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Lof
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Restaurant
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Amsterdam
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Credit Cards:
None
Open:
Dinner Tues - Sun
Price:
Moderate
Score (/20):
16
Reviewed By
Sue Dyson and Roger McShane
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Phone Number:
02 0620 2997
Address:
Haarlemmerstraat 62
Amsterdam
Country:
Netherlands
Food Style:
Modern European
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There are some restaurants that we want to keep going back to! When we land in San Francisco, it doesn't seem to matter what grand plans we have made, we always end up at Zuni Café. A sky train trip down Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok inevitably means dropping in to the Vientiane Kitchen. When we arrive in Nice it is La Merenda. In Paris it is Aux Lyonnais. For the past ten years, a trip to Sydney has meant a longing for the food at the Sailors Thai Canteen. (Once it also used to be the lovely restaurant in Washington called Rupperts before it closed.)Well, we think we have found an equivalent in Amsterdam. The laid back restaurant in the trendy Jordaan called Lof, immediately appealed to us.The décor is unlike many of the highly contrived designer restaurants and shops you find in this city. It is down-market - it is comfortable. There is no menu. The waiters sit at your table and engage in a conversation about the offerings of the night. There will be two or three appetisers, two or three main courses and a few desserts. There might be one or two specials of the night.The clientele are also comfortable - local academics and advertising types - foodies looking for a real meal - and a few like us who had heard on the grapevine that there was interesting food to be tried here.We tried local white and green asparagus topped with a soft poached egg accompanied by a very good herb mayonnaise. This was lovely. And a good start to the meal.The brandade was not based on cod but favoured halibut. It was served with mizuna, capers, herbs, olives and anchovies and was topped with some shavings of pecorino. There was also shaved fennel in the topping and in the brandade to balance the strong flavours. A well-balanced and flavourful dish.We were blown away by a lamb dish that consisted of slices of lamb leg sitting on a stew of lamb pieces from the shoulder lifted by the addition of fresh local morels. Our other dish was skate wing bolstered by a spiced coriander mix from Yemen that was accompanied by steamed romaine lettuce and topped with those wonderful leaves of sea ester that we had tried the previous night at De Kas.We even tried desserts of frangipane tart and stewed rhubarb because we were so excited about the food.The wine list is quite limited but we enjoyed a Domaine La Suffrene from the Bandol area that we just love.We want to go back to this restaurant. It is the type of place we just love. It is comfortable, yet it is very, very serious about the food they serve. They are not arrogant about what they are trying to achieve and the waiting staff understand that they are there to help you enjoy the very, very good food.Remember that like a number of restaurants in Amsterdam, they do not take credit cards!Note: we found out about Lof in the wonderful StyleCity Amsterdam below.
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