Satchmo — Restaurant in Amsterdam

If I could give this place zero stars I would. Not because the food was awful, although it wasn’t that good. The service is extremely poor. I have been to a plethora of restaurants but the lack of care and obvious rudeness is truly astonishing. After being seated the waiters ignored even providing a drink menu for longer than 15 minutes. Once the food was ordered we were asked if we would like it all at once or gradually. We ended up choosing the latter. This is not a necessary accommodation but since we were asked we gave our opinion. The food took over 40 minutes and came all at once. Some of the dishes were lukewarm while some were hot. We requested the steak be medium and rare and received it well done. Either way, up till this point my guest and I are not particularly critical as mistakes can always happen. During our meal the server did not ask if we needed anything or even asked if we wanted to some water. My guest asked for a ginger ale that took 30 minutes to receive. After sitting at a table for an additional half an hour after finishing our meal and our plates not cleared I requested the waiter for the check. Mind you, this entire time we have just been sitting here and he has been walking past our table as if we ceased to exist. He told us he was a bit flustered from the number of tables he had to serve that night. Understandable. However, it took him another 40 minutes and a broken wine glass later for him to bring our check. I’ve worked in the service industry before, there is no excuse for not bringing a guests check for 40 MINUTES. I’m more than willing to accommodate for any person to have a bad day or make some mistakes. But in this case, it was clear that he willingly ignored us, consistently walking to the table adjacent to ours, and the “fallen” wine glass while I went to the restroom in front of my underaged sibling, was the icing on the cake. If you respect yourself, stay away from this place and it’s hazardous waiter. I will point out one thing, the server bringing our food was a woman and she was nice, as well as the kind waiter with the tattoos and the host that was seating people. If the owner is reading this, it was a bearded man with slick backed black hair. I apologize if this was lengthy but I have never been so irritated to the point of writing a bad review EVER.

Edit* I did not look at the reviews prior to writing my own. Seeing past peoples experience it comes to no surprise this happened. The ambiance, the location, and the overall vibe of this place is great, so it’s just a shame for it to be ruined by...

TL;DR: Great food and a warm welcome, but inattentive service and poor handling of mistakes let down our experience.

We booked our recent dinner here through the American Express dining programme. The evening started nicely—the host was friendly and quickly showed us to our table. And honestly, the food was fantastic; every dish we tried was genuinely delicious, no complaints there.

But the service wasn’t as smooth. Our server started by offering to pour water, but then placed the bottle awkwardly far from us. After waiting for a bit, I got up and poured it myself. The server noticed and apologised, yet somehow kept forgetting again, leaving me refilling glasses myself throughout the night.

We had a two-course menu and also ordered an extra dish to have between courses. After finishing our first course, the server asked if we wanted another wine. We said we’d order shortly. Instead, another staff member unexpectedly brought our main courses. When we pointed out the mix-up, they quietly took the plates away without explaining anything. Even though we tried to get their attention afterwards—they were serving nearby tables and clearly saw us waving—they just didn’t react. Ultimately, we sat there with empty wine glasses for nearly half an hour.

Eventually, I went up to reception. Two employees were already discussing our table, and it turned out our original server had made a mistake with the order of the dishes. They openly admitted their error but didn’t offer any apology or explanation. I asked for the wine card to order the next wines.

After that, things went better, aside from our second wine arriving late—after we’d already finished the extra dish we’d ordered. Also, unlike with our first wine, they skipped the tasting and brought our glasses already filled.

Overall, amazing food and a great initial impression, but unfortunately the inattentive and awkward service took away from what could’ve otherwise been a...

Came here on 10/7 at 7pm on a recommendation by our hotel. The waitress (blonde hair with pony tail) did not know what she was doing. I ordered a gin with sparkling water and a lime and she gave me plain sparkling water (no gin) with a lemon. She also forget my stepdad’s glass of wine. By the time we had the correct drinks we had been sitting there for roughly 30min from the time we ordered. She also only brought out 3 oysters when we ordered 6. She did not write our order down, so no wonder it was messed up. Appetizers tasted fine, however three of us ordered the halibut which was mushy and smelled like it was spoiled.. manager came by and tried to dispute it and say “that is how it is cooked here”. He clearly doesn’t understand seafood and should know fish is supposed to not smell overly fishy and mushy. It should be flakey and not smell horrible. We eat halibut regularly (couple times a month) and this was by far the worst experience we have had. We sent the order back immediately and closed our tab and left. Service was absolutely horrible and we have told our hotel concierge this place should no longer be...