The Old Bell — Restaurant in Amsterdam

I visited this place with the intent to try their spare ribs. Besides the ribs, I ordered more fries, iced tea, and coke.

The indoor ambient is quite good at this place. I can say it emits classy vibes regarding the overall interior, the furniture, the way the food is served, utensils, etc. They even have a very nice artificial fireplace. Have a look through the restaurant's gallery. This is 5/5 for me.

The indoor music is in the alright-loud range. I.e., you can still have a pleasant conversation with someone at your table, even though I expect the place to get quite loud on busy days. Luckily, most people might choose to sit outside, and indeed I haven't noticed overcrowding indoors on my two recent visits. My pick is the indoor dinner because I want protection from cigarette smoke. And insofar the terrace and the indoors aren't connected, that worked quite well for me so far. Altogether for the stage 5/5.

The staff is very professional-friendly and helpful, so I tipped high. I call this impeccable. 5/5

Regarding the ribs themselves, they look good. The taste is all right. I found them harder than expected to cut, and overall they were a bit too bony for my taste. The portion side is fair, as in 'just enough', rather than having just a bit extra. That perception could be individual. Overall, I would give the food 3/5 for quality. However, let's look at the pricing as well. These ribs are a bit on the expensive side, which makes it relatively poor value for money overall. Thus 2/5 here. Things could be different with other servings from the menu.

The drinks were standard but, got to say very nicely served and accompanied with ice in every glass. You might notice that adding ice also counts in. This is a 5/5 experience.

Overall the place is 4/5. While that might seem a bit too much given the spare ribs paragraph, I don't think so. There are quite a few good things about this place, and ultimately I've come there for the spare ribs, so feel free to look around at the rest of their menu. The location of this place is great (Rembrandtplein), and, at least at the moment, they offer an excellent separation between smoking and non-smoking areas, unlike many other places. I will monitor that over the...

Went for dinner and drinks on a Thursday night. Was fairly busy. We walked in, didn't need a reservation. Had a party of 6, seated us at two small tables. I ate on the corner of the table.

Restaurant is advertised as an English pub, but the menu was very interesting. Some English standards, but seemed to be a mix of English, Irish, American, and Dutch.

I got the ribeye steak, was perfectly cooked. Amazing flavor and quality. Side salad was a nice touch. Also ordered the onion soup, incredible depth of flavor. Was volcano hot, waited a bit for it to cool down.

Rest of my party ordered fish and chips. Was a single large piece of cod. Everyone said it was good. They didn't rave, just said it was good.

We all had beers and drinks, but I wanted high end scotch. They had a small top rack behind the bar with five selections. Noticed that a bottle of Lagavulin 8 was sitting in a spot marked for Lagavulin 16. Hopefully people didn't pay for...

Old Bell is a small tavern with a little cat roaming the tables. I was initially happy with my service, but I was not impressed by the food. I ordered the nachos and the apple pie. The food was not worth the price point due to lack of flavor. The nachos were okay. I got a few chips down but it was not appetizing enough to finish. I ended up not liking the pie at all and requested it be taken back and taken off. The pie was watery which took away much of the flavor and integrity of the crust. The original gentlemen man who served me tried to help and get it taken off. A second man came over and was very rude to me. He stated that I ate it and if I didn't like it I must not like apple pie because 50 other people a week liked it and walked off. I was polite in my request to take it off and the original young man was sympathetic that people just don't like the same things. I will not be patronizing this...