Restaurant Nomads — Restaurant in Amsterdam

TL;DR: Nomads is a very stylish restaurant with an amazing concept. The staff is super friendly, and I had high expectations. But considering the price point (around 100€ p.p. for 5 courses with drink pairing), the overall experience was underwhelming, with extremely slow service (nearly 4 hours for the entire menu, waiting 1.5h just for the first course), mediocre food, and somewhat confused staff.

The Long Version:

Alright, before I get to it, I would like to highlight that I am not writing a negative review here to vent about a bad experience. I really love the concept of this restaurant, but unfortunately, I had a very disappointing experience. That said, I think there is a lot of promise, and I hope they can improve on my criticism!

Okay, now let’s get into it!

I arrived with a friend around 19:30 on a Saturday, punctual for our reservation. Our expectations were high, as I had received several great recommendations for the place. The staff were very welcoming and friendly, guiding us to our table immediately. However, afterwards we felt somewhat forgotten, as it took nearly 20 minutes until someone served us some tea. At this point, we still hadn’t seen the menu, nor did we even know what we could expect, as the website of the restaurant listed a different cuisine from the reservation page (Moroccan vs Singapore).

After another 10 minutes, I asked the waitress for the menu, and whether it would be possible to have a non-alcoholic drink pairing as well. This caused some confusion, but after she sent her colleague to us, we finally received a menu. She explained it professionally, and gave advice on non-alcoholic alternatives for the drinks. This was super nice, as I have had less flexible experiences in other restaurants!

Unfortunately, we were left alone after that for another 20 minutes, and after we finally ordered, we still waited for the drink menu another 10 minutes. At this point, we are nearly an hour in and still far from receiving our food/drinks.

15 minutes later, we received the first appetiser, plus the first drinks of our arranged drink paring. Unfortunately it took another 15-20 minutes until we got the actual first course, by which time we already finished said drinks. At this point, we are 1.5h in, and got a bit concerned, as our actual reservation slot is only intended for 2 hours. Luckily this turned out to be fine, but if we would have other plans after dinner, we would already have been in a time squeeze here.

Next, it started to rain, making part of the (extremely nice) outside seating area unusable. This was no issue for us, as we were in a dry spot, however, other guests moved inside, leaving the staff with a scattered field of guests. This is obviously hard to adjust to, so I wasn’t too surprised when we waited another 20-30 minutes for course 2.

However, yet another 20 minutes after the second course (about 2.5h in!) we still waited for course number 3. At this point, the waitress came asking us which course we were at, and admitting she kind of lost track of us. This was a bit frustrating for us.

Additionally, after we received the third course, they forgot my ordered drink pairing, only serving it after I already finished my food.

The last two courses went more or less smoothly, considering they took another hour. This accumulated to a 3.5-4h dinner, that honestly left me more hungry than satisfied. The food itself was fine, but considering the low to mid-budget fine dining price point, it was a bit underwhelming.

The dishes looked great, but tasted somewhat “normal”. For this amount of money you can easily get a better dining experience in Amsterdam.

I conclusion, I really cannot recommend Nomads right now. Their concept is amazing, the restaurant gorgeous, and the staff very warm and friendly. But they seem disorganised, and the food cannot keep up with the expectations coming with this price point, even in Amsterdam.

I really hope they are able to avoid such experiences for other guests. It would be a shame to let such a nice concept...

As we entered it took a while before we could order a drink. Then finally someone came with the menu and instead of handing it to us began some ludicrous story about how each six months the cook goed out into to the world for inspiration. Sure. Only im not interested cause i want a drink and order food. He then proceeded to say that the theme this time round was "street food". Later in it became obvious this place is some nouvelle cuisine wannabe with 5 small bites passing for a 5 course dinner and you leaving the place craving for something to eat. I ordered a drink " champaign beer" and we ordered food. Food came. But no drink. I asked. They said it was on its way. Then we ordered a bottle of wine. The wine was good. It was a good Italian wine. But it arrived before my starter drink ever arrived and so I cancelled the starter drink that i had been curious for. The first dish was a combination of some green cream (avocado maybe) some sweet jelly and white stuff that had a bunch of parmesan in it. That is a ridiculous combination. The tastes just dont go together. Next up was fish. Mackerel with onions and a sauce. That was really good. Then they brought the drink I had cancelled cause of them bringing the wine first. Then came a fairly tasteless piece of meat (it was lacking salt) and after that a reasonable desert. So we had the five courses. But its all tiny and small like in nouvelle cuisine so you're left hungry. It has absolutely nothing to do with the professed theme of Asian streetfood. The place is nice and the service friendly. But its pricey and the food isnt up to par. Hence no five stars. If you want to chat with a few bites and good drinks its fine For a dinner there is an excellent yemenite restaurant with rude service...

Our family accidentally stopped by this place for dinner. The menu was quite interesting, and though the only toddler-friendly thing on the menu seemed to be sweet potato fries we thought he should be fine. The order came fast. Except for the fries. Since nobody mentioned anything we thought they were coming later. 20 minutes later and after some toddler squeals we finally find out that "the frier is broken" and we are unlikely to get them. Or might, but later. 10 minutes later we decide to look for other ways to feed the hungry toddler and order a pancake in the neighbouring restaurant (they share the same strip along the canal). Upon seeing this the waitress storms over and literally orders us to move to the pancake restaurant. Mind you, we are still eating our dinner. And then fries come, too, by the way, after we have already spent 10 euros on a different meal for the toddler. I had an argument with the waitress and refused to leave. Eventually, after some back and forth talking another waitress came over and apologized for "miscommunication". She also said the frier wasn't broken, they were just heating up another batch of oil in the frier and that is why it was taking so long (duh). The food was fine, but too much of "miscommunication" made the overall impression very much blah and the unfortunate fries on the house didn't quite...