Lion Noir

We visited for the Tasting Menu (7 courses). Initially, it was nice with the service and pleasant first courses. Throughout this whole experience, I’d say seafood is their specialty, as it was always prepared so well that I would recommend here for seafood. However, I was quite disappointed by the restaurant’s selection of utensils and cleanliness. My main complaint would be the pairing of eating utensils and plates. The utensils do not sit well on the deep plates and make it burdensome to manoeuvre around for the food. This also means that cutting steaks was problematic since the knives couldn’t cut with full potential. Furthermore, the heavy bottoms of the utensils would constantly slide into the plates and make a mess when it got covered in sauce. Changing the deep plates for flatter plates would eliminate this problem. We had difficulty with the venison, which by nature is a tough meat, but it was extremely difficult to cut with the given knife and likewise hard to chew - the toughest I’ve had at a restaurant. I appreciated that the waitresses and chef offered to replace my knife (which I accepted) and bring a new piece of venison (which I rejected; no other options aside from venison offered), but I was still left unsatisfied due to their prior approach when I called one over to say that I believed the knife I have was dull. “It should not be” and “You should cut along the grain of the meat” were my responses… Obviously my meat showed several attempts at trying to cut it without penetration and I’ve eaten enough meat in my life to notice that there’s a problem beyond my control, which I had to show the waitress my pathetic attempt at trying to cut the meat without success. The comments from the waitresses were not useful and reduced my impression of the quality here. I could literally drag the knife on my thumb and it would not cut it. One waitress arrived with three knives - two of the same steak knives that I had issues with and one butter knife. Guess which knife performed better? The butter knife. Why? Because it at least was a bit serrated. The steak knives offered here were un-serrated, so they get dull easily and need constant maintenance to keep their sharpness. My dinner guest who had the same dish did not bother to cut their venison due to the same complaint and just stabbed the venison with the fork and took bites from it. It also seemed that some of the waitresses (there were 3-4 different ones helping us that night) were not as enthusiastic serving us after that incident, but it could also be dismissed by the busy day they were having. For the cleanliness, I constantly found specs of dried food stuck on the plates, cups, and silverware. Attention to the cleanliness of these before distributing to guests is needed… Other things, which were not as serious were the noise levels, wine service, and butter-less bread. It got very noisy during the evening, so it was difficult to talk to others as if the noise of every visitor bounced off the walls and you could hear almost every conversation. Regarding the wine service, I understand that not every restaurant does this, but we found it unfortunate to buy a bottle without tasting offered, which the wine was subpar with a high markup. Lastly, we were served bread with no butter. This is the first time I’ve dined somewhere that does not offer butter with their bread. Overall, this is a nice restaurant with good potential. As long as you do not find issues with eating your food, you will most likely find the experience pleasant with cheery waitresses.

The restaurant is beautiful and the courtyard where we ate is peaceful and romantic. We had such a lovely meal and we stayed for hours, enjoying our last night in Amsterdam. The service was amazing; the staff are very helpful and friendly, they even gave us blankets when we got cold! The food itself was delicious and the wine we had was lovely. The whole evening was simply perfect.

Located in the centre of Amsterdam is a placed called Lion Noir (Black Lion). They have a wonderful back garden with beautiful details and the best part of it it’s so calm and relaxing. If you feel like going out having a great lunch and enjoying Rosé in the sun this is the place to be. They have a nice menu and of course we picked three dishes to share with a lot of oysters to start with. They have three varieties of oysters 🦪 we choose to take the Classic ones with lemon & vinaigrette (FAVOURITE ONES) and the Ponzu & Chili ones. For main I could not choose beacuse I always get to exited and want everything so we had the Steak Tartar with grilled bread. (It was super delicious) The salmon Sashimi which was very fresh. And because I was hangover I wanted a chicken sallad and what can I say I just dived in there so fresh and soo good. This is a wonderful place with good hospitality as well. It’s like being in Paris. Price wise I would say $$. If you can sit in the back garden during summer you should!!

Great upmarket dining in a very beautiful, relaxing atmosphere with excellent, friendly service. Every dish was a great combination of flavours. We went two days in a row for a three and four course dinner respectively, choosing the chef's menu where you don't know upfront what you are getting. Also the wine pairings were great! Staff make you feel very welcome and well taken care of.