It might be a nordic habit (or maybe not), but here in Amsterdam, where people are usually super busy to carry on with their own life and schedule, if in a relationship, you feel the need to set up “Date Nights” with your partner from time to time. When I and Mati plan our date night, we always want to go to a special place.
Yesterday we decided to go to the Scheepskameel, a restaurant located in a very central area of Amsterdam, a few steps away from the Nemo museum. Since I met Mati almost 3 years ago, Scheepskameel was one of the first restaurants he mentioned to me to be highly recommended in Amsterdam, with its very European look and feel.
When arrived we asked the staff to be moved to another table since our was too close to the entry and to the register, and we wanted to be in a more quiet spot. The waiter kindly invited us to wait at the bar since there weren’t tables available at the moment, but we were barely able to order our drinks that a new table was made free for us. To be fair, it was Friday evening and the place was quite crowded, although the restaurant is very well run by the waiters and manager of the sala.
We have been moved close to their gigantic open kitchen.
You would think that probably wasn’t the quiet spot we were looking for, however, I have to say that I’ve rarely seen such an organised, quiet and efficient kitchen. The new table was perfect then, and it gave us also the opportunity to admire the amazing job and beautiful dishes the chefs were creating.
We have been proposed of a 5 courses menu, but we decided during the dinner to cut it basically at the 3rd course since the portions are not small and we didn’t want to overdo it with food.
I’ve ordered a beef tartare that is probably one of the bests I’ve ever had. The colour of the meat with its vivid red, and the mix of flavours that came with it without covering the taste of the pure and raw meat, were just amazing.
To follow, I’ve ordered a second dish, this time made with potatoes, corn, green beans and a crunchy chicken skin that was incredibly delicious.
My third and last course was a quail with white beans. A bit complicated to eat, but I knew wouldn’t be an easy dish. It was very well cooked, and the meat of the quail was juicy and tender.
We have ordered a German aromatic white wine, a Wagner-Stempel Scheurebe from 2018 which has complimented all the dishes we ordered, and we closed our dinner with a brownie with vanilla ice cream, and 2 grappas of Nebbiolo di Barolo.
We paid 65 per person which sounded very reasonable for the quality of the meals and for being in the very centre of Amsterdam. Overall, we couldn’t be happier to have picked this restaurant for our date night.
Scheepskameel it was actually a special place for a special night.
From Bari with Love
