Gitane — Restaurant in Amsterdam

I'll say upfront the food and atmosphere was fairly good.

However, we felt pretty ripped off when we were asked if we wanted still or sparkling, said "tap, please", and then were charged 5.50 EUR for water anyways.

Firstly, in Amsterdam, if someone specifies "tap water", my understanding is that the water is free. If that isn't the case, the wait staff should specify that upfront (which they did not).

Secondly, after ordering a lunch item and a separate beverage per person (which was already 75+ EUR for what I would consider a pretty simple lunch for 4 people), charging for tap water is just nickel-and-diming your customers. The waitress even specified when she came with the check that she "only" charged us for two waters even though there were four of us, as if she was doing us a big favor - which annoyed me even more. Like... thanks, I guess? It's outrageous that Gitane is charging 2.75 EUR per head for tap water - the waitress' unprompted comment suggests that she thought it was ridiculous, too (although not ridiculous enough to mention upfront).

Thirdly, it makes customers feel like a bunch of cheapskates. I spent a couple seconds debating whether to ask for the charge to be reversed, but I decided not to as my girlfriend and I were showing some out-of-town guests around and I couldn't be bothered to spoil the mood over a couple Euros.

I didn't bat an eye at paying 6 EUR for a couple slices of bread to accompany my steak tartare at this same lunch (who serves tartare without bread or crostini, anyways? Another thing the wait staff should have mentioned upfront - I'm beginning to sense a pattern), but this 5.50 EUR tap water situation just annoyed me. My annoyance is less about the money and more about the dishonesty.

There are too many great restaurants in Amsterdam and Gitane is far from good enough to justify such an irritating experience over something as trivial as tap water.

EDIT: looking through the other reviews, it seems multiple people have had similar experiences with getting charged when specifiying tap water. Each of them are fed the same copy-paste response from the restaurant about how free uncooled tap water is available - if that's the case, one has to wonder why none of us received it? 🤔

Pretty clear that the restaurant is trying to make a quick, lazy buck off people's confusion regarding the water situation - if they were honest about there being free tap water, you would imagine there wouldn't be so many people in the reviews talking about getting charged for tap water since you would imagine this is a pretty easy...

I truly had one of the worst dining experiences I have ever had last Saturday. We were a group of three celebrating a birthday and were excited to eat here. Immediately upon entering, we were sat at a tiny table that was only suitable for two people. The host spilled water on our table, the completely wrong starter dishes came out, our drinks didn't arrive until after the dishes came out, and after the correct ones did, we then waited over an hour on the rest of our food. During this hour and fifteen minute period, nobody cleared our table, nobody asked us if we wanted more drinks, and furthermore, on two occasions we were asked if we wanted desserts, even though we had said many times we were waiting on food. Eventually, the wait was so long we asked for the bill because we had to leave, and then the steak that my brother ordered arrived (which was comped) alongside one portion of fries, when we had ordered two. He said the steak was cold, chewy and inedible. There were so many different service staff that dealt with our table so I don't think anyone had an idea of what was happening, and the couple next to us were having similar issues; they were waiting over 45 minutes just for drinks, let alone food. It was such a disappointing night because we were looking forward to celebrating a birthday and being on our holidays, and it was a real disaster. The staff member that dealt with us at the end seemed to be the only one who was apologetic and understanding of our situation. The food we did have (except for the steak) was nice, but it was such a disappointing night all...

Gitane was on my list of restaurants to visit for quiet some time and I was very excited to go to this buzzing location.

unfortunately service was so bad throughout the night, we left very disappointed. I think they have a problem with the was they are working, because the servers were constantly lost and confused despite (seemingly) not understaffed.

first, while waiting to be seated, despite seeing me, location manager catered 2 other groups that came after me, which was frustrating but not a major issue.

then after sitting 10 mins (havent had even got the menus) a server put two plates of of mains in front of us, an obvious mistake. then she had to pick them up in front us, and take it to another table (while not touched, it's not the best)

then our starters came which were nice.

after the starters, we waited for our mains for 1 hour (our allocated timeslot was 1 hour 45 mins on reservation.) in the meantime, we reminded we were missing starters 3 times, and for the 2 of them the questions "what had you ordered" instead of checking the system. when the mains came out, it was already after our allocated timeslot, so we didnt even feel like the pressure of having a dessert or a coffee rushed.

of the 4 dishes we had, we really liked one (the goat meat), two were nice (leak and stake tartare), and one was very bad (the eggplant- the quality of the eggplant was so bad (full of seeds) it had a bitter taste).

for such a cool, nice location, it was just disappointing. I hope they fix their system so they...