John Dory — Restaurant in Amsterdam

After reading about it, John Dory became a destination location for dinner during our trip to Amsterdam. Simple and tasteful décor was featured in the second-floor dining room, which was reached by a wide spiral staircase from the ground floor entryway and glass-windowed kitchen. The maître de greeted us and took our coats and umbrella before inviting us upstairs where we were seated in the center of the small, yet spacious-feeling, dining room. Classic French service, beautiful wine glasses and exquisite plating only served to enhance the creative and delicious food, served course-by-course at a leisurely pace. Each dish was explained in the language of the diner, with an obvious emphasis on seasonal and local food. Each course took common, simple ingredients, prepared with care and presented in unique and fresh style to make the sum better than its parts. Fresh cutlery carefully placed for each new round of the 4, 5, or 6 course meals, plus an interval to digest, made the meal even more enjoyable. While wine pairings were not set, a full wine menu and careful suggestions from the wait staff yielded a delicate balance of food and wine. The finale, dessert, a choice of sweet, savory, or a delectable 5 cheese plate, was followed by coffee and yet another sweet treat of a macaron and a handmade chocolate. This bill was less than my original guess and well worth every euro. A meal to remember forever - 5 stars...

All of excitement, fascination, creativity -- AND one big disappointment --packed into one dinner.

We had a four course menu of which 3 out of 4 courses plus one surprise were fantastic. The flavors put together by the chefs harmonized in new ways and it was a joy to wait for the next course. For example, there was a course involving a "Thai curry", which turned out only as the foam of a curry flavoring the whole dish in a remarkable fashion.

Then came, however, the big disappointment in the third course. There was a breaded flat fish which was over-fried in oil with some deep fried octopus rings which were among the most chewy ones I've ever had. My local fried-fish-to-take-away-at-the-corner-shop can do this better.

After that course we felt awkwardly full felt up with fat and bad quality fish. The topping of that course consisting of fried capers with peanuts contributed to the overload in fat and bad taste.

This one course was so bad that it didn't fit into the amazing picture of the other ones. But for a dinner which comes nearly at the price of a fine dining restaurant one may expect every course is...

What a fantastic restaurant! They are sea food connaisseurs and they know how to tingle your tastebuds with all the sea food that the Dutch Cuisine has to offer! They offer a 4, 6, 8, or even a 10 course menu varying from €38 to €85 which is quite reasonable for a restaurant of this standard. We had a lovely dinner and loved the presentation of the plates where the Ocean or the sea life is always represented. The wine pairing was also fantastic. One slight thing that we did not like much was the airconditioning or ventilation: this was blowing too hard and made our stay slightly uncomfortable.. The restaurant is located on the Prinsengracht which is easy accessible by public transport, the tram practically stops in front of the door. The restaurant is open 5 nights a week, from Tuesday till Saturday and make sure to make a...