Ristorante 51 — Restaurant in Amsterdam

Upfront: I'm a Marriott/Bonvoy Gold and soon Platinum member as staying for business in the Courtyard hotel where this restaurant is embedded, every month for a week. I've hence been dining in this restaurant several times - mostly when it was too late or bad weather to go elsewhere and lack of options around. I have almost always been really disappointed by the restaurant- and just now once again went up to my room after another horrible experience.. so finally posting a review here. The food and drinks are OK in quality but absolutely nothing special and very overpriced. That alone is not my main problem as quite common in hotel restaurants. But the service is an absolute disaster and disappointed every time. Just again today: takes forever to take your order and unacceptably long to bring drinks and starters to the table. When I see at the same time 3 waiters standing around chatting with each other, this has nothing to do with peak hours. The last drink I ordered after finishing the food was even completely not delivered (a bottled IPA!!) For 15 mins in an almost empty restaurant..so I decided to walk up and ask for the check and leave.. this was necessary as no one bothered to come by and ask proactively if I'd like to pay or order something else. It's just once again making me step into the elevator angry instead of having a relaxed and well serviced after work dinner. I will try to avoid this restaurant whenever possible and it does totally make me reconsider my hotel choices...

Terrible, bland, and poorly seasoned. Looks fancy but fails in substance. The worst food we’ve had in Amsterdam.

Got the steak and it was not seasoned correctly and was bland. The pork belly was over cooked and the aus ju sauce on the potatoes tasted like cheap teriyaki from a takeout Chinese Resturant. Save yourselves and your money.

This place is a waste of time and a shame to Dutch chefs and Italian cooking everywhere. I don’t think the line cooks have ever tasted Italian food in their lives. We also experienced terrible table service. The waiter did not bring my partner water for nearly an hour and it took nearly as long to get our food. The place was not remotely busy. I think the cooks spent all their time trying to make the dish look 5 star because they don’t know how to cook the dishes and it is the only way they know how to justify the prices here. Looks are very deceiving.

To the cooks: I look at your dish for 10 seconds but I spend 10 minutes eating it. Put your effort towards where I spend the most time. I eat with my mouth not with my eyes. If your dish looks great but tastes terrible I will only remember how it tasted. Use more salt, acid, and butter.

Updates: They knocked 20% off my bill at a misguided attempt to make amends. It still wasn’t remotely worth what we payed....

It wasn't that good at all, and I wonder what people cook up at home if they think this is top class food. I have been working in the hospitality industry for years, and sometimes it is difficult to let that go while eating in a restaurant myself, but this time I was quite disappointed. The decor is quite nice, fresh and modern. However, the food was not good. We ordered the crab cakes which were rather dry and not fresh, and it took over 45 minutes to be served. The main courses were a real let down; my meatballs were okay, but the sauce that comes with it was cooked way over, and all the items were thrown on each other on my plate. My partner had the salmon, which was way over well done and the garnish was minimal. The staff tried their best, but were clearly not trained and were running though the place without any structure. The obvious problem here seemed to be a lack of staff in both the kitchen and the service. It created too much pressure during the peak hours, which negatively affected the quality of the food and the service. If you decide to eat here, I would choose the burger. Otherwise it is a nice place to have drinks and some bites, but the restaurant clearly needs procedures and structure in order to provide a basic...