Gertrude Rest. & Bar — Restaurant in Amsterdam

My husband booked this place upon the recommendation of friends for my birthday. We had an added member to our party last minute whom we asked the restaurant to accommodate but unfortunately they were unable to due to the limited space outside. This was understandable and a couple of the party went to the restaurant opposite which was probably the better decision. Of course we would have preferred to keep our party together but we were told we would lose our 90 euro deposit.

There were numerous times we were treated unpleasantly by our waiter. Without even mentioning the delays in ordering food, the service was slow and very passive aggressive. My cousin was told to move his chair away from the table next to him to make the other table’s experience more pleasant, as we were imposing on their space. When we asked for bread and olive, we were rudely told that all they do is butter there. Again, nothing we would be upset over, but the way we were told was surprising. When we asked for the card machine with the bill, so as to make our experience more efficient, the waiter looked at us with a smirk and swore under his breath, but loudly enough for us to hear.

We only encountered two waiters, one of whom was lovely when serving the food. The first and main waiter made us feel incredibly uncomfortable from the get-go, which is why we only decided to order a few dishes and leave. It was obvious we were not eating much and the waiter kept referring to the meal as being very short, as if we were in the wrong. When you are paying for high end dining, it is unacceptable.

This was upsetting especially as it was my birthday meal. If you are paying such high prices for a restaurant, I would expect far far more. I have never had such an experience at a restaurant, which is a real shame given the good reviews it has.

I would not recommend this place at all - if the way the food is delivered is appalling, then the quality of the food is irrelevant and one is left with a bad taste in the mouth. Don’t come here - the service is rude and the food average, especially...

Gertrude came highly recommend but unfortunately our experience was a 5/10. We had the chefs menu which was 60 p/p for five courses which seemed like good value but wasn’t when two of the five weren’t good.

They were able to seat us in the terrace although it was very busy and able to accommodate a fish allergy which was good. However, the food was so slow, between the first and second course we had to wait 30 minutes and in general between the courses we kept thinking when is the next course going to arrive. I don’t think it was the servers as opposed to the kitchen being slow. Though I did feel bad for the servers, there were only three of them and they seemed stretched thin.

The food quality was hit and miss. The first course of fish was simply not good, it wasn’t cohesive and the sauce was very sweet. The fish cake which came as a side addition was nothing special. The non-fish starter was definitely the best dish of the entire meal being the white asparagus and oxtail - was a definite standout and would recommend. The second and third dishes were solid and tasty. The main of steak was delicious but the main of asparagus felt so disconnected and was composed more like a start as opposed to a main dish. I would recommend the steak but not the asparagus. Finally, the dessert was an absolute miss and finished the meal off on a bad note. It was some scone with a magnolia sorbet and milk extracted from asparagus - it tasted much like a herbaceous soup and was not satisfying. The scone had the oddest consistency and again the whole dessert just felt a bit chaotic and simply it did not taste good. Also the server at the being of the night had told us that the strawberry dessert was ok the chefs menu but it wasn’t what we received.

I would like to belief that it was just an off night given how highly recommended the restaurant but I felt that for a €120 dinner for two ppl it simply wasn’t worth it and wasn’t a great experience. If going to eat, I would advise staying away from the set menu and...

We don’t recommend visiting this place. We paid 150€ for 2 persons. The price does not match the quality and it’s not the type of place called a “restaurant”. I’m so sad about the time and money spent here and for the place I chose to celebrate my birthday.

I wanted to visit this place for a long time and I’m so disappointed with the experience I had. There are some problems I and a friend of mine faced:

Awful service. We ordered a sparkling wine for 70€ and nobody from the staff suggested to fill the glasses. So, they put the bottle to the bucket with ice in their bar and we just did it by ourselves.

When you come to the restaurant they firstly give you a bar menu. So, when we asked one waitress for the food menu, she just walked past and told us that she had other stuff to do.

After the dinner, we asked another waitress for some desserts. A friend of mine asked her about cheesecake or something similar and the waitress answered rudely “We are not this kind of restaurant”.

Desserts were awful. We tried 2 of them: the first one was mostly like 2 balls of ice cream with olive oil above and the second one was just banana bread with syrup.

When we decided to go outside to smoke a cigarette and come back to the restaurant, the staff just cleaned our table and took our bags. The only thing they told us it that we forgot our stuff but we didn’t. So, they poured our glasses of wine down the sink without asking us and apologies. Btw, we paid for the wine 70€! Nobody suggested to us later to fill the glasses for free because we paid for that.

Every time we asked to move to the table the staff answered us so rudely that all tables were booked. So, there was a free table nearby for 2,5 hours but they...