Chow

I don’t know why this place has such a low average review rate on here. From what I read below, two of the 2 star reviews are posted by the same group as they describe the exact same experience.
I ate here on a Monday in September 2014 and had a lovely meal.
We ordered the Phở Bo and veggie curry.
They brought out the Phở and a seafood curry but before they even set down the curry the waiter noticed the error and came back with the right curry soon enough and it was absolutely no problem.
Both the Phở and the curry were delicious! Phở was served exactly how I have had it in Vietnamese restaurants and the beef was perfectly tender. The curry was exactly the right kind if spicy and had delicious chunks of coconut meat in it.
I found the service excellent, very attentive and genuinely friendly.
We shared a white chocolate cheesecake, which I didn’t really like. The ‘cheese’ was grainy and did not taste like white chocolate. The bottom was crumbly. The mango sauce was good but not enough of it.
When the waiter asked if we enjoyed the dessert and I told him no, he offered us a coffee or tea on the house.
All in all a great dining experience and since I live around the corner, I will most definitely be back.
I do agree with others that the entrance is hard to find by the way!

if u go to eat for the décor you’ll find it well done here. but the food was underwhelming, ok, but way too expensive for just okay. i expect better taste for such price. i had samosas to start that were disappointing. more like potato empanadas, the blackened cod and tempura were the only good dishes out of 10 we ordered between 4 of us. the first thing we ordered was a bottle of fizzy water – but they never brought it. consequently all i had on the table to drink was wine and so i got more tipsy than i wanted (oh, they didn’t forget to bring wine after wine, just couldn’t get them to bring the water we ordered)
to all waiters everywhere: i don’t understand why you don’t write things down, seriously, i’d much rather see u with a pad and pen the have you forget to bring what we ordered. just write it down so u don’t forget, how hard is that? I understand that u don’t have a perfect memory, you shouldn’t be expected to, except i do mind when u refuse (or are prohibited?) to write anything down and then u forget, and u will, it happens, when a little bit of paper could solve all that, yet you don’t use it this simple memory tool that has worked so well for countless individuals for eons. it seems a bit obtuse not to use it. and it doesnt make me think any less of you, in fact, it makes me think, «oh, here’s a smart one! I’m going to reward this one with a bigger tip, because just seeing that it’s all being written down eases my mind and i can relax because i dont have to keep breaking conversation to flag u down to remind u to bring water.»
overall rating:
food: «meh» for big bucks.
service: forgetful

So thrilled when I find a new restaurant at walking distance from our home.
Chow was once a tapas venue, under a different name and because of the fact that the last time it was here that I saw my stepfather alive, I sort of avoided the place since.
But having dinner at Mazzo next door (this other hip restaurant at the Rozengracht), our youngest daughter left to say goodbye to friends who were having dinner at Chow. She came back very excited. She loved the place and the crowd. The place to be!
As you might understand, I desperately wanted to check out this place myself.
So the same week my ‘hubbie’ and I made a reservation.
I was hooked. What a lovely atmosphere and so many beautiful people at the tables. Yes, that may sound crazy, but I love looking admiringly at all those wonderful, often much younger, people in our city. So different from our generation when we were young.
The interior is sturdy and contemporary. Nothing slick or posh. You have several spots to arrange private dinning with your own group. Especially the separate room when you enter, on the right, is ideally for a group of about 12 people.
The menu consists of Asian dishes. In fairness I must say that the food is absolutely not overwhelming and quite pricey for what it is. It does not equal even remotely the food at for instance other Asian restaurants, like Momo or Woo Bros. But for the atmosphere and the crowd I would definitely recommend it. I go back soon.
And my favourite spot to sit? Of course that is the table in front of the fireplace.
In summer they have a great sheltered terrace too.

I normally don’t write many reviews, but this deserves one. I guess Chow follows in the great tradition of Jimmy Woo, Rosas’s, and Bo5… fancy interior and vibe, great sounding menu… and underwhelming, disappointing flavors.
Ambience: Very nice! Love the building, the décor, and the lighting. Although we were enjoying it and the waitress insisted on turning on bright lights for our table despite our repeated wishes to have the light dimmed or turned off. It was off before, just let us be!
The service: Average… but how long does it take to bring me a diet pepsi?
The food: Where to begin… We ordered 2 appetizers, 2 main courses, and 3 desserts. While the desserts were just average, the other 4 dishes were far below! 3 out of the 4 dishes had an overpowering wasabi taste (how diverse!!) and none of them I’d ever order again or eat if they were in front of me. We had the funky tuna, the beef watermelon sashimi, the blackened tuna, and the gamba burger — all per the waitress’ recommendation. I am surprised how much work can go into a dish and how little flavor can result from that. Foam, smoke, and fancy textures don’t make up for a complete lack of flavor — unless you think «it tastes just like wasabi» is a good flavor profile. Even my boyfriend who likes wasabi thought it was below average.
Also — how can you be new and not have the same menu in the restaurant as online? She told us it hasn’t been updated yet. And thank you for the 140 Euro bill!
I say Ciao, as in goodbye, to Chow and look forward to eating something tasty tonight to forget about this wasabification.

Chow, brought to you by the creators of Jimmy Woo — Bo5 — Rose’s Cantina, is now open in the middle of Rozengracht. As soon as I read about all the hype, I immediately booked a reservation dragging along some of my good friends to see if Chow was in fact WOW! And it was WOW! alright… but not in a good way.
In eager anticipation, I quickly biked down Rozengracht to find myself in front of a quaint concave area of the street with a sign saying CHOW. I walked in the door next to the sign and it was the back of the kitchen!!! OOPS! That was confusing… What’s more confusing is the Chinese underneath the CHOW logo. It says «I haven’t seen your cat»… WTF? Anyway I walked further into the outdoor seating area and found a small sign saying «ingang» (entrance). It wasn’t until after the meal that I realized NOT finding the entrance would have saved me from spending money and time here!!!
First, I must say that the atmosphere is GREAT! But that’s about where things end. After being seated, I looked at the menu and realized that much of it was different than what was online. Hmmm… strange. Unfortunately, everything I wanted from the online menu, and came to eat, wasn’t on this menu! sadly enough, there was no Red Pepper crème brulee, which is what I reaaaaally wanted. Oh and the prices online are less than the real menu so be aware of that too.
Anyway, I LOVE food and will eat most things. So different menu? No problem!
Based on recommendations from our waitress, here’s what we ordered:
Beef Watermelon Sashimi — I’m not a picky eater, but one thing I don’t like is wasabi. There was a little drop of wasabi on this and I couldn’t taste anything BUT wasabi. It’s basically a chunk of raw beef on a watermelon slice. I decided to give this another shot by removing the wasabi, however the combination of watermelon versus the thick slab of lazily cut raw beef just didn’t work.
Funky Tuna — This was recommended as the chef’s special. Basically it’s a papadum sandwich with tuna in the middle. And on top there is mayo/​wasabi/​capers/​and fish eggs. We even got the full description of this, but it wasn’t mentioned that wasabi was in here so again it wasn’t my favorite thing. The others at the table who like wasabi, thought this appetizer was ok… But nothing to order again.
Disappointed with the appetizers, we were really hoping for some great main dishes! I mean, how can you go wrong with shrimp burgers wrapped in filo!
Spicy Eastern Filo Gamba Burger — Sounds and looks fancy! Basically it’s ground shrimp wrapped in thin filo noodles and deep fried. On top is spinach drizzled with sweet (not spicy) sauce. This was ok, but at this point I’m just eating because I’m hungry. There were also random croutons at the bottom of this dish? Filler perhaps?
Blackened Tuna Koikuchi Soya — This was also a recommendation described to us as seared tuna in a soya foam. In actuality, it’s two slices of Tuna swimming in light brown liquid? In Japanese, Koikuchi Soya means a thick and strong flavor of soy sauce. I didn’t taste soy in this dish at all and if anything, the foam tasted like cappuccino??? The tuna was blackened with ??? and had a hint of wasabi. As for the «searing», I would say it was more like Yoga Flame from Street Fight II over-​torched because of how dry it was. Seared tuna is super soft and raw in the middle and should just break at the onset of your fork. Not at Chow! OW!
At this point, we are all defeated and simply eating in order to get nutrients into our bodies. When the waitress came to take our plates away she asked if the food was good. I shyly looked away as the others at my table said… it was ok… She then looked at the plates and said «well… you ate it!!» and then walked away.
Ummm… Ok
By now we felt as if our taste buds were done an injustice with the food thus far and immediate action needed to happen in order to reverse this! We decided to get 3 desserts:
Lemon Cheesecake — ok
Spicy Chocolate Mousse — ok but not spicy
Coco cream coffee foam — bitter day old coffee blehhh
After having gone through this, I was ready to thrown in the towel and call it quits. I ordered a sambuca to drown my pain and reluctantly asked for the bill. I felt really bad for the friends I invited and now my credibility for selecting restaurants has suffered with them. Even after the dessert, they also felt in need to have a tasty meal and debated stopping nearby to get shoarma or something comforting. As for me, I went home and binged on gummy bears and whiskey in order to forget what will be now known as the «Chow Incident» or the Chowcident.
This place is new, so please take this with a grain of salt. It might be pure coincident that 3 people didn’t enjoy 7 dishes ordered… So try it at your own risk, but I can tell you for me and my friends, we are saying Ciao to Chow for good! As for my cat that you haven’t seen… if you find him, for the love of Buddha please don’t feed him your food!