Cinema Paradiso is a famous restaurant in the `Jordaan`, Amsterdam´s most known area. It´s located on the Westerstraat, one of the central streets in the Jordaan.
When you enter the restaurant there is a long hallway to the restaurant. In the front of the building they situated a bar which is also the smoking area. This is the first point of criticism, there is no chill area where you can have a drink at a bar filled with people and have a good time before you go to your table. Also, there was no bartender present when we arrived at the bar and that stayed that way for 15 minutes.
The restaurant itself is a very nice place to sit, relax and to have a good conversation. The people surrounding me never were a disturbing factor. Disturbing was the chaotic waitressing. Again we have to wait for 15 minutes before someone even noticed us and another ten minutes to get some water and wine at your table. What made things really worse is that they were out of meat of the day. I think we arrived at the restaurant around 8 and we looked at the menu around 8.30 so that wasn´t even that late. Probably a bad case of inventory management what a restaurant like Cinema Paradise actually shouldn´t have. The pasta´s were okay but not excellent. The wine was really good. As a starter I took a bruchetta for 13 euros which was one(!) small bruchetta with salami and provolone cheese on it. I don’t mind paying for my food but there is a line and that line got crossed for sure.
Word on the street is that Cinema Paradiso is a pretty good restaurant but I couldn’t notice that at all. I will definitely give it a second chance but my first visit wasn’t a really good one.
