Review of italian restaurant Sa Seada, Amsterdam

Sa Seada is an italian restaurant in the east part of Amsterdam close to the Amstel river. I remember this restaurant, because it has very large windows, which have been broken a few times in the last years. I hope not by unsatisfied customers When we arrived the friends we were meeting were already there, admiring the baroque decor. They had already ordered a bottle of wine and a bottle of water. When the waiter came to bring those, he told us the daily specials. I always think giving the daily specials orally is a bad idea, because I never remember them, only when something really stands out. Luckily a little later we got some menus. The specials were not in it, but there was enough on the normal menu. The menu has a lot of things on it, of course pizza and pasta, but also meat and fish dishes. The fish is daily fresh so it’s different every day. There is also a big selection of starters and if you can’t choose, you can take the big dish with a little of everything. I finally chose to have a pizza and a starter with mozzarella, ham and figs.

A little later another waiter arrived to take our order. He didn’t write it down, so it went wrong of course. First he came back to ask again which pizzas we had ordered. And when the starters arrived, brought by the first waiter, mine was missing. I told him that and a few minutes later my starter arrived with an apology. The food was simple, but quite tasty, although the lettuce was quite dry.

The service has Italian speed, because it took quite some time after the starters for the main course to arrive. One of my friends had ordered the fresh fish which was taken of the bone for you at the table. Unfortunately I think the poor waiter was not very experienced with it, because my friend still found a lot of bones in his fish. The pizzas were great though. Made with real mozzarella cheese! It was too much, because when I was half way through the pizza I was already quite full. The portion here are quite generous, so I think with sharing a starter and a pizza between two, you might still have room for dessert.

I was too full though to have a dessert, so I ordered a cappuccino, hoping for a real italian one. One of my friends did order dessert. It was ice cream mixed with prosecco wine and wodka. I think the waiter was a bit disappointed that only one of us ordered, because he had to open a bottle of prosecco just for my friend. The mixing of the ice cream and the booze was done at the table as well, in a big bowl and a whisk. When he was finished though, the other waiter had stil not arrived with a glass for it, so he had to go and get it himself. The cappuccinos were also adapted to the dutch taste, meaning a lot of milk foam on top of it. I guess you can only get a real cappuccino in Italy

Sa Seada is a typical italian restaurant with theatrical waiters and not too fast service, but the food is, although simple, very tasty!