De groene olifant — Restaurant in Amsterdam

Unfortunately, I had quite a bad experience with this etablissement. I went there a few nights ago for dinner with my friend. First, it took quite some time to get the menu and drinks, but that wasn’t a real problem for us. I ordered a cheeseburger. Once the cheeseburger arrived, I took two bites and something was wrong. I sliced the cheeseburger in half and I saw that it was completely red and raw inside. I am pregnant, and it is fine to eat medium rare, but this was just completely undercooked. Since no waiters were walking around (which seems to be the status quo for this restaurant), I decided to go down with my plate. I explained that the meat was really raw and that I cannot eat that during my pregnancy. She said ‘that is just how we make them, but if you insist, we can overcook it’. I said, well, if they are supposed to be this red, I cannot eat it, and also the idea of overcooking it does not appeal to me. I said nevermind, and that I would just order some bread with garlic butter instead and that she could take the burger (which she did). It took another 15 min to order the bread, and the bread itself was also not that appealing, but okay. At the end of the night, we asked the check and they had still put the burger on there. I said to the waitress that I ‘returned’ the burger and ahead said she would check it. It took her 15-20 min to come back, because apparently she had a discussion with her shiftmanager on the burger. She said I was lucky and that she managed to get 50% off for me. I said that that was quite weird, since I did not eat te burger and they did not specify in the menu or with the ordering that the burger only comes cooked raw. She then said that I did eat those initial two bites on which I replied that those initial bites where what made me slice the burger to see if the meat was undercooked in the first place. Then she said that since I am the one that is pregnant, it is my responsibility to ask how raw the meat is. I replied that I assumed, since nobody asked me how I would like the burger that the default would be medium rare and not rare as in almost like tartare. She said she would report back the feedback, but that this was all she could do for me. I was baffled. Like, I did not think it the most effective business decision, to let me still pay €9,95 for a burger I did not eat. Like, it is €9,95, but you let your waiters miss out on tip over the whole check and the fact that I will never return or will recommend this place to anyone and put a negative review online. Well, I hope it was worth it. As I stated: will never return to this...

I strongly urge this establishment to invest in proper training for their staff on racial prejudice. Last night, while I was having drinks on the terrace, a white, blond Dutch waiter singled me out, approaching me directly to accuse me of smoking weed—something that isn’t allowed on their premises. As a non-smoker, and one of the few people on the terrace who wasn’t smoking, I found this accusation strange. Of course, I was the only non-white in the terrace at that moment. The actual person smoking weed was a white individual, whom the waiter didn’t even seem to notice, but he actually had to come up and tell her.

After discussing this with friends—whom arent white or Dutch—it became clear that this wasn’t an isolated incident. Many of them have experienced similarly biased treatment from the staff. While the service here may generally be fine, their staff clearly lacks the necessary training to treat people with equal respect, regardless of their race.

More people need to speak out and hold them accountable for this...

It’s very nice and cozy inside!

Unfortunately, despite booking a table inside, there was a huge birthday party and we had to move outside as soon as we finished eating.

But everyone outside was smoking like crazy all around us, and it was very cold despite the outdoor heaters, so we ended up leaving as it wasn’t nice.

There aren’t many options for food, it’s mostly a place to go for a beer. We had the artichoke as the started and it was served cold, perhaps on purpose. For mains, me and my friend had the bavette, and 2 other friends had the veggie burger - they were all ok, but we agreed that the best of both dishes was the potatoes!

Dessert really disappointed, I do not recommend it - we ordered the pana cotta and the cheesecake. Both...