her doing her job, but this kind of behavior was only happening at our table, not the one next to us. (The other server with glasses and wavy hair was really kind and cool tho. just this one person didn’t like us, apparently.)

As for the food, I ordered the bolognese and my partner the carbonara. Both tasted good—hot and tasty. The tiramisu? It tasted amazing, but the portion didn’t match the price. BUT given how good it was, you can kind of feel okay about paying 11€ for a teacup of tiramisu.

Overall, the food was good. If I were to compare this restaurant to another high end restaurant, I’d say you can eat more there for the same cost BUT you should keep in mind that everything here is homemade. At least, according to the menu.

Won’t visit again because of the bitter taste the waitress left in our mouth, but I do recommend...

Went for a dinner for 2 on a Saturday evening. The place was small but the restaurant was fairly cozy.

I'll try to rate the meals from 1-5. We first started with 2 starters: burrata and carpaccio. Burrata: 3/5 -- the burrata itself was nice. Cherry tomatoes were present. However they said "zucchini chips" on the menu and we were served with wilted zucchini... Carpaccio -- 4/5 -- I'll be quite generous with this one. It was actually quite alright.

Then we ordered some pastas: Carletto pasta: 2/5 -- super underwhelming. For a pasta that's named after the restaurant, I was very disappointed. The sauce was bland and the topping of "raw mushrooms" was so off-putting. I had to ask for lots of parmesan to make it decent. Vongole: I'm not even going to rate this because they served us the wrong pasta without having informed us previously. It's supposed to be with spaghetti, however they gave us gnocchi.. I asked them why and it's because they were out of spaghetti... well, they should've informed us then :/ honestly the taste was not even on par with what we'd expected so we asked for a swap. Bolognese: 4/5 -- so they kindly offered to replace the pasta with bolognese. This was... ok. Could have used more meat sauce honestly.

At least the pasta was cooked al dente.

Overall, nice ambience and friendly service BUT sneaky. I had to ask for the returned vongole pasta to be taken off the receipt. Don't think I'll come back.

PS. Sorry I didn't take pics of the pastas because I was just...

We visited Carletto Amsterdam for a Valentine’s date and had a mixed experience. Getting there by car is quite difficult due to the bumpy road and lack of parking. However, once inside, the restaurant looks cozy with an open kitchen concept.

Service was quick, which makes sense given the 90-minute time slot. However, the place was quite cold, and so was the food. We noticed that the microwave was used frequently, even for my Parmigiana di Melanzane, which didn’t taste great and got cold quickly—maybe better to reheat in the oven? My wife had the Carletto pasta, which was good but could have been better. We started with a bruschetta, but it was overly salty, and for dessert, we had a small tiramisu, which was fine.

I originally wanted to order a pizza, but the chef wasn’t there, so no pizza was available, which was disappointing.

The experience didn’t match the “upper-class” feel I expected, especially considering the €30 reservation cost. The restaurant was cold, the waiters wore t-shirts, and microwaved food doesn’t align with a premium dining experience. If the microwave has to be used, maybe consider moving it to the back instead of having it in plain sight?

This wasn’t my first time here. Previously, we had a reservation for seven but arrived with eight. The manager wasn’t accommodating, so I left.

I see the owner responding to all negative reviews, which I respect—it’s good to engage with customers. However, honest feedback is valuable for improvement....