La Gouch — Restaurant in Amsterdam

The first impression of La Gouch was good because the place was clean and calm. The owner was friendly and accommodating at first. We ordered 2 steaks, a steak fried rice, shrimp fried rice, and steak fajitas. After a long wait, only the steak fajitas and shrimp (without fried rice) arrived. We were given orders also that wasn't for our table, and so we declined those. Afterwards, the waiter had to ask for our orders again. At which point, they started preparing the rest of our orders. We had to wait longer for the steak dishes, and ended up with 3 exact same steak dishes. We were quite hungry at that point and didn't question why the shrimp was separate from the rice, and why we had 3 of the same steak dishes. When the bill arrived, we weren't charged for what we ordered, but for what they had served us. The waiter then offered to rewrite the bill to our orders, but as he handed us the menu to look for our order, they had taken out the page that contained the steak fried rice and shrimp fried rice (though I pointed it out to him as it was still in the menu on the wall). The owner came to the table and informed us that other people were eating 'gezellig' (nice and comfortable) we were 'ruzie maken' (picking a fight) and asked us to pay for what we want and leave. We were really upset for the long wait, the confusion, and the lack of communication -- all this could have been prevented if the owner and waiter would have said that those dishes were not available upon our order instead of pretending that they were available, and bringing out dishes that weren't what we ordered, and asking us to...

Not recommended unless you want average food from a restaurant with an identity crisis. Our ribeye steak was ordered as medium & came as medium rare; our sirloin steak was ordered well and came as medium well. Ribeye was tough, chewy, & without flavor. Baked potatoes had plenty of sour cream & were cooked right. Salad was fresh and had a wonderful dressing. If the meat was as good as the sides, the food would be awesome. Service was lackluster - no welcoming smile or feeling they were glad you came. Waitress was sullen & disinterested, even going outside to smoke a cigarette at a recently vacated table. The place is advertised outside as a steak house & had elements of a gaucho theme but the chandeliers were modern brass & there was a tiki-ish bar in the corner. The Jesus tapestry by the stairs conflicts with the cattle herding scene on the wall. Latin music videos played with scenes from Argentina in the background. Italian, Mexican, steak & burgers were on the menu. Very confusing decorating style & menu! The restaurant is right across from Central Station on a prominent corner. It feels like they rely on the location for tourists & they don’t need to worry about great food or good service. Do yourself a favor and skip this place for one of the many cafes that will be happy to have you and serve...

My wife and I went to La Gouche for dinner on the 29/03/25. The staff seemed like they didn't want to be there and we felt like we were bothering them by ordering. I ordered a Ribeye steak medium rare, and my wife ordered a Sirloin medium and asked if they could make sure it was rested so it wasn't leaking on the plate. The waiter was quite direct in saying they only offer rare, meduim-rare, medium, medium well-done, or well-done.

When our steaks arrived, my wifes was cooked perfectly to medium-rare which she ate without complaint. My steak was seared on the outside, but raw in the center. I asked the waiter if they could cook it a little longer as it was 'blue' and not medium-rare. When the waiter returned with it, it was still raw in the middle, but now burnt on the outside (see photo). With the attitude of the waiter, this felt like a response to my sending it to be cooked further, rather than fixing an obvious and easily fixable issue with the food.

I didn't bother sending it back again or eating it as it was still raw in the middle. Fortunately my wife wasn't very hungry and I ended up having half of her steak.

Very disappointing for a restaurant that presents as a Steakhouse!! Would seem this is possibly the reason they only had two other tables with diners at 8pm on a...