Midtown Grill (Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS) ★★★☆☆

Midtown Grill is a steakhouse brought to us by the Marriott Hotels. We can find them in several European cities including Copenhagen, Berlin, Prague, Brussels and Amsterdam.

On a typical Sunday night in Amsterdam with dismal weather, we knew our options were limited. Well, at least Midtown Grill was "strategically" close to our hotel.



The dining room was almost completely empty!



The tuna tartare with avocado and a touch of spicy soy sauce was not bad (5/10).



The pan seared scallops were fine as well (5/10).



Less successful was the Maryland Lump Crab Cake with sauce tartar and micro herbs  (4/10).



We opted for the roasted chicken with rosemary instead of one of their signature steaks (5/10).






Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$

Address: Stadhouderskade 12, 1054 ES Amsterdam, Netherlands

Tel: +31 20 607-5555
Website: www.midtowngrill.nl

Hotel Vondel (Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS)

Hotel Vondel wasn't even on my radar screen a week before our trip but soon after our booking for Mint Hotel Amsterdam fell apart, I started looking for its replacement and there we found this little townhouse-style boutique hotel with a pretty decent price.

Located just off the nightlife-centric Leidseplein in the Museum Quarter, Hotel Vondel is everything you look for from a boutique hotel. It's simple. It's modern and it's comfortable. And yes, it's quite affordable too.



There's a nice blend of modern and tradition in this contemporarily designed space.



Evidently, they've put a lot of thoughts into the design of each room to make it comfortable and at the same time very stylish.




This is a very quiet area especially at night but that's perfectly alright as central Amsterdam is just around the corner. 





Rating: ❤❤❤
Price: €€€
Address: Vondelstraat 26, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tel +31 20 612-0120
Website: www.hotelvondel.com

Barlow Bar & Restaurant (Den Haag, THE NETHERLANDS) ☆☆☆☆☆

Despite the cold, damp, and windy weather at night, we decided to take a walk around Den Haag’s city centre after arriving late from Ghent. We managed to tick off a few more spots from our bucket list.

The Binnenhof in The Hague is the political heart of the Netherlands and the oldest parliament building complex in the world still in use (Credit: Wikipedia).

King Willem II Equestrian Statue

The Ridderzaal (Hall of Knights)

Our next mission was to grab a quick (and very late) supper. Barlow — a bar and restaurant just steps from the attractions we’d seen, seemed like the perfect place to have dinner. Instead, it turned into a bit of a nightmare.

After being shown to a table in the farthest corner of the dining area, we were effectively stuck “no man’s land”. We kept waving our hands to get someone’s attention, but after more than half an hour, not a single server came over to take our orders. I’m sure at least a few of them saw us waving so that was hard to swallow.

And it was Saturday, which meant that at this late hour, it didn’t seem like any other restaurants nearby were open. So we just kept trying and trying...

I didn't know whether we were still furious or what, but it has obviously affected our mood to eat so consequentally, we found the dishes to be underwhelming to say the least.

Pumpkin soup

Tuna salad — The tuna just looked awful.

Fettuccini with chicken and tomato

Prawns

This meal certainly didn’t go down as one of the highlights of our trip. I’ll leave it at that.

Price: $$$

Address: Plein 15-16, 2511 CR Den Haag, Netherlands

Tel: +31 70 392-3655

Website: http://www.barlowdenhaag.nl/