Orbit — Restaurant in Amsterdam

Orbit is not it! The last time I visited Orbit (before this visit) was pre-corona. It wasn't a success back then. The chef could've had a bad day, so I decided to try them again. So it's been about 3 years since I last visited and I'm sorry to say still not a success.

We left after the starters, because I wasn't willing to spend money on food I didn't like. We had 3 starters: the Peking duck pancakes, Szechuan squid, and dim sum. All 3 dishes had a lot of salt. The squid was rubbery and tasted fishy. The sauce that came with the duck was nice, so I had a lot of sauce with duck (intentional wording) The dim sum was the absolute worst; no flavour, thick pastry with a side of salt. That's where I drew the line and decided to take my money elsewhere.

The staff that served us was nice. I'm allergic to shrimp and they catered to that professionally. I didn't give them 5 stars, because: one of them took away a dish I wasn't finished with. Since I didn't like it anyway, I didn't say anything about it within a short period of time (I would guess less than 5 mins) 3 members of staff came to ask if we were done eating. And 1 of them even opened the dim sum steamer to check if there was still something left in it. To be fair, after I tasted the dim sum I just lowered the chopsticks and didn't pick them up again. My friend was still eating however.

In the end, I've decided that Orbit is not for me and my tastebuds. I will not be...

Delightful experience. The serving staff is competent, friendly and smart. The food is absolutely delicious and the chefs deserve so many more compliments than I can give them.

Some dishes are a little pricey but considering the neighbourhood it's still a great night out.

The restaurant itself is beautiful, with a majority of the interior done in all black (might be a problem is you've got bad night sight) so that your create a really comfy setting with decent down tempo electronic music.

Dishes are served to share which creates a very friendly table atmosphere.

Try the Rocky Chicken if you don't know what to pick, because there is PLENTY to...

Mijn ervaring met Restaurant Orbit was ronduit teleurstellend en geeft helaas een slecht visitekaartje af van hoe hier met gasten wordt omgegaan. Een door mij bevestigde reservering werd zonder enige vorm van communicatie eenzijdig geannuleerd. Geen telefoontje, geen e-mail – simpelweg niets.

Toen ik zelf navraag deed, bleek dat er een intern conflict speelt tussen het restaurant en American Express (waarmee ik geboekt had). Wat mij hierin bijzonder stoort: ik, als betalende en nietsvermoedende klant, werd hierin totaal niet meegenomen of gecompenseerd. Geen excuses, geen alternatief, geen coulance – alsof dit mijn probleem is.

Het voelt alsof je als gast slachtoffer wordt van een zakelijke ruzie waar je niets mee te maken hebt. En in plaats van verantwoordelijkheid te nemen of klantvriendelijkheid te tonen, laat het restaurant je gewoon in de kou staan.

Een restaurant draait niet alleen op goed eten, maar ook op service en respect voor de gast. Orbit heeft op dat vlak ernstig gefaald. Jammer, want een gemiste kans om iets netjes op te lossen en vertrouwen...