Noorderlicht Café — Restaurant in Amsterdam

The terrible experience we had today at Noorderlicht is the perfect example of how poor management and not owning your mistakes can make you lose a regular visitor.

I brought my parents for lunch and we ordered 4 “Noorderlicht burgers”. The waiter asked us to pay in advance because the place was very busy, and he told us it was 88 euros. I asked why 88 if the menu said 19€ per burger (as in the shared picture). He mentioned that if we wanted cheese and bacon was 3€ extra. I told him that shouldn’t be like that because in the menu it said 19€ INCLUDING THE CHEESE AND BACON AS INGREDIENTS. But anyway, I decided to pay. He was very polite and mentioned that they were changing the menu and that probably it was a mistake, so he would ask the management team to solve it.

After a while, I told the waiter (he was very polite all the time) that I was aware it was not his fault but that I thought it was not acceptable to pay 12 euros extra for 2 ingredientes that in the menu were reflected as included. He said that we were right and that he was going to ask his supervisor.

A young woman came and told us they could offer us a free drink as a compensation but we told her in a polite way that we preferred our 12€ back. Her manners changed there. She started being very rude and entitled, and told us that that was everything she could do as they couldn’t refund us. We insisted and she said she was going to talk to her boss.

She came back a couple of minutes later and she told me that if we wanted a refund I had to give her my name and bank account. I told her that I was not going to share my personal details and that I thought that was not the correct way to proceed with a refund. They should either give the money back on the card we paid with or give us the amount in cash. Being even more rude, she said they couldn’t do that. I asked why and she said “because my boss says so”. Then I told her that I would like to talk to her boss. She made a terrible face and left.

A few minutes later, another woman came and asked with very rude manners that what was the problem. We explained her the situation, and that we thought it was their mistake charging us for ingredients that were already included in the menu. She said “ok, but we offered you drinks and you denied them. Also, you already ate the cheese and the bacon”. We told her that if we wanted more drinks we would have been happy to pay for them (also we are not stupid and we know that their cost for 4 beers is way less than the 12€ euros they overcharged us). We insisted that we just wanted to pay the fair price that was reflected in the menu and therefore we wanted our 12€ back. She left and came back with 6 coins of 2€, threw them to the table and said “let’s see if you learn to trust us more now”.

Horrible, horrible management of the situation. It was their mistake, and instead of owning them, they decided to lose a regular visitor for 12 euros. I am definitely not coming back. Well done, team! 👏

(Also we had to wait 20-30 minutes for the drinks we ordered before lunch and the food was very mediocre)

UPDATE Their answer to this review is full of lies and again shows the kind of people running this place. Avoid it...

Young hipster staff try hard, but Noorderlicht suffers from a lack of local competition.

As a Zandvoort resident I'm used to fast, friendly, efficient service and great food, as anything less won't last more than a season on the beach here. North Amsterdam has fewer options, and it shows.

When I was here with a group of 20 on Thursday, we were given extensive "rules" before ordering drinks, these rules apparently having been agreed with a different group. After some disagreements, our orders were taken, but it took 30 minutes until the last drinks were collected from the bar by one of our group, as, despite repeated requests, the drinks had not arrived (regular biertjes, not cocktails). The staff were chaotic and seemed under managed, with too much to do and no direction.

The food was average, portions ("sharing plates") were reasonably generous but sides were sparse and very little made it to the table hot. A young man read the menu (which we hadn't seen) loudly from one end of the table. It seemed some of the food was vegan and some gluten-free. It was unclear what was what. Drinks orders continued to be ignored.

Group meals are evidently not a strength here. I'm glad I wasn't paying - I certainly wouldn't want to spend my own money here - but it seems reasonably popular with a local crowd drinking outside before heading on to Pllek or one of the other...

This was one of my favourite places to go when visiting Amsterdam. I have frequented the Noorderlicht several times before and I usually order what is now called the "Barbershop". This dish is one of my top 10 favourite dishes that I have eaten in my travels, I love it so much I drove from London to Amsterdam then cycle 40 minutes just to munch that delectable bowl of goodness. Unfortunately I was very unlucky and they had run out of the barbershop. The atmosphere this time round was very different; stressed out staff, some staff had also declined to take our drink order and said someone else would take it... that person never arrived, naked children running around which made me and others on my table a little uncomfortable. I understand that when it is busy as a customer we should expect a bit of a wait or less attention but for the amount of staff at hand we shouldn't have had such waiting times just to be seen for any orders. The food I ended up ordering was ok; I ordered a steak with spicy bbq sauce & a side of frites. The reason for my rating is that the overall experience was not as enjoyable as it should of been (I have been there when it was busier and that did not effect the ambience and the staff were more chilled and attentive unlike this time round.) 18/07/2018 - approx 19:00 to...