Restaurant-Café In de Waag — Restaurant in Amsterdam

For our last night in Amsterdam, my boyfriend and I wanted to check out the Red Light District. Since Cafe in de Waag was on his list of places to try, and it happened to be in the neighborhood, we made a resso for two.

The restaurant itself looks like a castle. From the outside, you wouldn't think it was a restaurant. Once inside, it's perfect for a date. It's quiet, but not too quiet. It's dark, but not too dark.

What I liked about their menu was that they had a recommended wine OR beer pairing with each of their entrees. Most places just do wine pairings. We went with the beer since we're beer drinkers. We also decided to order a pint of Heineken, because when in Amsterdam, right? I don't normally like Heinekens when I drink them back in the U.S., but I actually enjoyed this one. It tasted crisper. Must be something in the water here.

To start, we had the North Sea crab with nagelhout (smoked meat), old Reypenaer (Dutch cheese) oranges and walnuts. It was weird. There were too many flavors going on - salty, tart, nutty. My taste buds were very confused. There was also not much crabmeat so I can't really speak on whether or not that was fresh.

For my entree, I ordered the Dutch beef (from the charcoal grill - "Opperdoes" - asparagus - lemon-thyme gravy). It was cooked perfectly (medium-rare) and even though I don't normally like asparagus, the white asparagus they served was really good.

For his entree, he went for the Dutch piglet (cooked with hay - potato truffle mousseline - crispy garlic - smoked garlic sauce). I don't usually order pork because most places make it super dry, but this restaurant was the complete opposite. It was tender and I ended up liking this dish better than my own.

So the common theme with Cafe in de Waag is - order something that you normally wouldn't order/like, and you might end...

First, the waiters are really quick and efficient. They are good looking and charming as well. The place is lovely. The subway tiles on the floor were unique and the game of thrones castle like feel with the candles and the rusty tables are interesting. Their lighting makes the mood more pleasing. As for the food, the tasting platter of starter was gorgeous and taste equally good, love the shrimp and the mushroom soup. But the sad part was, we were quite hungry and the main course was though well executed but didnt taste anything.. i dont smoke so im sure my taste buds are not burnt. Although i consider appreciating the taste of the fish but the entire taste in the plating didnt quite make it. I was hungry and didnt finish my main course i hopped to my seatmate and grabbed his angus stew which tasted like corned beef but it was bit good. Maybe we had to explore more from the menu or probably get something that should suit our taste. But the dessert was quite special, liked the brownie fudge bar with gelato. It says there that its with vanilla cream but when i tasted, its more like yogurt coz of the sour kick unless i joked to my bro in law that it was spoiled creme then it should taste such haha but i think it was more on the prior. Nonetheless, the dessert was happy. The apple juice though its from a bottle, was quite the apple juice i was...

"Alight, but rather touristic. It's a historic landmark, but there are other places in Amsterdam worth your while."

I wrote that review 9 years ago that needs some update. This weekend (Jan 2025) we went to visit for a beer.

We contemplated eating also, the menu looked good. The ambiance is really good, candle lit chandeliers and good interior decoration. To our dismay, the waitress lashed out for no apparent reason. She had just taken an order from a nearby table and I tried to order as she walked next to our table. In a visually and audibly annoyed tone she exclaimed that she was still busy and she'd be back later. This completely unprovoked lashing out really caught us off guard and came from nowhere. Then we proceeded to wait for another ten minutes and couldn't flag down anybody to pay. Apparently you cannot pay at the bar either. Asking a bartender whether it was busy he said, "no, not particularly".

I have worked in gastronomy for ten years, I have never encountered this before. Hope the owner reads this. You've got an amazing place, but (some of) your staff isn't up to par. Maybe just a particularly groggy waitress but it thoroughly ruined our experience.

Just to add: we are not tourists, we live here and we know what to expect. This is below my expectations as a Dutch person, and that...