Loetje — Restaurant in Amsterdam

I would like to start off that my fiancé is from The Netherlands and speaks Dutch, so it wasn’t a language issue. I am writing the review in English as it will be readable by more people. If I was the owner of this establishment I would be re-training or re-hiring my waiting staff. My fiancé and I came here with the plan to have a couple cocktails and a bottle of two of wine with dinner. We got here at 4:30pm the front desk host let us know it would be 10 mins or so till we were seated (no problems here they were getting ready for dinner service). We were sat and ordered our first round of cocktails and water. This is when the service started to go downhill, cocktails come in a bout 5 mins (not bad) our bottle of water 10 mins later (weird) we then ordered an appetizer the waitress seemed upset that we weren’t ordering mains (we let her know we wanted to order appetizers first then we would order food) when the food was brought out no plates were brought out. We had to flag down the staff after 5 mins of waiting. When we could finally ask it seemed like a pain to bring us plates. The table beside us ordered champagne the waiter dropped off the bottle didn’t open it and practically ran away as they look at him in surprise and tried to flag him down. After waiting for a few mins for them to come back they decided to open it themselves (pop hits the roof and then my fiancé) honestly completely un-acceptable. The table then had to get up and ask for ice (they were also Dutch) waiter came back and gave them ice in cups!! Okay… or appetizer and drinks sat empty for for 25 mins waitress walked past multiple times looked at our table and walked away. We then decided that we would just order a main and leave, this took some time to come the waitress dropped it off and ran away, two tables left without eating as they tried to wave someone down but were unsuccessful. We get our steak it’s nearly blue rare supposed to be medium rare, we don’t complain as there is no point we don’t want to wait any longer, takes us 20 mins to flag down staff to pay. When we do no thank you nothing they just walk away the minute payment is completed. When we leave no thank you from the host, we even said have a great night to him he just looked up at us and looked back down. This total experience took 2 hours 30 mins 2 cocktails 1 glass of wine 1 appetizer 1 main. What we had planned to have 4+ cocktails and 2-3 appetizers while we waited and hour or so to get mains 1-2 bottles of wine with 2 mains. So the owner can do the math on how much money they lost while we also took up a table for the better part of 2 hours. This is a higher end establishment I expect higher...

My recent visit to Loetje Restaurant in Amsterdam left me with mixed feelings about what should have been an exceptional dining experience. Whilst the restaurant's reputation for excellent steaks preceded our visit, the service we encountered significantly detracted from what could have been a memorable evening. The evening began promisingly enough - Loetje's warm, traditional Dutch atmosphere and bustling energy suggested we were in for a treat. The restaurant's reputation for serving some of Amsterdam's finest steaks had drawn us in, and the cosy interior certainly lived up to expectations. However, our enthusiasm quickly waned once we were seated. Our server appeared overwhelmed and somewhat dismissive from the outset. Despite the restaurant being busy, we waited nearly fifteen minutes before receiving menus, watching as our server passed our table several times without acknowledgement. When we finally received attention, the interaction felt rushed and impersonal. The server seemed irritated when we asked about preparation methods for different cuts of meat, responding with visible impatience rather than the knowledgeable guidance one might expect from a steakhouse of this calibre. The ordering process proved equally frustrating. After making our selections, we waited an additional twenty-five minutes before our server returned to clarify our choices, suggesting our original order hadn't been properly recorded. This lack of attention to detail continued throughout the meal, with requests for condiments and additional drinks often requiring multiple attempts to fulfil. When our food finally arrived, the quality was undeniably impressive. The steaks were cooked to perfection - tender, flavourful, and clearly prepared with skill and care. The accompanying chips were crisp and well-seasoned, and the simple salad provided a fresh contrast to the rich meat. It became clear why Loetje has maintained its reputation despite service shortcomings. However, excellent food cannot entirely compensate for poor service execution. Simple improvements such as better staff training on customer engagement and more efficient table management would significantly enhance the overall experience. For a restaurant of Loetje's standing, diners rightfully expect service standards that match the food quality. Whilst I would recommend Loetje for its exceptional steaks, potential diners should be prepared for inconsistent service that may detract from an otherwise...

Visited yesterday 4/13 Sunday around 4pm. Had recommendations to go here. We had just finished a canal cruise and were nearby so decided to eat an early dinner here. We waited about 5 minutes for an outdoor table. Was a very lovely day. We were greeted by a server shortly after. I'm not sure why but it took about 20 minutes to get drinks...none of which were special. Two bottled Lipton ice teas, a bottled beer and a bottled water. We ordered food at the same time as the drinks. Food also took a long time to arrive. About an hour. I'm not sure why. This was probably the longest I have ever waited for food. Had we not been on vacation I would have left by now had we been at a regular restaurant at home. After waiting a very long time we finally got our food: vegan burger, 2 regular Lotje burgers and a filet. Filet was good, vegan burger was decent but the 2 meat burgers were very average. At £20 each I was expecting something good. On one of the burgers they forgot to put the tomatoes and pickles. The meat was a bit tough and on the well done side -- also pretty flavorless. We were not given the option of choosing a temperature for the burgers. The kindest person that we came across was the young man that brought out the fries - I had mentioned that some of the toppings were forgotten on the burger and he brought them right out. We never encountered the same person twice. Each time it was someone different. After we got all the food nobody came to check on us. Only after we were completely done eating did someone come to ask if we needed something else. At that point we were able to order additional drinks. There were several servers just standing around inside talking (just inside the door we were sitting next to). Not doing anything else. We tried to flag one down to get out bill because we were ready to leave and had been waiting quite a while for it. Long story short...quite average food for the price. Not...