Review of restaurant Open, Amsterdam

Due to the works in the Central Station area of Amsterdam for the Noord-Zuid line (the new metro line that’s being build in Amsterdam) and the reorganization of the area, there was suddenly a spare railway bridge. So some people had an original idea and used the bridge as a base for a new restaurant. So today we went on a excursion to find this place. We knew it was somewhere close to Central Station, but didn’t know exactly where. The bright side of this is that I discovered a nice piece of Amsterdam that I haven’t been very often, namely the area around the Westerdok. There are some nice small streets there with old houses. Just like being in an old village.

Anyway after a while we spotted Restaurant Open in the distance and we found our way there. You have to go up a stairs and down a walk way to enter the place. On the walkway you should be careful, because there is an old piece of rail or something there as decoration on which you can easily stumble. And if it’s nice weather you can also sit here, because the walkway doubles as a terrace. The outside of Open gives you a lot of anticipation, thinking you will enter a special place, but we were quite disappointed when we entered. First of all we felt completely lost. It was not clear if we could just take a table ourselves or if we had to wait to be seated and there was no staff there to welcome us, they were all busy with something. So after a bit we decided to look for a table ourselves.

There were not many tables free, so we took one close to the bar. I took the menu to see what they served for lunch. Not so many special things, eggs sunny side up on bread, soup and some other sandwiches and salads. I decided to take eggs sunny side up and a fresh orange juice. The orange juice was really fresh, but it came from a jar, so no telling at what moment of the day they had squeezed it.

While waiting for our food, I had a chance to look at the decor. It was quite the standard modern restaurant interior. Although what surprised me is that it already looked a bit worn and Open hasn’t been open for so long yet. A nice touch was the green benches that have the same color of green as the benches in some trains. A nice reference to the history of the bridge Open is built on. Also the staff looked a bit worn. They were attentive, but not very genuinely interested. Also the people that visit this place look quite wannabe. Also I think a lot of people from the dutch Chamber of Commerce come here, since it is just across the bridge from Open.

By then our food arrived. The eggs were okay, with the yolk still a bit liquid, but the funny thing for me was that the decorative salad came with exactly one slice of tomato. It looked quite sad on the plate. The decorative salad tasted well though for just being garnish. The eggs were also okay, but there is not much you can do wrong with that. The orange juice though, my friend was picking the stones from his mouth. So fresh yeah, but it would have been better if they had taken out the stones, especially at almost 4 euros a glass!

In the end this place was making us a bit depressed, so we decided to leave and have a coffee and pastry at Bertram & Brood. When we left by another way, I realized how ridiculously close we were to Central Station

Restaurant Open does not live up to the expectation it generates in terms of location and ambiance. But worth a visit when you are close by, just to see a restaurant on a bridge.