Mio — Restaurant in Amsterdam

A Masterclass in How Not to Do Italian

I rarely write negative reviews, but our experience at Mio in Amsterdam deserves a public service announcement. For a restaurant claiming Italian heart, it showed none, especially toward anyone eating vegan.

Aside from the obligatory bruschetta, there wasn’t a single vegan dish on the menu. I was assured the kitchen would “take care of it,” so I agreed to let the chef surprise me. The “surprise”? A bare pizza base brushed with a whisper of tomato sauce. No onion, no tomatoes, no peppers, no olives, not even a stray basil leaf. Just a sad, crimson circle of disappointment. Calling it a pizza would be an insult to both Naples and common sense.

My wife’s tiramisu was worse. It tasted supermarket-sweet, with a thick snowfall of cocoa seemingly there to mask the poor mascarpone underneath, heavy, flat, and joyless.

Service was polite but perfunctory, and the overall vibe screamed tourist churn over hospitality. Mio sits in a high-footfall area and seems content to cash in rather than cook with care. Amsterdam has plenty of places where you can feel the craft in every bite; sadly, this isn’t one of them.

Verdict: If you value genuine Italian cooking, thoughtful vegan options, or just basic culinary pride;...

Terrible service at this restaurant. We went on a very quiet time, only 2 or 3 tables to serve. We ordered food, it was taking ages, so finally we decided to ask what was delaying so much. One of the waitresses informed that our order hadn't gone to the kitchen due to a 'system error'. After waiting for so long she comes back and say one of the orders wasn't available, so we just asked to cancel everything due to the absolute lack of attention and disrespectful towards customers. The waitress that first served us never bother to check why our food was never served after so long and just kept going out and disappearing. The worst was in the end when we went to pay for our drinks and they said they were not taking payments from Visa, Mastercard or Amex. Then how is one supposed to pay then? As almost nobody carries cash nowadays. Anyway they managed to make the machine work for the payment. Very frustrating experience, I wish we had read the other reviews before...

We came to this place twice during our stay in Amsterdam. Service and atmosphere were great. The food gets a 3/5 due to the overall oilyness of all their dishes. The first day we visited, I had a bout of extreme nausea. I didn't think too much of it that day. We decided to go there on our last night in the city because we loved the ambiance the day before. Unfortunately, that evening 2 out of 5 from our group began experiencing signs of food poisoning. By the next morning, 4 out of 5 us were insanely ill. Didn't help we had an 8 hour flight back home, but we all matched the symptoms for food poisoning. I have to give this a 3/5 overall due to the aversiveness we had to eating it a second time. Again, great service and atmosphere and the menu looks good, but to get sick from dining in a restaurant, is enough to make me not...