Please note that since writing this blog post, Razmataz has closed down
It won’t have escaped your notice (unless you’ve been confined to a darkened room for the past week) that it has been blissfully, gorgeously, surprisingly sunny in Amsterdam. After the coldest winter since 19-something, we’ve finally been graced with the first days of spring: I’ve ditched the woolly hat, got a few more freckles and hit the terraces.
So I blame the weather for Friday’s white-beer-and-rosé hangover. And what better hangover cure than hair-of-the-dog and dinner? The former was at Café Pieper. But as the evening grew colder I headed up to Hugo de Grootplein to new restaurant-cum-bar, Razmataz. It has outside space as well, but the sun had well and truly set by 20.30, so we grabbed a table inside.
Over a bottle of the-dog’s-entire-coat Sicilian red wine, we chose two courses each from the versatile menu. Versatile because half of it is available in two sizes: starter and main. Good for people like me who like to try lots of different things; and good for people (e.g. boys) who like to eat twice as much.
I ordered parsnip soup with Dutch shrimps; the soup was thick and sweet and edged with saltiness from the shrimps. Simple but sumptuous. Next I had a small helping of Razmataz’s answer to Surf ‘n Turf: lightly seared veal with uber-fresh gambas, baked ‘roseval’ potatoes, asparagus and a kind of buttery lobstery sauce. The dish was surprisingly generous given the price of the starter portion, with the exception of the asparagus. It seemed curious to me that a restaurant would serve so much veal with so few vegetables, when clearly these are the cheaper of the ingredients. But ratio of meat to two veg aside, the flavours were superb and everything was cooked to perfection – not a moment too long.
Our bill came to almost €30 each, which seemed reasonable despite two of the three of us opting for a ‘small’ main course. Only the service was a little slow, but the waitresses’ friendliness more than made up for the wait.
Despite the restaurant’s not being open long, one of my best friends has already made it her new local and regularly stops by for a drink on the sunny terrace after work. Now that we’ve tried the food as well, I may very well be following suit.
