Mossel & Gin — Restaurant in Amsterdam

Dog friendly with lovely cocktails and less than mediocre food.

Entering the restaurant, we could hang our own wet jackets on a cramped space with no space for them to dry from the rain. Subsequently, we were greeted and could freely pick a table anywhere.

After being seated, we ordered bread, empanadas, G&T, and mussels with truffle and roquefort. It was half full when we arrived and the first drinks arrived quickly. We really enjoyed those creative and beautiful cocktails; one favourite included roses and raspberry. After that, it went downhill.

The starters and mains were served together and the empanadas were good, the mussels less so. Even though I was hungry, I was contemplating whether the mussels were supposed to be cold with the majority of the sause on the shells or in the bottom of the pan. And quite some mussels were cracked so I had to watch my teeth. The fries were good but the sause that came with them was not very tasty and did not pair well with the food, mayo had been a better option. The bread was tasty but quite pricey to ask €5 for two small pieces which were essential to get to the mussels sause in the bottom of the pan. We therefore asked for more bread and drinks, after spending a significant amount of time to get the waitress attention. Going on a valentine's date, ideally my date would have his attention on me whereas he now spent most of it behind my back.

In the meantime a dog approaches me and my date, no biting but physical interaction without prior consent, whereafter the dog owner asks if we thought that was bad. I personally think that dogs are not the most hygienic animals to keep in a restaurant, and if the restaurant makes a choice to welcome guests with dogs then they should make that clear.

After waiting for around 45 min we got the cocktails and cancelled the bread because the food was cold. We also got an apology and explanation that the ticket system had issues. They offered 2 cocktails on the house, but had kept the bread we cancelled on which we had to request to have corrected.

My experience with this restaurant is that although they took some action, it was too little too late. My date was a bit ruined and our time was wasted. The 2 stars is because of the cocktails and their attempt to remedy, else...

Edit: while last time I went to M&G the experience wasn't great, the owner called back the customers who had a reservation and a not optimal experience, and apologized for what he called 'the most unlucky night in 6 years of Mossel & Gin' and offered to make up for it - which is I think going the extra mile and showing care. So I think I'll be going there soon again.

This is what I wrote previously: I came here because previously I had a good experience. However, tonight the experience was quite bad. While I understand that sometimes situation can get hectic and a bit out of control in a restaurant, tonight they should not have accepted more people, or at least they should have warned customers about super long waiting times and not being able to even order mossels or any main dishes - which. So we were able to order just a couple of 12 euros g&t and an appetizer. The appetizer came in relatively timely fashion, but the gin tonic took more or less half an hour, and they were totally not worth the price; even the waiter said that he was sorry but they were not able to prepare them up to their usual standards because how hectic it was. So at 21:15 we rushed to drink our watery, missing ingredients cocktails to be able to run and go have dinner somewhere else. You need to pay before ordering via their website, do not even canceling the order...

The food is good but experience was more than disappointing. I arrived with my girlfriend and ordered the fruits de la mer yet for some reason the order did not get punched through (as we would later rind out) we ended up sitting for 40 minutes and finally asked another server who told us she would take care of it. She did not return and we waited a further 20 minutes until our original server arrived to explain that our order had not been placed and that the fruits de mer was now out. She offered us a free meal each, I had lost my appetite by then and had the small octopus while my girlfriend had the mussels. However after she offered us gin coktails which we assumed were on the house as they had already butchered our experience. Yet to our suprise when we went to pay we were quite shocked to find that we were charged for the drinks. Just wanting to get out of there we simply paid and left but I will never be returning to this establishment as offering free food then charging for the drinks immediately after ordering them is an especially shady practice. It is insulting that this was done after making us wait around an hour and 20 minutes to actually get food after already messing up our original order. Food and house mayo was good but nothing could make up for charging us for drinks that were initially presented as free along...