For my birthday meal last week, Scott and I were craving Italian. We’ve eaten out for pizza several times since we moved here, but we had still to get a really good plate of pasta. Having cycled past Spaghetteria (the Jan Hanzenstraat location) close to our apartment several times and heard good things online, we decided to give it a go.
Now, here’s the deal with Spaghetteria: they only sell six pasta dishes, four different wines and two desserts. The menu changes daily, although three of the dishes are usually similar each night. The focus is on providing good value for money, decent portions and a not-too-overwhelming menu. After having watched many Kitchen Nightmares, I have a feeling that Gordon Ramsay would be pleased with that.
The atmosphere and decor is light and modern, kind of like a wine bar and expensive kitchen combined. The tables are long and communal and although this didn’t cause a problem for us on a Tuesday night (we had a long table to ourselves) I can imagine during the busy weekends that it can get a bit crowded and annoying having to sit right next to strangers while you dine.
We both started off with a glass of red wine and the rocket and pecorino salad (the only salad they serve, which usually comes as a side salad, but came on a larger plate with two forks because we wanted it as an appetizer). The salad came with lots of green leaves, sliced radish and shaved cheese. It was nothing fancy, but when drizzled with a little olive oil it helped curb our craving for greens and I was definitely impressed with the amount of fresh cheese on top.
For main, Scott ordered the pasta with mussels, chilli, garlic and white wine. He’d been hoping for Spaghetti Vongole, which we’d heard was usually on their menu, but this was their nightly variation of it. It came with a heaping pile of mussels on top of a brothy pasta which definitely had a good chilli kick to it. Not my cup of tea (I don’t like eating seafood out of shells), but Scott seemed to enjoy it, even though it was a bit messy to eat and we felt the mussels could have done with being tossed with the pasta, rather than sat on top of it.
I ordered a mushroom pasta with a cheesy cream sauce (I forget the “official” name). Both pastas came with a big hunk of white bread which I had to ask for a small plate for because I wanted to dip it in olive and vinegar, as opposed to just using it to mop up my sauce. My pasta was wonderfully soft and creamy and pretty much did what it said on the tin. You definitely couldn’t complain about the portion size.
Having said that, we were both more than willing to try the tiramisu al marsala for dessert, having read good reviews about it online. I am not usually a tiramisu fan (a spectacular tiramisu in Venice pretty much ruined me for life), but I have to say that this one was good by restaurant standards. The sponge was soaked in marsala wine, but not too soggy and there was just the right amount of cream, coffee and chocolate to make it a great end to a good meal.
The best part of the meal was the fact that it only cost us 44 Euros for two wines, a salad, two pastas and two desserts. With it being my birthday, the aim wasn’t to have a budget night out, but we couldn’t really have spent more there if we tried. Definitely a bonus for those looking for a nice Italian meal without having to break the bank.
- Van Woustraat 123 and Jan Hanzenstraat 32
- Open every day from 5pm
- www.spaghetteria-pastabar.nl
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