A little confession: I’ve never really warmed much to the capital of my home country. It seems almost blasphemous to mention it around my Dutch friends, but here it is. Oof, and boy, does it feel good to get it out in the open. Amsterdam always just seemed too pretentious to me. I simply felt it lacked the energy of truly big cities in Europe and also lacked the charm of many smaller towns in our country. Go, go visit Delft, Maastricht, Utrecht, Groningen!
If my week in one of the nicest neighborhoods of the city wouldn’t change my feelings, I decided that was that. It simply would never work between me and this city. But, and I’m sure you see where this is going, one week is all it took to win me over. If I were feeling a bit petty, I’d use the ‘but I just spent months on a different continent & I was feeling nostalgic’ excuse, but that would not be fair to this lovely diverse town.
So still in Amsterdam, we headed out west. We took advantage of the lovely weather (always playing such a big role in such a little rainy country) and got seated outside at Restaurant Freud.
Freud’s goal is not only to serve tasty local, seasonal (and mainly organic) food, but mostly to motivate their employees and help them out of their isolation. Everybody, from those doing groceries and the cooks to the waiters, has a psychiatric background and at Freud they all do their best to give us eaters a great evening.
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| “Restaurant Freud is different from ordinary” |
A great initiative that has been around since 2007, but what about the food I hear you say? You have a choice between their three-course menu or pick and choose your dish from their regular menu. I picked the charcuterie, duck breast and we all shared their chocolate cake for dessert. The food was good, the accompanying wine very decent and the chocolate cake heavenly. So heavenly, we gobbled it down before I could even get my camera out. Oops!
If you’re around this part of town, looking for honest food and a slightly different evening out than usual, do visit Freud. And in case you’re hungry earlier on the day, across the street Freud also runs a breakfast/lunch room.
