Please do yourself a favour and AVOID THIS PLACE AT ALL COSTS!
Upon arrival, me and my friend were greeted by a lady with dark brunette hair at the door. As this was our first time coming here, we were unsure about how it worked...(if they sold cannabis, whether we were allowed to smoke etc), the woman clarified everything with us before telling us we could just seat ourselves anywhere. We decided to go downstairs as she had mentioned it was a nice closed off vibe downstairs; it was really dark and gave me grandma's basement vibes - pretty sure the chairs and cushions hadn't been cleaned for years.
The same woman who greeted us at the door then came downstairs and asked us what we wanted to drink - I was honestly gobsmacked when I looked through the menu because I know Amsterdam is expensive but £5 for a glass of orange juice is just daylight robbery. Anyway, we ended up ordering two drinks and received the bill straight after as the waitress told us we would have to pay upfront. We asked for the card machine as we had no cash due to it being more convenient for us and to be safer during COVID-19 - in 2020, who doesn't take card anyway?
Oh wait, LOST IN AMSTERDAM DON'T TAKE CARD PAYMENTS! She proceeded to inform us that there was an ATM in the shop opposite the lounge, where we would be able to take out cash, but we didn't want to take out cash as we were leaving the next day and didn't want loose Euros, and of course it would charge us a fee to take out money.
We then walked back up to the bar and told the waitress that we didn't want to take out cash as it would cause us inconvenience and if we had been told upon arrival that it was cash payments only, we wouldn't have gone inside or ordered any drinks. The bar lady turned around and told us she was already making the drinks so we'd have to pay for them as if we didn't, it was the waitress' responsibility to pay for the waste. I then explained that if we were told about the cash only beforehand, we would not have ordered the drinks but both waitresses were basically ganging up on us, making us feel like we had no choice or entitlement to change our mind about staying in the establishment but to go to the cashpoint and pay for the drinks.
We then went across the road to the ATM, which told us we would be charged a ridiculous fee for taking out cash, so we decided to try an ATM further down the road. When the waitress saw us walking out of the shop and towards the other ATM, she stopped us and asked us where we were going. We explained the situation to her and that it was already an inconvenience to take out cash so we wanted to minimise any extra costs.
The ridiculous woman then proceeded to ridiculously ask one of us to stay with her whilst the other goes to get cash - EXCUSE ME? First of all, we have the right to change our mind if we wanted to, especially if it was due to a mistake made by the staff and secondly, me and my friend are two young girls in a foreign country, there was no way I was going to separate from my friend. She was practically begging as she was convinced we were trying to run away from the bill and making us feel uncomfortable so we ended up giving her a bag full of goods we had purchased earlier, reassuring her that we would come back for it as we refused to split up.
We went to get the cash (which we were still charged a ridiculous amount for) and came back to pay for the drinks. When we got the bill, we saw "3 EUROS COVID HYGIENE FEE" - Just another policy we were uninformed about but expected to know. The place was dusty as hell and I don't even want to imagine the bacteria that has seeped into the cushions as people take their shoes off and put their socks on them etc. Also, no hand sanitiser or any precautions taken by staff to be seen throughout the whole experience and on top of that, the menu was sticky and dirty so I'm really not sure what the 'hygiene fee' is supposed to cover?
We were already livid at this point so confronted one of the other waitresses about this (British girl with short brunette hair - she was lovely, very polite and understanding of the situation, probably the only decent employee in there) and she kindly removed the fee for us.
After paying for the drinks, we got the bag back and sat down for a bit. When we looked in our bag, we had seen that the waitress had gone through OUR BELONGINGS as we had a packet missing. This is beyond unprofessional especially as we didn't even have to leave our bag with her but only did so because she made us feel like we had to!
I then received a message from my friend who told me that a mouse ran past his foot when he came to the lounge a few months ago - but this is the same place that's trying to charge a 'hygiene fee'? We decided to leave after this because we felt uncomfortable and angry.
Overall, I'm really disappointed because my whole trip in Amsterdam was a positive one until I came to this backwards, ridiculous, joke of a 'lounge'. So please don't waste your time here, there are plenty of other nice coffee shops/bars for you to vibe in :)
Also, if you're a part of management and you're reading this, please train your staff properly or employ decent people because your employees are ridiculous and clearly don't understand how customers should be treated (except the nice girl mentioned above).More
