Please note that since writing this blog post, Knus has closed down
As anyone who looks at this blog regularly will know, I’ve been woefully slack at writing up my food experiences over the past few weeks. This isn’t because I haven’t been having any (food experiences that is). Quite the contrary: I’ve been going out so much I seem to have run out of time to write about them.
Now, on the other hand, I’m ill at home on my sofa when I should rightfully be drinking and dining at Gala tonight. So for once I have time to do some blogging…
A couple of weeks ago, a group of us tried to go to Lo Stivale d’Oro for dinner. An Italian with a good reputation, we couldn’t book a table till 8.30 so we decided to meet at Knus for drinks beforehand. Great mojitos coupled with bruschetta topped with everything from roasted pumpkin to raw tuna to hoi sin duck were a perfect preface to the meal we thought we were going to have. When we made it to the Italian, however, there was no sign of any table space in the foreseeable future so, after complaining vociferously, we returned to Knus.
The restaurant is split between three narrow floors – a typical Dutch building – and has an atmosphere made extra cosy by the warm colours. Most of the tables are very small, but there are a couple of ‘booths’ that are perfect for groups, so we chucked out one poor unsuspecting couple so that the eight of us could fit comfortably. We ordered some more of the tasty bruschetta to tide us over until our main courses. Some confusion ensued as a tuna sashimi salad arrived, instead of the tuna bruschetta, but very uncharacteristically the dish was exchanged (no questions asked) and we were given the extra salad for free as a gesture of goodwill. Anyone who’s been in Amsterdam for more than five minutes will know that’s pretty much unheard of.
Although the restaurant was half empty, we did have to wait an inordinately long time for our main courses, which may explain why we were all feeling somewhat tipsy by the time they arrived. That didn’t detract, however, from the fact that we found ourselves eating more interesting and experimental food than we’d expected from this unassuming restaurant. My duck was served with vanilla mash, while others had steak that came with a chocolate sauce. It might not have been Heston Blumenthal exactly, but I would commend the kitchen’s efforts to spice up what is essentially a mid-price neighbourhood restaurant.
The desserts, I was told, were good, though I didn’t quite feel able to eat one by 12.30 am, knowing that I had to go to bed with a very full stomach in the not too distant future. The bill was reasonable, coming to around €45 each, including the wine, of which we drank a lot. Given that we hadn’t even been intending to eat there at all, Knus was an excellent alternative to our first choice of Italian.
