The Cottage — Restaurant in Amsterdam

The Cottage, Amsterdam: Service most definitely with a smile Good, hearty food and a very warm welcome are in store when you visit The Cottage, Amsterdam. Situated just off one of the main roads into the centre of Amsterdam in the heart of a thriving residential suburb, this thriving café /restaurant/English pub is the perfect place for a pre-theatre meal before heading into the city centre. With parking across the road in the Q-park at €1 per 16 mins (which is cheap in comparison to rates just a short distance away) The Cottage is perfectly located for those travelling from out of town to see a concert at say the Muziekgebouw. Staff gave us an incredibly warm welcome and the small bowl of Tyrells salt & vinegar crisps served with the drinks, really set the tone, and were devoured in a flash!

The menu is not extensive and there is a limited range of specials each day, but there is enough to keep most people happy: pies, steak, fish, ploughman’s salad, confit duck and some more fish! The food was very good. We both had the steak and asked for it medium rare. I would say that mine was more on the well-done side, but that was ok as the quality of the meat was excellent with a wonderful open texture and great flavour. This was served with a lovely herby salad – watercress, baby spinach and sliced white cabbage with a dill dressing - which was excellent and quite unexpected. The onion relish/marmalade served on top of the fried potatoes was a lovely touch – a little taste of England.

We both had a glass of the Cabernet Franc which was served chilled. There was some reticence at choosing a cold red wine, but actually it worked very well and was delicious.

For pudding, we ordered the triple ginger cake with toffee sauce which my husband really liked – the little bits of ginger were a nice touch. For myself, I ordered the rhubarb crumble which I think was the least successful dish of the meal: the rather chunky crumble was not as buttery as expected. The menu also indicated almond, but I tasted hazelnuts (which I love) almost like the Italian cantuccini biscuits you have with coffee. To me, the texture of the fruit was also a little dry, almost as if it had been cooked ahead of time and then dried up when reheated which was a shame. I expect a crumble to be rich, sweet and juicy especially when rhubarb is currently in season. The quenelle of proper English clotted cream on top did save the day!

Finishing with an excellent coffee was the perfect way to head off to our concert. We will return!

The bill was €76 for two,...

What a rude waiter!!! Please stay away from this chaotic, totally messy place, especially if you don't want to ruin your relaxed Sunday afternoon. We booked for a roast "2 months" in advance, arrived at the place 15 min earlier, of course there was no table available, in that noise and chaos, we waited at the corner and asked at least 3 times when we would be seated. In the end, I decided one last time after half an hour waiting to ask, the waiter started shouting at me, blaming me for being rude, after waiting half an hour for a table we actually booked 2 months ago! If you are unable to manage the reservations, close that business! He told me bad things, yelling at me in front of people instead of going and solving the issue and apologizing for forgetting us for half an hour. We left in the end, didn't wait further after this scene, even if he gave me 5 star food after this attitude, I wouldn't enjoy it anyway. I wish whoever the owner or manager of this cafe pays attention to this review so that these kinds of people thinking that they work in a service industry, I mean the waiter guy with ponytail, don't get away with that behaviour and learn how to treat customers. He even ran behind us out of the restaurant when he saw we left and continued swearing! With some high ratings, they are extremely spoiled and losing a customer is perhaps nothing, but some sensible people should avoid this place after reading this review please...

Update after co owners comments: After reading the response from the ponytail co-owner, I am so glad that I didn't spend a dime of my money on this restaurant. They will not survive long with this arrogant attitude, instead of apologizing and putting effort to improve the business, still spending energy on writing ridiculous comments for a review!! Everyone is now sure what kind of treatment I got in that restaurant from this guy! I...

Wowowowowowowow I can’t believe I am saying this but this is better British food than I’ve ever had than all my time in Britain. Take that to your bank and smoke it.

Jeez so the highlight: after acquiring our pints from a very jealous (but lovely!) waiter on a sunny afternoon I wanted to show off our lovely slice of Scottish culture with a cracker scotch egg. And guess what? It surprised me too. This was the best scotch egg I’ve ever had in my life, without a doubt.

The breading on the egg was insanely crisp and herby, the meat on the inside was like the Scottish stuff but on steroids (it actually tasted differently to what I’m used to, but honestly it was better), and the egg in the middle was perfectly set and translucent. With the splash of piccalilli on top, which I’ve also never had before a scotch egg, this made for a genuinely mind blowing dish.

I got the omelette on rye bread with some caramelised onions as well which was also absolutely cracked. The omelette was smooth and filled with mayo that made it taste all that bit smoother. I cannot recommend this place highly enough if you want to have a good impression of food that definitely does not get made this well on these isles.

But come on, get haggis neeps and tatties on the menu!!

Thanks for letting me charge my phone too and for the excellent...