IMDonehere

Thanks again for all the advice during the planning stages.

Has there been a topic recently that was dedicated to restaurants in Amsterdam?
We eat everything and our budget is in the middle, even though we are not sure what that exactly means yet in Amsterdam or Brussels when balancing value and quality. If not could you please recommend any cuisine in the usual tourist haunts. We are renting an apartment just north of the Jordaan.

Second, my wife read that the waiters in Amsterdam at best are complacent and at worst, plain rude, is there any validity to that?

We have accounts with two very large banks in the states and neither one has branches or affiliations in Belgium and Netherlands. We are experienced travelers who like to pay with credit cards whenever possible, because we usually get a good rate but it seems many restaurants do not take cards. It seems like we are going to getting whacked when you use other banks ATM's for Euros. Any suggestions?

Thanks again.

lateinlifetraveler

We spent eight days in Amsterdam last September. We used our American credit cards at every restaurant meal. We found the servers quite professional and they saw to our dining needs as needed. They do not introduce themselves or give their first name as is often the case in the states but we do not care about that. They answered questions about the menu, were courteous and checked on us throughout our meals. I really fell in love with Amsterdam and hope we will be able to return again. The people of Amsterdam were very friendly and the city is lovely.

IMDonehere

Thank you late.

I too do not care about establishing a short term or long term relationship with the servers.

lateinlifetraveler

I forgot to mention that we used bank ATMs (none were an affiliate of our bank) and did not get any fee charged by them.

janisj

>>It seems like we are going to getting whacked when you use other banks ATM's for Euros<<

Not quite sure what this means. Whether you get cash w/ an ATM card or use your credit cards (most people do both) you will be hit by small fees by your issuer. It costs close to the same whether you do cash or credit. You'll be able to use credit cards quite a bit -- but getting cash is not onerous.

IMDonehere

Thanks. Usually when you use a credit card overseas you get a charge for using your card and then another hidden fee in the exchange rate. And although we had a credit card that claimed that they did not charge a user's fee, I noted that there exchange rate was a bit lower than others.

Great, thanks for the information.

menachem

//Second, my wife read that the waiters in Amsterdam at best are complacent and at worst, plain rude, is there any validity to that?//

Yes. and be prepared for that. It is one among many reasons why we moved from Amsterdam to Rotterdam. Point is, especially in the centre of town, it's so tourist heavy that many restaurants figure that their customers will never come back again and they treat them accordingly.

We've walked out of pretty up scale restaurants because of lousy service.

But, if you want to have a fair evaluation of a restaurant, use iens.nl

http://www.iens.nl/restaurant/amsterdam#

you'll have to google translate, but generally, you'll have better service at a restaurant with marks of 8 and higher. When you click through to a restaurant you can immediately see how "service" has been rated, and even google translate the reviews.

good luck

IMDonehere

A sheynem dank Menachem.

aussiedreamer

http://www.restaurantdekas.nl

We had an amazing experience at this restaurant, follow the tram info on their page, really easy!

menachem

yes, de kas is wonderful, but it's not for casually dropping in and needs to be booked well in advance.

always good to book ahead, which can even be done by dropping in when they're prepping during the day. that way, you can check out the restaurant too.

Bordewijk, on Noordermarkt is always good, but there too: book ahead.

IMDonehere: you'll probably be close to Haarlemmerstraat: huge advantage if you want to do food shopping for a picknick lunch.

http://goamsterdam.about.com/od/wher...lemmerdijk.htm

jamikins

We have eaten at this Indonesian restaurant 3 times and had lovely food and very friendly service

http://www.sampurna.com/

hetismij2

Your own bank may charge you for using ATMs but you will not be charged when you withdraw cash at any bank machine in the Netherlands.
Given the overall cost of your trip the fee your bank may charge for ATM use is so small it doesn't seem worth worrying about.

IMDonehere

Thank you all. I have noted all the restaurants.

Hetismij
I completely understand your sentiment, but it is the principle of paying to get your own money.

hetismij2

Well you pay for it one way or another anyway. Banks aren't free, they make money from everyone, just hide the charges normally.

I pay €3 for transactions outside the Netherlands, plus exchange costs outside the Eurozone. Fact of doing business with a bank. Just take out as much as you are allowed to every time you use the ATM to minimise costs.

janisj

>>I completely understand your sentiment, but it is the principle of paying to get your own money.<<

As long as you understand you will also pay extra to use your credit cards.

Avalon2

I have 2 credit cards that charge no foreign transaction fees..Chase British Air card and Virgin atlantic Mastercard thru Bank of America!

IMDonehere

Avalon those are the cards that usually give you a little less than others.

Banks have use of your money, for which they make on loans and investments including derivatives.

But such is life. I will never forgot the first time I got foreign money from an ATM. It was over 20 years in Hungry and no other country would accept Florins for exchange.

Michael

If you have a local credit union, ask them what their fees are. We are charged the 1% Visa conversion on both our credit card that ATM card, but the exchange rate is a fraction of one percent compared to the rate obtained on Google or xe.com. We use our credit union as our band for traveling, keeping a minimum to maintain an existing account and depositing what we think we will need for our travels shortly before leaving for our overseas trip.

IMDonehere

Thanks again for the suggestions.

Belinda

I've never experienced that about waiters/restaurants. Quite the opposite as I've actually gone out with waiters I've met in restaurants twice.