Grand Cafe Mynt

Our family just arrived in Amsterdam from London and came upon this welcoming looking restaurant. We were starving and looking for lunch. We were seated promptly. We ordered a burger and some salads. We waited. And waited. And waited. Everyone around us ordered, ate, paid, left. Our order was no where to be seen. We summoned our waitress to check on its status. While she did go back to the kitchen to check, she did little to reassure us our order was coming. No explanation and no burger or salads. Bear in mind that the Mynt burger is first on the menu and apparently the house specialty. 45 minutes later the salads came. Maybe I should say the poor excuses for salads: head lettuce, feta cheese and green olives drenched in dressing. Is this 1974? For 13 euro! Still no burger. After an hour we told her to forget the order. We began yearning for the shwarma we saw prepared in the little shops by the canals. She said OK and went to tell the chef. She was not terribly invested in our receiving the food we ordered. She brought our bill and we paid for our meager, overpriced and underwhelming salads. Feeling hungry, disappointed and ignored by the waitress, we summoned for the manager. She stated that she will not charge us for the burger and that we must pay our bill. She said the kitchen must work hard to supply 2 restaurants. Excuse me??? She better not charge for our burger. We never got it! Furthermore, we already paid our bill, lady. We weren’t trying to mooch free salads from you. We don’t care how hard your kitchen works. This is a restaurant. That’s what a kitchen does. Where did you learn your management skills? Shame on you. Shame on your restaurant. No wonder the waitress was indifferent. You are a poor leader. To all who are tempted by the inviting interior-​run the other way.

All businesses and restaurants are extremely close together, so sometimes places can be hard to find. With this place, however, the ultra modern exterior is hard to miss. We were referred to this restaurant by the concierge at our hotel. I was a little surprised upon arrival, because there was nobody present. But, that has more to do with the fact that we are here in winter (not the busy season for tourists), and people tend to eat their meals later in the day.
I have to say that the food here was delightful. I had a sandwich with melted mozarella, fresh tomatoes, herbs, pesto and pine nuts. I also ordered one of their Baileys and coffee drinks. My friend had a salmon sandwich. Both of our meals were tasty and prepared as we expected. The prices here are pretty decent too.

My fiancé and I found this place to be a little… Confused. To begin, it had a nice updated, trendy feel. Pop and hip hop music was playing in the background. They had a full bar and lots of flat screen TV’s that would play the latest sports match.
Then there’s the menu. They’re open for breakfast, lunch and dinner… Which I find kind of weird. Who wants to have coffee and breakfast in a place that basically looks like a club/​lounge?! Also, they have free wi-​fi. So, basically this place is a breakfast café, a bar, a restaurant, and lounge all rolled into one. Identity crisis, much?
Anyway, we ended up here because we’re tourists and we were too lazy to find something more authentic and locally loved. I had the pasta Bolognese, which was simply okay.
The service was good and everything else was at par. Wouldn’t go out of my way to come here, but if you’re touring and too lazy to get out of Centrum, this is a decent place to settle.

The apple pancakes are probably one of my most commonly craved foods in Amsterdam. I wash them down with an Irish coffee and it’s a pretty great way to start off a little shipping excursion.