Tempo Doeloe

Fourth time here. First time was amazing and three later visits were just ‘ok’. I think the difference has been the server. First time was a young lady who took care to understand what foods I liked and didn’t like and how much spice i liked and could tolerate. Since then, same male server who could barely explain the menu. On tonight’s visit, I asked a question and he said he’d have to get someone else to answer questions about what specifically was in the dish (really? Isn’t that his job??), but later I watched him advise a table of men in detail about what they should order. Snubbed because I was a table of 1 or female? Who knows. Anyway, food is good. Used to be great. Order one of the rijkstaffels and hope you get the young lady who served me the first time to guide your journey.

Lovely restaurant and service. I’ve been twice now. The first time, I got the rijsttaffel with a group of four. It was too much food, but delicious. There were a few vegetable dishes that looked the same, but I was surprised at their distinct seasoning.
The second time I went on a date and got the five course fish menu. I was assured it wasn’t too much food, but I had to leave some of the soup (too rich) and most of the main. The nice thing though is that there is the option to leave out any of the items. Don’t skip the dessert though. It was gorgeously presented with a variety of tropical fruits.

Amazing food! Waitstaff was wonderful — they have been working there for over 20 years! Must visit.

We saw this restaurant featured on a tv show and though we should definitely give it a try and though the food was just fine, though an issue with tipping left us having a bad night. It’s always stressful knowing the tipping culture when traveling so we looked it up ahead of time and followed the guides we had found online.
The owner who served us our bill practically yelled at us, making a scene in the restaurant, that we had not tipped enough saying that as tourists we are expected to tip more than the online guides were telling us. He guilted us into paying quite a bit more towards the tip and we left with what was supposed to be our lovely dinner ruined. I would avoid this place. The food is fine, but the service will ruin your evening.

This place is a MUST when in Amsterdam! The risttafel (rice table) was simply incredible… we lucked out and got a table without a reservation, but were told we’d have to be out in an hour… wasn’t an issue at all and the food was AMAZING! I would definitely recommend getting a reservation tho because even on a Wednesday night this small restaurant was packed to the rafters!

If eating a lot is your cup of tea, invest in the rice table. Between my mom and I we couldn’t finish nearly half of the dishes. I’m sure I finished the gato gato because peanut covered anything is right up my alley. That said, be prepared to eat a lot. It comes all at once, so take little portions of what you order. The food also ranges from no heat to very spicy, keep the water flowing to along with the rice. The turmeric rice was my favorite as it had a gorgeous golden yellow color and no spice to it, while it paired well with the anise pork we had. I’m drooling here! Overall, a nice place to dine in Amsterdam.

I finally got to have a meal here. Hooray.
This is damn good food. Super tasty, I went with the rice table for vegetarian. I’m happy (maybe I should be ashamed) to say I ate it all.
The staff are super friendly and sweet. We had a table for an hour and a half. They block the times for each table which isn’t so gezellig, but we called that day so that’s fair.
Anyway, the food came out very quickly and we managed to have a nice meal in the time allotted.
It’s a small space but they make it work. I really enjoyed the food!

Crowded seating, Okay food, Bad service, Not suitable for a quiet dinner. We went for the rice table option. No one explained the dishes to us, serving staff were not friendly. We’ve had better Indonesian-​Dutch food in Chicago.

We really enjoyed the risttafel (rice table) at Tempo Doeloe. Make a reservation ahead of time, show up, ring the doorbell, be greeted and seated, and prepare yourself for intense flavor.
We opted for the rice table option that comes with about 25 small tastes of different dishes because we wanted to try them all. Porks, beefs, chickens, shrimps, tofu, tempeh, liver, veggies — there is a lot going on with this meal and the menu has a very helpful section that explains two important details: take your time and don’t mix the dishes but rather eat each one separately. This way the subtle and not-​so-​subtle flavors don’t get muddled and lost. With the dishes come sides of white and yellow rice, as well as some shrimp and nut crackers. This will greatly help with the spicy dishes.
The servers explain each little dish and the progression from mild to medium spice to extreme. It’s a very memorable, fun, unique experience and we are so glad we tried it. As in all the restaurants in Amsterdam, we found that we were not rushed at all and spent two hours enjoying this meal slowly and happily.

An interesting choice for Indonesian food. Having read much about it, we decided to try for ourselves. Having arrived just before the restaurant opened and without a reservation, the owner/​matre d’ was kind enough to seat us. The menu sounded delicious and had a variety of both meat, seafood and vegetable choices. I was undecided between the coconut curry prawn or the cod in lemongrass and ginger. The server told us I could do a half order of each and create my own «three course meal». I also opted for the appetizer sampler and was able to choose three items. I chose the shrimp mousse in crispy pancake, corn fritter and the Indonesian chicken soup. The soup was excellent with the right amount of heat and flavor. I enjoyed the corn fritter more so than the shrimp mousse. Both the cod and prawns were excellent as was the rice and side dishes. The place is rather old school or old world. The tables were also rather close. We appreciated being seated and the service was good but not great. Both my guest and I were in need of a second beverage which was never offered.

Overpriced and underwhelming. Spend your hard earned money elsewhere. Not sure what Mr. Bourdain was thinking.

We had an amazing Indonesian culinary experience here. Transitioning your palette from mild to spicy, what great fun for our taste buds.

My wife and I had this place bookmarked long before we went on our trip, and we had been looking forward to the Rijsttafel Istemewa. We made an online reservation for 18:00 days before, and it said they would confirm via email. We had to call the day of our reservation because we never got an email, and they said they were having trouble with their website but they could fit us in… but they would need the table back by 19:45! Although we didn’t get our food until around 18:30, we had plenty of time to finish all of the small dishes… except for the two hottest. I love spicy food, and I would have finished them except I wanted to be able to taste my dessert. :)
The servers, although hard to flag down, were very nice and hospitable. I would have happily eaten there every night if there weren’t other places and cuisines we wanted to try.

Great experience. Seems like a more traditional rice table and many Americans but also Dutch too — we saw a family (birthday?) party of probably twelve, plus many pairs of business and date-​looking Dutch people dining. Giving four stars because this is my first rice table and I have nothing to compare it to.
Waitstaff was excellent — friendly and patient, and food was interesting and very good. We counted 28 dishes in all including the fried banana dessert (seriously, the best vanilla ice cream I have ever had).
We were really freaked out about the heat level and asked our waiter for mild — but would recommend to go medium because there was literally no heat in any dish. Unique flavors yes, but we all agreed that we would have liked it spicier.
Think twice about letting the waiter talk you into the +++hot meat dish. It is paralyzing and we watched a teenage boy ruin himself by trying it. The waiter admitted to us that it’s a bit of a tourist stunt, but insisted that Dutch people come in and order/​consume a full dish of it. If you do go for it, be sure to listen and follow the waiters instructions carefully (VERY SMALL BITE OF MEAT WITH RICE) and ask for «the antidote» and they will bring you a glass of passionfruit juice. For some reason they didn’t offer this to us. Maybe we didn’t look like sissies? But everyone else received it and I could tell they were relieved.
Restaurant was near our apartment so I stopped in the night before to make a reservation, which I am glad to have done, seeing many people turned away or told that the wait was 1+ hour. Because the restaurant is small and there are so many dishes, it really does take a long time to dine there. Plus the whole Tony Bourdain thing, I am a sucker for him so I admit that is why I went, makes it a very popular restaurant.

My tram got rerouted due to track work, and my wandering eyes fell upon Anthony Bourdain’s layover landmark. Gave them a call, got a reservation 15 minutes later, walked back from the next tram stop, buzzed in, was greeted by the most charming of hosts, taken to the back bar for a warm up cocktail, then seated to the most hilarious yet charming of settings (mirrored ceiling for one). That was only the beginning. First a sampling of their delicious homemade sambals for sport, then shortly after, the most exquisite of Indonesian cuisine this mouth hath yet to have the pleasure of savouring. Be warned; this food is not tempered by the typical Dutch palate. Hot means hot. My friend learned the hard way and doused his flaming tongue with his own tears.
In a word: awesome.

My favourite place in Amsterdam for Indonesian food.
Their rijstafel is fantastic. Every time I have friends coming over from abroad, this is the first place I will choose to have a proper dinner with them.
Saw many celebrity there as well.
And remember, this place only take people with reservation.

a little bit overhyped. only because their Rijsttafel Stimoelan
Small ricetable consisting of: (vs. Nasi plate very similar but not separated)
— Sawi Toemis — Daging Semoor Gadon Dari Sapi
— Ora Arie + Oerapan + Sambel Goreng Boontjes
+ Sambel Goreng Oedang + Kelia Dari Sapi + Sateh Ajam
++ Petjel — Emping — Seroendeng
— Atjar Tjampoer — Kroepoek white rice
problem was that multiple little dishes tasted the same. the chicken dish was very spicy. but they had a lot of pickled veggies.
Perkedel Djagoeng were basically corn fritters, nothing special
Soto Ajam chicken soup not quite as good as I had in Bali
Pangsit fried wuth tiny centers a bit boring.
lots of indonesian places to try, don’t need white table cloth.

Tempoe Doe-​NO! This place is nasty – and that is putting it kindly already. bleggh. yuck! Anyway, like everyone has already mentioned, Indonesian food is kind of a big deal in Holland, so we were determined to try out an Indonesian restaurant. For a Michelin-​rated restaurant, this place was really a disappointment.
The food was pretty bland, and tasted the same. All the dishes were just the same type of savory, kind of like how in Korean restaurants, the «spicy sauce marinating the meats» are highly similar in flavors, if ya know what I mean…
Anyway, the spiciest dish, was so spicy, to the point where you don’t even want to eat it. So even if you are a brave soul and want to sweat it out with the spices, the spiciest dish isn’t really worth ordering.
In the appetizers, they have shrimp chips that tastes exactly the same as shrimp chips that you can get in supermarkets around Amsterdam. I’m sure they fry it and make it fresh… right? :-/​This also brings up something funny, we made a reservation to eat as soon as the restaurant opens, and we were the first table to arrive (hence the photos with the empty restaurants). Anyway, as soon as we sat down, and haven’t even had a chance to order anything, we hear the chefs cooking up a storm inside the kitchen… weird. I would say that it was because they were frying the shrimp chips, but because it smelled really fragrant, I’d place my money that they were cooking the main dishes already. No surprise since everything tastes the same… Did i mention that already? Oooops.
Anyway the service was mediocre, so they get half a star added to this review (yay! a total of ²⁄₅ stars). The total came out to around 300 euros for my family of 3 people. No big deal, I won’t be coming back and I definitely would not recommend this place to anyone, not even my enemies.

Amsterdam has a large Indonesian population so, of course, we had to try Indonesian food! Tempo Doeloe is a small restaurant that you definitely need to make reservations in advance to get a table… luckily we did! The door to the restaurant is locked, so you need to ring a doorbell to get in. Also, most of the meals take a long time to prepare and eat, so be ready to have lengthy dinner.
We were all adventurous, so we decided to do the 25 dish rice table. It’s 25 small sampling of select dishes that progress from very mild to extremely spicy. And they are all served in the center at once. We decided that the best thing to do was see the spicy progression, so we all started with the mildest dish and slowly enjoyed each one, progressing forward towards the spiciest dish. I really enjoy spicy foods but the spiciest and final dish is REALLY hot. That said, it was tastefully done. You can tell they don’t smother the food with spiciness without purpose. The final dish hurt to eat but tasted very good. And all the dishes in between the mildest and the spiciest were all amazing. It was fun to see how the dishes progressed as we moved along. I hope to go back one day!

We were on a family extended weekend in AMS.
As good expatriate Dutchman we had to have our fixing of the real deal «rijstafel».
This place was recommended to us by a local, and boy we were not disappointed.
I had the medium rijstafel, which was perfect! And when the lady said something was really spicy, it was REALLY spicy… Loved it.
What was probably a highlight is that for our 3 kids (9−7−5), the chef put together child plates (taking in account one is allergic to peanuts). They ate it all ;-) and were almost in for more.
Very warmly recommend the place, the price is very well in line with e great quality and the friendliness.

**AWESOME INDONESIAN FOOD IN AMSTERDAM**
Reservations highly recommended.
Ordered a simple cocktail at the bar, but was made poorly. Cocktails were NOT their specialty.
We were seated near the bar area.
Saw many locals and some travelers.
Simple ambiance. A bit noisy, but acceptable.
ORDERED:
*MENU SERBA IKAN
CONSISTED OF:
*BEBOTOK — Codfish mousse in cabbage leaf was simply delicious. Unique and memorable.
*SOP TOMAT DAN OEDANG — The creamy tomato sou with shrimp and basil was a definitely different from most Asian soups. Heartier and bolder in taste, but delicious all the same.
*OEDANG RAKASA KOENING — The grilled giant shrimp were my favorite. Very big and very good.
*IKAN WOKOE BELANGA — Wow, their main dish fish specialty was wonderfully flavorful and fulfilling.
*ES PANILLE DAN ES KAJOE MANIS — Combination of coconut and mango ice cream. .. and the coconut ice cream was out of this world.
We almost passed out from too much food.
Solid Indonesian food and probably the best I’ve had.
RECOMMEND.