A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post a new food trend: contrary to the 12-page menus that confound diners at many Asian restaurants and stuck-in-the-80s hotels, the next generation of restaurants is paring down to just one key dish. Take Burgermeester’s burgers, for instance, or Bierfabriek’s rotisserie chicken. In the same vein comes the latest addition to the red-light district: Meatballs. Or should I say, MEATBALLS, as the menu shouts at you.
My first impression of the Warmoesstraat diner was that it felt very American. I thought it was the service (which was pleasantly un-Amsterdam) but then realised it was probably the air-conditioning. We sat at brightly lit tables with high stools that reminded me of the ribs restaurants of Memphis or Nashville, Tennessee. But instead of ordering light beer, we cracked open a bottle of Valpolicella.
The menu, despite the simplicity of the concept, was relatively confusing – possibly not made easier by the fact that we wanted to try as many different things as possible. First you mix and match the combination you want (three of a kind, three different kinds, vege or meat, that kind of thing), followed by the precise balls (and I’ve had to stop calling them meatballs since not all of them are made of meat), followed by the sauces and finally the side dishes.
My favourites were the meatiest varieties: the spicy pork, the bacon and cheesy beef, and the meatball of the month, which involved Serrano ham. The vege varieties looked a lot like bitterballen, but were dry through lack of animal fat. The tomato-based sauces were the most successful, while the creamy numbers didn’t do much for us. The gnocchi was tasty but a little heavy, as was the wet polenta. But my major complaint about 90% of what we ate was that it was cold – or lukewarm, at best. And that – when your concept is only to serve variations on the same single dish, and when you’ve waited a significant amount of time for that dish to arrive – is pretty unforgivable.
To her credit, the waitress offered us free coffees to make up for it, but we turned them down through lack of time. Dinner came to around €30 each, which felt like a considerable amount for just a (cold) main course plus wine.
I wanted to like Meatballs – not least because Amsterdam could use some establishments with a decent service ethic – but some basic errors let it down. Perhaps it’s one to re-try in six months once the teething problems have worked themselves out.
