El Vino — Restaurant in Amsterdam

I really do not recommend this restaurant. I went with friends this weekend, and everything that could go wrong did. First, we made a reservation, but when we arrived, the staff seemed completely disorganized. They asked a couple to vacate their table to accommodate our group, which made me feel uncomfortable as I only realized it after the couple left.

The lack of air circulation made the restaurant uncomfortably cold, and when we asked the waitress about it, she was unresponsive and indifferent, insisting that the door needed to remain open.

The restaurant was overcrowded, with more people than the space could accommodate. We placed our order at 20:40, but due to numerous mistakes, we didn't receive our food until 22:30. The staff seemed incapable of managing orders, often leaving midway through taking them and returning later, leading to further delays and frustration.

To make matters worse, three people in our group who had ordered meat dishes suffered from food poisoning the following day, indicating poor quality meat. Additionally, despite the menu listing 400g portions of meat, what was served appeared to be significantly less, perhaps not even reaching 300g.

I will never return to this restaurant nor recommend it to others. While they attempted to apologize for the inconvenience by offering us ice cream at the end, it does not make up for the overall disappointing experience. Despite its high ratings, my experience did not align with the positive comments, leaving me surprised and...

Was willing to give this place a chance since it had somewhat high reviews.

First, the positive: the owner (?) was very nice and came around with sombreros and took photos of the group. He was cheery and friendly, and apologized for the error which I’ll describe next…

I ordered a margarita as my initial drink and could barely drink it. It was so much sour mixture with little to no alcohol. I would assume that a Mexican restaurant could at least serve a decent margarita…

The fajitas looked good, and they have a few options on the menu: meats, chicken, shrimp, and fish. I specifically asked for the camarones/shrimp and even pointed to it on the menu. All was going fine until the dishes came and I was served the fish option.

I asked the server (younger girl with glasses) and she was adamant and said yes it’s fish, as if it was what I ordered. It seemed that she was using shrimp/fish synonymously and firm on the fact that the order was correct 🤦🏻‍♀️

The owner eventually came by and apologized and offered to make the correct dish, however we already waited so long for the food that I reluctantly ate what I was given.

If your employees can’t tell the difference between fish and shrimp, I don’t think they should be in the restaurant business. I rarely write negative reviews, but this was not a good place for dinner. Hopefully they improve their staff and improve some of the...

The highlight of our visit was my dish, the beef fajitas! Such a flavourful sauce, with the beef tender and vegetables cooked well. The rice lacked flavour, so I pretty much skipped it as the fajitas themselves were plentiful (could have used 4 tortillas instead of 3, as it was more filling than could fit in three). The chicken Chimichanga was ok, but not remarkable. The fail was with the third dish for our party, the Choriqueso. Described on the menu as a “dip” with chorizo, we fully had expectations of a queso/cheese dip with perhaps crumbled chorizo, hopefully served with chips for dipping. No, it was a cooked split sausage with cheese melted on top, served with rice. My fault for not inquiring when it arrived, but the friendly owner seemed preoccupied with repairing something at the back of the restaurant near the bar. The server seemed busy standing and watching him working, causing us to have to wait a considerable time for our bill - we had to go back there to ask for it as she seemed to have stopped appearing out in the restaurant at all. We would still return again, just to give them another chance - he was so nice - and for the fajitas! ☺️

Sept2025 - we did return a year later, and unfortunately the fajitas were not as good. Either the cut of beef or the cook of it left it very tough and chewy - not at all like the first time that we visited...