Sagardi Amsterdam — Restaurant in Amsterdam

The review of this restaurant cannot be positive, not because the food and its cuisine, which was good, but because of the bad attitude of the two employees attending the customers on Sunday evening, May 29th. As a background of my negative review, I must mention that we, my wife, and I, are from Barcelona, and were spending a few days visiting Amsterdam in a leisure trip. As this restaurant is very close to our hotel, the NH City Center Amsterdam, and being a Basque restaurant with good reviews so far, we decided that it would be a good choice to have dinner there, so we made a reservation for two at 20h30m via The Fork some days in advance. As we are aged and vulnerable persons regarding potential Covid infections, we went to the restaurant the day we arrived at Amsterdam, May 27th, to see how the dining room was to request a table as secluded as possible from the rest of the tables. We were attended by two young ladies from Spain who perfectly understood the situation and offered us the possibility to have dinner in a specific table, very secluded, that was in an open space very near to the entrance. For us was a perfect solution.

On May 29th, as we arrived at the hotel earlier than planned, we decided to pass by the restaurant and ask if we could go at 19h instead of at 20h30m. At that moment, there was nobody at the restaurant speaking Spanish (?). To our surprise, the waiter who was at that time at the entrance of the restaurant said to us that the table offered by his Spanish colleagues two days earlier was not available and that we should have dinner at the main dining room, and furthermore that those ladies were not entitled to have compromised such table by any means to anybody. Absolutely disappointed by the lack of flexibility and empathy of this person, we tried once more to explain to him what our situation was and at the end, he, for some reason I ignore, finally agreed to give us such table, but he made us very clear that he was not happy with the idea. The situation had not been pleasant, frankly, but the worst was still to come.

Despite the food, I remark again, was good, the dinner was, globally speaking, a very bad experience. Our table was attended by a lady, Amy Nicole, who didn’t speak a word of Spanish either. We were served the entrees quite correctly, but the main courses didn’t arrive. After a long wait of more than 40 minutes, nearly desperate with the long wait, we called the waitress to ask what the reason of the delay. She said, with very bad temper, prepotent and arrogant, that the main dining room was very busy, that they were few waiters/waitresses attending the restaurant and literally that “we shouldn’t complaint because they were making us a favor” attending this table outside the main dining room. Unbelievable!!!

We finished our main courses, and without further delay requested the bill, paid, and left the restaurant very disappointed and angry. What could have been a nice dinner in a good Basque restaurant ended up in a very bad experience because the unappropriated behavior, lack of professionality and empathy of these two persons attending the restaurant that day. This restaurant is not precisely cheap and should pay more attention selecting its personnel to avoid reviews of this kind. What for other customers having dinner at Sagardi Amsterdam was a good experience, for us was one to be...

Yesterday, we went to have dinner at Sagardi. The restaurant's interior was really cozy, and the staff greeted us warmly, despite our reserved table not being ready on time. The food, overall, was tasty, but the potato wedges lacked flavor. However, there were two significant issues that bothered us.

Firstly, several staff members seemed forgetful. They asked us which language we preferred for the menu but ended up giving us menus in the wrong language. Moreover, we had to repeat our drink order three times to different employees.

Secondly, towards the end of the evening, we and other customers were shocked to find a family of mice running around in the dining area. We counted four of them. This was very unhygienic, and while the staff apologized, they didn't seem to take any immediate action to address the problem. We understand that pests can be an issue in restaurants, but witnessing it during our meal was an entirely different experience.

Additionally, it is vital for the restaurant to take immediate responsibility and address this issue promptly. Ensuring a pest-free environment is not only essential for the health and safety of their customers but also for maintaining their reputation and credibility. We sincerely hope that Sagardi will take the necessary measures to resolve this problem and prevent such incidents from occurring in the future.

This unfortunate event significantly impacted our overall experience, and as a result, we have decided to give the restaurant a...

We sat at a table next to the bar, it was quite tight and the waiters kept knocking our chair. Annoying. The chairs are uncomfortable - wooden with no cushions. Hard to sit on for a whole meal.

The waiter explained how the food could be ordered but we understood very little. Plus, half way through the meal he offered to take our coats.

The starters were tasty and decent sized portions but the starters didn’t come together.

We ordered sea bass for four people at a cost of £120. Unbelievable. This was very expensive for one fish. Plus, it was swimming in oil. The sides were extremely small and the twice cooked wedges were ordered were just chips.

I found the service to be arrogant and patronising. Also, we had to chase for drinks many times. Plus, when the drinks came, he handed them to us and did not remove the wine glasses, which should be when no wine is ordered.

As we left, having spent over 300 euros, not even a thank you or goodbye.

In summary, I’d not go back because the experience felt arrogant, judgemental, and the prices were of a fine dining restaurant that was neither met by food quality of service.

My phrase is, charge what you want, but the service and quality needs to...