Bistro Bonjour

Hayden and I are getting ready for our holiday and couldn’t be more excited. It will be our first trip to Asia, and we’re ready for all the heat, craziness, beaches, cultural differences and of course, the yummy food. Since I will get enough of his gorgeous face for the next couple of weeks, I’ve dedicated date night to my other soul mate, Irina. We’ve found a great Social Deal, which rarely happens in Amsterdam, and headed to Bistro Bonjour.

The restaurant in located on the lovely Keizersgracht, so I thought: Oh, a five minute walk or so. Totally forgot that Keizersgracht could also mean East, and a 40 minute walk; and that’s how my first bike ride to East happened.

Bistro Bonjour is a very cozy, romantic-ish looking place, perfect for a date, I’d say. Unfortunately that means low, red light which is not the best for my pictures – but I promise you, everything there tastes better than it will look in this post.

The coupon we found was offering a 4 course meal with interesting choices, not just the usual bread with garlic butter, steak with fries and ice-cream for dessert.

We started our dinner with some escargots de la maison, sizzling hot snails in melted garlic butter. The portion was generous for a starter and it came with warm bread and garlic butter on the side, but these were so good and full of flavor that I could have probably had 5 portions.

Next, we chose the soup of the day, which was an onion soup au gratin. The golden-brown crusty cheese and bread on top slowly melted into the soup, making for a rich texture.

Off to the mains, we had the sea bass with mussels and shrimp. Came straight out of the oven, in a creamy Provençale sauce , accompanied by a boiled potato filled with some sort of creamy sauce (can’t tell, really) and a salad on the side. At this point, I was overwhelmed by the amount of food we were receiving for this 4 course meal. I was expecting small to medium dishes, but Bistro Bonjour is not messing around with portion sizes. Moreover, there were fries and broccoli on the side – who can eat all that?! We did not even touch that plate. The fish and the seafood all tasted great, while the stuffed potato and the salad were…fairly bland. Was not a big fan of whatever was in that potato.

Our last course was of course, dessert. Even though we were both carrying an approximate 4 month food pregnancy by this point, who can say no to Crème brûlée? This was supposed to be made with coffee liquor too! I did not really taste that, but it sure was delicious. It was made well too, with a warm top and cold bottom.

And this was it! Our 4 course journey at Bistro Bonjour was a success. The food was delicious and trust me, there was a lot of it. None of us could really finish everything on our plate – and we eat, we seriously do. We left full and more than satisfied, all this for 22.50 EUR / person, which is superb value for money. The staff was attentive, nice and not intrusive at all, although we were the last ones in the restaurant. I can happily recommend Bistro Bonjour.*

*without a coupon or a deal, this is not a cheap restaurant. If money is not an issue for you, go!, by all means. Keep in mind they also have a chef’s menu, when a deal is not available: 4 courses for 22.50 EUR (same price), but less choices than we got out of this Social Deal.

Value for money: 9 (with a coupon)

Food Quality: 8

Location: 7 (Keizersgracht 770)

Service: 8

Website: http://bistrobonjour.nl/

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