restaurant of the week: rem eiland

How I do love ‘treasure hunting’ for the best places in Amsterdam! And how happy I am to have ‘discovered’ REM eiland, a restaurant 22m above 't IJ waterway. This restaurant is not intentionally kept a ‘secret’, but it is located north of an industrial area, so chances of ‘just passing by’ are slim to none.

Restaurant REM eiland is a serious must-visit in Amsterdam.what i love about REM eiland

Well just look at it: an odd steal construction set IN ‘t Ij waterway! The views from the restaurants are supercool and very ‘new Amsterdam’. 

what I also love are stories, particularly those ending with ‘turned into a restaurant’… 

REM eiland used to be the broadcasting station of TV Noordzee. In the 60s, other than the one public TV channel and no channels were permitted in NL. By broadcasting from the North sea the law was circumvented, hence TV North sea. The government managed to create a new law, known as the anti-REM-law, to stop the broadcasting of the commercial channel and confiscated the construction in 1964. Flash-forward to 2011 and the steal island was saved from destruction and turned into a restaurant. 

View from the table. Recommended: reserve a table at the window at REM eiland!pleasantly surprised: the service

The waitress was SO sweet! She is your typical girl-next-door, probably a student who works here for some extra pocket money. I don’t think she has the ambitions to run a restaurant one day and she is also did not appear highly trained for the job. Nevertheless she was service-oriented and seemed to sincerely care about our dining experience, No attitude, no unnatural stiffness… what a pleasant change from the rudeness and fakeness that I have grown accustomed to in Amsterdam. The other girls and guys that occasionally waitered upon us were very kind, so, really, chapeau to REM eiland’s staff. 

REM eiland's Tabouleh with Dutch shrimps starter. unpleasantly surprised: the menu (seafood, European)

The following remark is highly personal, although my dining partner felt the same, so therefore I will share it with you. Despite the menu being varied, none of the dishes really appealed to us. We had never experienced this and do not quite understand why this was the case. Am I getting too spoilt culinary-wise that no dish can raise my interest? The chefs are good though, so I have no complaints about that at all! If you’ve dined at REM, let me know if you had the same feeling.

price-quality

Supergood! E29.50 for a 3-course menu of pretty good quality. REM eiland confirms that if you move out of the centre of Amsterdam that both price and quality are boosted tremendously. I spend E100 for a dinner for two, including 4 glasses of wine, table water and fruit de mer starter.

REM eiland has several different dining areas. 

clientele

low key to high LinkedIn profile and anything in between. 

i will return with…

• my parents and in-laws
• any visitor from out of town

good to know

• paid parking
•  there's a lift, so you don't need to climb staircases

View from REM eiland's roof top at 22h30, July evening.

don’t forget

your camera and a visit to the roof top! The binoculars are free of use.

Restaurant REM eiland, Haparandadam 45-2, Amsterdam 't IJ, west of Central Station (so not in Noord).