The Culinaire Werkplaats (Culinary Workshop) is an alternative restaurant in Amsterdam. We found it sort of by accident and had dinner there last night. We were very impressed.
They are a sort of food design studio, and incorporate a lot of ideas from fashion and architecture. They are also very environmentally and socially minded, and like to create futuristic meals combining all these ideas. As far as I know, all of their food is vegetarian. Primarily they do business dinner commissions, but they also have a restaurant in Amsterdam, open only on Friday and Saturday, with the goal of trying out their creations on ‘ordinary’ people. The business model of most restaurants in the Netherlands are severely constrained by labor costs, which are somewhat high here. Since the business model of this place is different, it means they can offer food which is pretty much unavailable in the rest of the country.
Dinner starts with a pen and a piece of paper, and by the end of the evening you are expected to have provided a detailed written opinion of the meal. The food is brought to the table and presented, but you are expected to clear the dirty dishes yourself. You also have to fill your own water glass, and since the kitchen is an open part of the restaurant, both these things involve elbowing your way past the chefs in order to get to the sink. This is an intentional part of their philosophy of combining the preparing and eating of the food.
The interior is very clean and functional, but also simple, as are the dishes and cutlery.
Our dinner was 4 main courses, plus a starter and dessert. The food was very high quality, and very nicely prepared and presented. Individual portions were small, but in total was plenty of food. The meal was full of very interesting flavor combinations. I think most readers of this blog would be very satisfied with their choice of ingredients and philosophies. There’s no set price, you simply pay what you want for the meal. If you’re planning costs ahead of time, according to the video above, think in terms of €19-100 per person plus drinks. Reservations are strongly suggested. Definitely worth a visit if you’re in Amsterdam.
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