Graves

Graves is a cute winebar/café-restaurant in one of Amsterdam's hidden streets the Gravenstraat. They have a small French inspired menu and an extensive wine selection, many of which you can try by the glass. You can enjoy their dishes a la carte or as a chefs choice menu. Budget wise it's best to choose the chefs menu which goes for €40 p/p for 4-courses or €50 p/p for 6-courses.

My good friend Celia and I had a lovely diner here on a very slow Monday evening. The place was... uhm deserted for the first hour we were in. But that didn't ruin our fun. Actually it enabled me to have the chefs menu on my own, which usually needs to be ordered per table. Yes!
Our waiter was a friendly young man, who unintentionally was hilarious. He was trying his best to explain the menu to the French guests who arrived later. He had all kinds of facts up his sleeves about the food and wine. But his wittiness would not be translated. So basically he just confused the hell out of them! Understandably this only made him even more funny to us ;)

Anyways on to the food. We started of with some delicious oysters served with a lovely vinaigrette. They were soft and meaty and most importantly super fresh! Next was a potato and leek soup with strips of serrano ham. It was ok, the flavors complemented each other well but I can't say that I loved it.
As our mains we had a risotto with chantarelle mushrooms and yellow beets and a leg of lamb on some delicious rosti. I'm not a big fan of lamb because I find sometimes it tastes like a sweaty sock. But this one was cooked perfectly. It was juicy and seasoned perfectly. As desert I opted for the sweet option and got a petit grand desert that consisted of really great caramel icing, super airy vanilla cream and a little chocolate & vanilla cake.
I reckon Graves get's frequented mostly by tourists because of it's location but I can honestly say that I consider it a very acceptable option for foodies on a budget. We very much enjoyed our diner and wouldn't hesitate in stopping by another time.