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 Sea salt & cider vinegar crisps served with the drinks, really set the tone. We devoured them in a flash!
Main course
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.
To drink
We both had a glass of the Cabernet Franc, served chilled. There was some reticence when choosing a cold red wine, but actually it worked very well and was delicious.
Pudding | Dessert
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 crumble which I think was the least successful dish. The very chunky crumble mix was in contract to a much finer and more buttery crumble mix which I am more used to. In addition, the menu 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, including drinks.
Restaurant reviewed on Friday 12th May 2023 ★★★★
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