De Blauwe Hollander — Restaurant in Amsterdam

Saw this on google and the reviews were nice, wanted to try some Dutch cuisine. Walked in today as it wasn’t as busy, the place looked nice and there was a table with some British people inside that seemed to be on a tour. (They were finishing up) We got a seat inside for 3, and sat close to the window to the front. It took us at least 7 minutes from the moment we sat down to receive the menus, at this time the table of 8 had finished and wrapped up their bill.

It took them another 7 minutes, to take our order and another 20-25 minutes to receive our food. Please note that when we sat down we didn’t get any water for the table.

We got our food, we ordered the pork fillet, pea soup and the Dutch beefsteak. Pork fillet was tough, salad was visibly old (you could see it wilted) fries that came with both this and the beefsteak were over fried. It was like potato chips.. the creamy peppercorn sauce and gravy were good. Pea soup was thick and I wouldn’t call it a soup .. more like a pudding consistency (thick).

Whilst waiting for our food another 4 persons came in and was directed to the table next to ours at the front window. As they sat, instantly received menus and water for the table. This was very noticeable as at this time, it was only us and three other tables inside.

Not sure if the service is not the same across for all customers but it felt uncomfortable. I was going to stay for dessert but unfortunately cut this short because of this service. Been to another place nearby and the service was completely...

Looked forward to dining here given the reviews. We rearranged our schedule to make a reservation that was available. A lot of effort for an experience I wish I could have avoided: the host was quite rude with our first encounter. We felt that we were inconveniencing her when we asked for a table by showing her the reservation. It was like she was doing us a favor by allowing us to sit at a table. She pointed to two tables and said thats it. Either of these two. -We chose one but was very uncomfortable given tone and manner. Looking back at the experience we should have just left at this point. -Soon after we were seated, another couple arrive and was offered a larger window seat that was not provided as an option for us. No explanation to us as to why it wasn’t an option for us and I am hesitant to interpret her action here. -Half of the restaurant seems to be in the ‘lobby’. The host area is in the middle of the restaurant and groups of people come in seeking out a table to be turned away if they do not have a reservation. So, there is a continuing influx of people coming in and going out of the restaurant the whole time youre eating right next to them. Not conducive to a relaxing meal (at least for us). -the food was fine, but having eaten at 4 other dutch-centric restaurants nothing was particularly all that outstanding to warrant anyone to go out of their way to come here. Just the facts of our experience for you to decide if it’s worth your effort to ‘snag’ a...

I've been waiting a while to write this review, until I had enough time to write it properly.

The food and restaurant itself were very good and a very nice experience for us to try out real Dutch food. But what really makes this restaurant stand out is the people and the service. For our visit, it wasn't just about serving food but really taking care of guests.

Long story short, my wife had a bad reaction to space cake taken earlier in the day right in the middle of dinner. The waiter there (unfortunately I forget him name, but will never forget his kindness) immediately came to attend to us and gave us some water and a coke to get her back to feeling better. Despite it being quite busy during that dinner service, he helped make sure my wife was alright and able to stand and then helped make a spot outside for her to get fresh air before we left for home.

I also want to mention and thank the very nice French family who also helped us during this unexpected and a bit scary situation as well as the American couple on the other side of our table to also very caringly helped to make sure my wife was alright, which was an interruption to their dinner. All in all, we happened to be very lucky in that so many people cared and helped out, making what could have been a bad situation much less worse.

It's for these reasons I would highly recommend giving them a try. Their food is great of course, but the people are even better...