The first restaurant by chef Yotam Ottolenghi in the Netherlands, located in the Mandarin Oriental Conservatorium, focusing on vegetable-forward, bold Middle Eastern and Mediterranean flavors.
Ottolenghi Amsterdam is the first restaurant by renowned chef Yotam Ottolenghi in the Netherlands, located within the luxurious Mandarin Oriental Conservatorium in Amsterdam's Museum District. It follows the culinary philosophy of his London restaurants, particularly ROVI, focusing on vegetable-forward dishes, bold flavors, and sharing plates, with an emphasis on ferments and pickles.
Customer Perception
Customers praise the great food with unique and special tastes, highlighting the variety of vegetarian options and the generous dessert portions. The staff is consistently described as friendly and welcoming. However, some reviews note issues with the pacing of food delivery, small portion sizes for certain dishes (e.g., squid), and a perception of being slightly overpriced. The ambiance is generally considered lovely, though one review mentioned a 'hotel lobby feeling'.
Additional Details
This is Yotam Ottolenghi's inaugural restaurant in the Netherlands, marking his return to Amsterdam, a city he once called home. It is situated in a prime cultural location, a short walk from the Rijksmuseum.
The restaurant is suitable for both lunch and dinner, with the possibility of staying through from one meal to the next. Given its location in a hotel, it likely caters to guests and visitors throughout the day.
Saturday evening and most probably it is always the same in everything restaurant (high class or not). The team is really nice but for they forgot a couple of times our dishes already ordered....
Location wise is really amazing within the Conservatory but the acoustic and the lights are not optimal (to be nice). Food wise all was tasty and looking good (and at the end this is what you are looking in a restaurant). Here is our choices: Kimchi fritters (tasty and correctly fried), smoked labneh, halloumi (this was one of the best), hot tomatoes in cold yogurt (cool), pitas (arrived cold), Octopus, Aubergine with spiced Crouton (this was the dish really disappointing...the crouton were not crunchy and the Aubergine were really dry). Bavette was super tasty and correclty cooked (well done chef), the chicken skewers, the summer salad and Crispy potatoes (again one of the best).
Will come back during the week...to try a better service, less noisy place and same good food!
One last suggestion: in a few tables the flowers were old and dead (so so sad).
If I could I would give 6 stars. I‘ve been following Ottolenghi for some time and love the concept of making seemingly simple dishes taste extraordinary. And this experience has been exactly that! The location is beautiful and captures the vibe of nonchalant exclusivity. You sit on modern, yet comfortable upholstered chairs in a semi secluded area of the Mandarin Oriental. The building is an old courtyard that was covered by a glass Fassade and when you look up you can see the sky over Amsterdam. Even though the Kitchen is in the back they have come up with a garnishing station to give an „open kitchen“ vibe, which I personally love. The waiting staff was friendly and personable, they were attentive and we did not have to wait long at any stage of the night. But the true highlight of the night was the food. We ordered the Labneh with Zatar, the smoked aubergine and the celery Shoarma to start. All dishes were great but the Celery Shoarma was out of this world. The textures and flavors just exploded in my mouth with every bite and I found myself craving for more. If we hadn’t already ordered so many dishes, we would have ordered it again because it was so good.
As a main we shared the Mushroom bbq plate which was Also fantastic. She squishy mushroom texture with the grilled taste and a side of tahini mixed perfectly. We also ordered some potatoes on the side and I dare say they almost outshined the main course. Smashed baby potatoes baked in the over to perfection and drizzled with an oily green dressing.
And to round it off we had lime leaf dessert with peaches and raspberries and again this was just delicious. Absolutely LOVED every bite of it and we will definitely come again.
Huge selection of vegan and vegetarian dishes especially for the starters and bites. Maybe it could be nice to have another vegetarian main course next to the mushrooms. Prices are on the higher side generally speaking but quite standard for Amsterdam and the price quality is unbeatable in this case!
11/10 experience. We loved it
4
We love Ottolenghi and therefore came to visit this new place in Amsterdam. The food is as expected, tasteful and delicious as you would expect. The location in the Mandarin hotel felt a bit off… service was ok but not consistent, i heard they tell different things to table next to us. Prices are off… we can eat same quality at a much more reasonable price in other good places (Neni is one of them). I would expect Ottolenghi to be a look and feel of high quality and presentation but approachable laid back setting. So overall liked the food, but price/quality/setting can be improved.
3
The food is good. Flavors are great but nothing surprising. The staff are very friendly and welcoming - they definitely make the place.
But the tempo of the food coming out was a bit of a mess. At this price and standard, we expected a bit more of a course-by-course. But sometimes we waited long minutes for one dish, other times got 3 dishes at once. The main arrived before one of our small plates.
Overall a nice experience but a bit of a hotel lobby feeling. I'd recommend it more for business than a romantic dinner.
Friendly staff, solid food, but a bit overpriced for what you get.
4
Overall, we had a good experience at Ottolenghi Amsterdam. The food was delicious and beautifully presented, and I liked that the menu isn’t too extensive. The burnt leek was absolutely delicious, and most of the dishes were of very good quality. The only real disappointment food-wise was the spring salad.
I would give it a 4.3/5 for the overall experience, but the restaurant is simply too expensive for what it offers. €10.50 for a beer, €8 for a double espresso, and €36 for a chicken skewer is excessive and, in my opinion, impossible to justify. The prices, especially for drinks, are completely out of proportion to the experience.
It’s a real shame, because the food itself is genuinely very good. I also found it strange that the kitchen already closes at 9:00 PM.
Overall, very good food and a pleasant experience, but the pricing is simply too high and the value for money is not in balance.
