Dinner with friends @ Nieuw Amsterdam, Lt Lonsdale St Melbourne

M and I had been to Nieuw Amsterdam before and had a nice experience. On that occasion, we had the pork trotter and ham nuggets which were delicious and a generous portion. The mains we got, the pork chops and jerk chicken, as well as the side of mash were all delicious and great value. Thus we were keen to go back and when it came to choosing a dinner venue to meet some friends at, we came back here.

However, on this occasion, our experience was significantly less positive. Firstly the minor issues we had with the service on our first visit were amplified this time around. I've found that in general the waitstaff here are pretty lackadaisical. They also have a habit of getting orders and table numbers wrong. On our first visit they gave us the wrong side but were kind enough to comp it. This time, they twice tried to give us a drink that belonged to another table and we noticed they were also getting drinks orders wrong at other tables. This is definitely something NA has to improve on, but it would have been forgiven if the food was amazing.

To share we got the pimento cheese fritters. At $14.50 for three (we added an extra one so that everyone at the table could have one), these were definitely not worth the price. I expected something pretty amazing but they turned out to be pretty bland and standard cheese type croquettes which definitely needed more spice and flavour. Definitely not as good as their pork trotter & ham nuggets.


We then each got a main. Our friend L got the cheeseburger which he declared to be quite nice. I know others have complained about its size and I must say the pattie definitely looked to be too small for the (already small) bun. L's partner C went for the baked eggplant which she seemed to pick at. She did say she didn't enjoy the sauce, which she described as 'odd'. M went for the beef brisket which he rather enjoyed, saying it was nicely flavoured and well cooked. When I tried it, the meat was lovely and soft but I wasn't as crazy about the flavour. I also thought the BBQ sauce that accompanied it tasted quite artificial. I did, however, love that it came with kimchi. I made a bad choice with mains, having chosen the grits fritters. Firstly, it was a very small portion for a main, especially one with little protein. I also just found the flavour uninspiring. I liked the liberal use of corn and baby corn for texture and sweetness but I thought the dish overall was too sweet and needed more salt and acid to balance.

For dessert, M and I had wanted the pumpkin pie but were told that it was sold out that day. Thus we reluctantly chose something else in the form of the berry split. It turned out to be serendipitous because the dessert was very yummy: a great balance of the acid of the berry with the creaminess and sweetness of the mousse. Both M and I really enjoyed this.