Cocktail, not the movie

Saturday night we celebrated our friend’s birthday with a dinner at a jazz club here in The Hague. The birthday girl, Mel, choose the restaurant for the music & the cocktails.

Please read the sign carefully. What does it say about cocktails? Remember that!!

We had to walk 2 stairs up to find an almost empty restaurant. Umm… Is that like an omen? If it wasn’t for the good live music we would have left.

When the waitress came, she asked what we wanted to drink. We ordered Cosmopolitans.
“I’m sorry, but cocktails are not served at this moment. At 10 or 11 the bartender will be here and he’ll make them for you”.

A bit disappointing, since they advertise with cocktails (ah the sign!). So we asked for a menu to see what other drinks they had. She brings the menu and there a like 5 cocktails on it, including the Cosmopolitan. Funny.

Umm maybe I didn’t read that correct. Let me put on some (one else’s) glasses. Uhm, no it says c.o.c.k.t.a.i.l.s.

We decide to give up on the cocktails and go for a Kir Royal.

“Do you know how to make them?” the waitress asked when we ordered them.

Mel is like the queen of cocktails (I know Kir Royal is not a cocktail shut up) so she helped the waitress make the Kir Royal. They actually were very good. Go Mel!

At about 10 PM we see the bartender. We’re SO excited! Cocktails finally!!

We order 4 Cosmopolitans. The waitress comes back and says the bartender won’t make them. He supposedly needed an extra half hour to get ready. She admits to having had an argument with him over this but he’s refusing to make us cocktails.

…EE E E Excuse me?

Again the waitress (she was really sweet though) offers to make them with our help. So Mel made us Cosmopolitans. I think she was a bartender in a past life.

Mel is on the left you can hardly see her, she's behind the coffee machine, she's really there, REALLY, she’s there making us all Cosmopolitans.

Besides the cocktails (or lack of them):

• The food was extremely mediocre (let this be an advise for tourists, don’t come to this club for the food or cocktails!) and had all the ingredients we had asked to leave OUT.

• They asked us 50 cents for the use of the toilet. We refused to pay, how rude is it to ask 50 cents for the toilet on a 130 euro bill??

• Mel bumped into the manager at some point. He asked if she’d enjoyed the dinner. She says “well, to be honest, not really”. He then said nothing and passed her. How rude can you be???

Although this dinner was not a success, we did have a lot of fun! We’re just never going to eat there again. Ever. Even for Dutch standards this was pretty bad.

And if you did read the sign and you’re wondering; No, there was no live French kissing either ;)

That's us.. somewhere ;)

Amsterdam @ night

As promised, the very first what-to-do-while-visiting-my-tiny-little-country-called-The-Netherlands. Here´s a great evening or night tip while visiting Amsterdam:

If you're in the mood for fun & dinner at the same time... Boom Chigago is where you should be!
They have the best improvisation comedy show I've ever seen! Their food's pretty good too! They're SO freakin funny!! You have to go there.

It's located on Amsterdam "famous" Leidse plein (pronounce: LIDE-se-PLINE).

Eventhough there are many "coffeeshops" in Amsterdam, you certainly don't need any alcohol or smokes to get a good laugh. We went to see their show "Best of Boom Chigago 2004" and had a fantastic time!

When you´re late you can go to Heineken Late Night show or any of their other shows.

Boom rocks!

(and if you don't like to laugh, go there for their nachos dinner... mmmmm :)))

On your left hand side...

I don't keep it a big secret that I dislike some things about my country & it's culture. That doesn't mean however, that it can't be fun here when you're a tourist. In fact, there are many fun things to do here.. So I decided to add a new category "I'm your tour guide for today". And I'll start today tomorrow (me sleepy) by adding our visit to Boom Chigago last friday in Amsterdam! So just in case you happen to visit my tiny little country (NO The Netherlands is not the capitol of Sweden) you know what to do!