Royal retreat at Tivoli Doelen
Waking up with the best view in Amsterdam
Hello beautiful Amsterdam!
This weekend, we were hosted by the oldest hotel from the historical city center: the renown Tivoli Doelen, situated right between the Dam and Rembrandtplein. A place that serves as a royalty retreat, and received guests such as The Beatles and empress Sissi, offering a great culinary experience and known for its excellent service. Well, we indeed felt treated as royalty here, with our little prince Oscar.
We got the keys to our Canal Suite and were taken upstairs. The suite was enormous and we were so impressed by the view. From the windows, we were looking far out over the Amsterdam canals and we could even see the place where the canal water meets the sea water.
After we devoured (read: attacked) our little welcoming gift - a homemade raspberry tartlet - with the three of us, we prepared ourselves for dinner and went downstairs.
Masterpiece creations at restaurant Omber
Restaurant Omber is fully inspired by Rembrandt and his art. The building of the hotel and restaurant hosted Rembrandt’s paintings and the famous Night Watch actually was even commissioned for this property back in 1642. It’s really cool to see how Rembrandt’s creations from the 17th century all made their way to this current moment. This Rembrandt art concept provides the hotel and dining experience a whole other level. Even the menus and courses are dedicated to the painter.
We went for the Masterpiece Menu, existing of five ‘masterpiece’ courses. What really stood out to us was the bisque with coquille, lardo and caviar. So delicate and well-balanced. The waitress suggested us a Portugese wine (Filipa Pato Bairrada Branco D.N.M.C. Bical Arinto from 2022) and this same wine went perfectly with our first courses; each dish brought forward new flavors in the wine and the wine still managed to put the dish in the spotlight.
Meanwhile, Oscar was tasting everything from our plates and playing a bit on the couch. Funny yet appreciated moment when he dropped his fork on the ground and the staff came running to our table with a bright shining new fork on a silver presentation tray. We only hope he didn’t like this that much he will now drop his fork at every restaurant we visit ;)
The buzz of Amsterdam
That night, we fell asleep in our suite with some comforting buzz from the streets in the background. And to wake up in the morning with the view of a calm and quiet Amsterdam, was the best possible start of the day.
After breakfast, we walked around the city for a bit and ended with a visit to the Rembrandt House Museum, just around the corner of Tivoli Doelen. That was such a nice extension of our Rembrandt experience.
If you ask me, this hotel is the perfect spot as a base to explore the city center of Amsterdam, where you get sucked in fascinating (art) history, get totally pampered, and wine and dine like the royalty who stayed here before you.