Happy Italy Amsterdam — Restaurant in Amsterdam

Horrible Experience - Avoid This Place

I went to Happy Italy Amsterdam RAI with friends to celebrate my birthday, and it was an absolute disaster from start to finish.

First, we were told there would be a 10-minute wait, but it ended up being 20-30 minutes. To make matters worse, they seated people who arrived after us before us. When we finally got to order, my friends’ food came out first, but mine took another 10-15 minutes. My friends didn’t want to eat without me, so my birthday dinner started awkwardly late.

The staff’s attitude was shockingly rude. Every time we asked a question, they responded in a cold, dismissive tone like they didn’t want to help us at all. At one point, a friend went to the restroom and found there was no toilet paper. When she asked for some, she was met with the same unhelpful, borderline hostile attitude.

When my food finally arrived, another issue came up. My friend, who cannot eat meat, ordered a seafood pasta, but it came with chicken in it. On top of that, when we asked to take our leftovers home, they gave us giant, impractical boxes, while we noticed other tables received normal-sized ones.

Then came the worst part: the chair I was sitting on broke while we were taking pictures. I hit my head hard on the table behind me, and the staff didn’t even bother to check if I was okay. They just said, “It’s okay,” took the chair, and left. Their excuse? The chair was old. Instead of showing concern, they told me I wouldn’t be charged for the chair—as if that was the issue!

To top it all off, we all felt sick after eating the food. It felt like the workers didn’t want us there, even though we were polite and respectful throughout.

I work as a waitress myself, so I know how customers should be treated, and this was completely unacceptable. This was by far the worst restaurant experience I’ve ever had. I would never recommend this...

Happy Italy has some pizzas for a very good price. You'll pay 5-9 euros depending on the pizza, and it's decent. Some of the pizzas are a disappointment, like the four cheese which is just a thick cheese pizza with little flavour. Don't get any pastas, they're pretty bad. Spaghetti Carbonara is basically a soup with hard pieces of ham, instead of a thick creamy pasta.

They're pretty fast to bring the food to the table.... once you've ordered. If it's busy, it might take a while before you get to order.

Generally, the staff is friendly.

Unfortunately we did have what seemed like a bit of a racist experience with one of the bosses or managers of the place. We had asked to split the bill, and the waitress started splitting the bill for us. As one of my Sikh (religious guy with a turban) friends started paying, this guy with a "boss" shirt goes up to him and starts getting angry at him for splitting the bill, saying "this is the last time you'll split the bill, alright!?" in a very angry tone. Interesting thing was that my friend wasn't the one who had asked to split the bill, and it was his first time eating there. Dude seemed like a bit of a douchebag, and got a racist vibe off of it. A later visit I noticed that they now only let you split the bill in half, and they only accept pin as payment. I understand this is for efficiency, but don't start getting mad at your customers because you didn't make that clear to them. They also advertise that paying with pin is "for your safety" which is obviously utter horseshit, just be honest and say it's because it's much faster than paying by cash.

Apparently this is a restaurant where they don't want you to go Dutch when it comes to payments, even though this is the Netherlands.

Its very meh, I'll only go here...

While on a recent business trip to Amsterdam this restaurant was recommended by the folks at the front desk of the hotel. It was just across the street so convenience was a big factor.

We visited this place two of the three nights we stayed at the hotel. On the first visit we ordered salads, pasta, and desserts. On the second visit it was antipasti and pizza.

The salads were tasty and generous in portion size. The pasta portion was also quite generous but what it had going for it in portion size it was lacking in flavor. The noodles were over cooked and they were swimming in a bland cream style sauce. One of the dishes was so salty we sent it back and the waitress cheerfully brought a fresh plate. She definitely turned a bad situation around and we decided to give the place another try the following evening after seeing the pizza being served.

I’m glad we came back and tried the pizza. Our server from the night before remembered us and greeted us warmly. She made some recommendations pointing out her favorite pizzas and they were quite tasty.

This place mainly rates 4 stars because of the service. I definitely recommend the pizza over the pasta. Salads are fresh and generous and the antipasti is also...