Rem Eiland

This is one of the coolest restaurants I’ve been to in Amsterdam. With breathtaking views and also breathtaking staircases, the place is full of history and good food — of course. For those who visit, you might wonder how and why they built a restaurant up there (I know I did!) and there is actually a pretty interesting story behind it.
History cut short, in the 60’s there was only one television channel in The Netherlands (can you imagine that?) and the government did not allow commercial television, so they broadcasted from the sea! This island was built in the north sea, and was known back then as the pirate broadcasting station for the Radio and TV Noordzee, until the army shut it down.
After that, the artificial island was moved and used for many purposes, but in 2006 was relocated to Amsterdam and caught the attention of bussiness men Nick van Loon (from a prestigious family in The Netherlands — they even have their own museum and I’ve wrote a review on it) and Hilly Engels. They thought «why not make it a restaurant?» (obviously that’s what you think when you see an old pirate tv broadcast station) and saved it from demolition at the time and transformed it into a restaurant that opened in 2011.
Enough about that, you wanna know about the food, right? The food is ok but nothing to brag home about. It’s all about the location for me.
I would recommend going for lunch as they can get too busy at dinner time and service can be slow. During sunny and warmer days you can sit outside or on the terrace to eat or have drinks (which I highly recommend you do), that has a great view of the IJ (river).

Un endroit étonnant. A priori un ancien poste de surveillance des bateaux qui circulent sur la mer à côté. Il faut avoir le cœur bien accroché on y arrive par deux étages d’escaliers a la limite d’une ascension verticale.
Le temps d’attente est très long environs 1h30 avant d’être servis. Les produits sont correct mais pas originaux ni très fourni. Il faut y aller pour le dépaysement.

What an extremely cool place with an amazing history. We got last minute reservations with no problem, and the service and food were really good. I highly recommend checking this place out if you like something a little different.

I love Rem Eiland for the unique beast she is. Great food, not exceptional, and unlimited views deliver a unique evening. The ambience when you enter is tough due to the layout, but the main diningroom is energetic. Bring your camera as mother nature is on display.

Only go here for the view! Bad staff. Mediocre food. Everything went wrong. When I addressed all the problems to the waiters they said I had to talk to the owner. She turned out to be the rudest person ever! Unbelievable. Don’t eat here. Ever.

I don’t know what’s wrong here. Food is terrible, take a long time to wait for food, then the food is over cooked!
Terrible!!! Never come back again!!!

One of the places I wanted to try for a very long time. Wonderful location with a nice view of the city and t’IJ.
What could go wrong went wrong when we went there for dinner. Starter and desert was nicely presented and really good of taste, but the time between the courses was extremely long! We had to wait approx. 45 min. till an hour and the waiters didn’t offer us any new drinks when our glasses were empty. It was really hard to get (eye) contact with the waiters and it felt like they didn’t care about the business. I’m unable to judge about my main course because I received a really rare steak instead of a medium rare which I had ordered. It was not possible to cut through the meat because the waiter also forgot the switch the cutlery.
This restaurant with such a clueless and poorly instructed staff shouldn’t deserve to be on such a nice place. I won’t come here again and definitely not recommend others to go here for dinner.

Heard a lot of positive things about this place, but it failed to deliver.
Even though we had reserved a table, we weren’t seated until 30 minutes after arriving, received our appetizers after another 45 minutes, and then another 60 minutes until main courses.
The food was ok.

The only reason I gave 2 stars instead of 1 is because the venue itself is very cool. A modernized oil rig looking over the harbor with a really nice interior.
We sat at the bar while waiting for a reservation, the bartender literally didn’t know how to make me a jack and coke, he had to have the manager come pour the shot…
Sat down, ordered the large shellfish platter, when it finally came it was not good. The oysters and everything had been sitting out for a while, kind of rubbery and definitely not fresh… super disappointing, and expensive. *This food is NOT French by the way, it is a Dutch take on French food! Not even close!
Got our meals over an hour later, my fiancé was ok with his, but my steak and side were actually cold, I’m not sure if they even have heat lamps in the kitchen. Finally I had to flag someone down to take it back, couldnt find our server anywhere.
**They brought the original steak plate back to me after they MICROWAVED it in the kitchen. This is NOT a cheap place! It was totally ridiculous, by the time I got my plate back we had been seated for 2 hours and my fiancé was already done.
At the end we expressed our disappointment to our server (she finally came back to give us our bill), she told us to come back in 6 months because they will probably have a different cook. proceeded to charge us full price for everything.
We left super disappointed with empty pockets.

REM-​eiland is in a 3 story off shore platform once located in the Ijmeer. The platform was dismantled, brought to shore and rebuilt and as of July 2011 houses Restaurant REM-​eiland. I ate there once, in October, and was quite impressed. The food is fantastic: French café fare presented very prettily and tasted great. Its a 3 course menu for 28.50 euro, which is pretty reasonable in my book. I went with 5 people and everyone was pleased with what they got.
The restaurant and the view are just amazing, and there is one particularly thoughtful touch. The dining room is open, with a lot of metal and class and I was worried that it would be loud, but happily the designers added sound buffers on the ceiling so even though the place was packed with diners we could still hear each other talk. Very nice.
I think the best time to go would be on some summer night when the sun is up late and you can watch all the activity in the harbor. I hope to do that when it gets warm!
Two things to note: first, when you make a reservation (which is a must) ask for a table with a window, and two, it is a bit of a walk from the nearest bus/​tram stop, so if its a rainy night you may want to consider driving your car or taxi.