The Pasta e Basta of Amsterdam

Pasta e Basta has been a huge success since the day it opened its doors nine years ago. We all know Italian food is good, but this Italian restaurant is a little bit different than a 'traditional' Italian one. What makes this place special is the opera singing waiters: Pasta e Basta is a place where music and food blend together. The enthusiastic and young staff performs songs at your table from Opera to Rock, from Musical to Pop. The singers are music school students, professional artists, artists from soap series, Idols etc, even from well known bands. The place, in the hart of Amsterdam, on the Nieuwe Spiegelstraat 8, is a decorated Italian cantina with piano music and burning candles: so it can be very romantic even if it is always busy.

Despite the fact that it can seat 110 guests simultaneously, you can enjoy your meal in a romantic setting that exudes warmth and intimacy.  The restaurant can accommodate groups of different sizes. Large groups can be seated comfortably at the round or rectangular tables, while those looking for a little more romance won't be disappointed in one of the cozy niches or at the bar ( where I was having my dinner that night).

As about the menu, the name of the restaurant says it all. Loosely translate Pasta e Basta means 'Pasta and full stop' or 'Pasta only'. Your main course is pasta and you can enjoy a entrees' buffet as much as you like: just go to the piano and you could choose between salmon, roasted vegetables, 'insalata di riso' (rice salad), pasta salad, the typical Italian 'vitello tonnato' (calf with tuna sauce), carpaccio, tomato mozzarella (caprese) and green salads. And of course you will have your bowl with Italian slices of bread (thanks God, no Dutch slices of bread here' ).

 

The price for the complete menu is 34 euros (free starters, main course and dessert): after the unlimited amount of Antipasti you have more or less a daily choice from 8 different pasta dishes and you really need to try the Tiramisu for dessert.  I have to say that the pasta was good, but a bit different than the one of my Italian mum. The chefs are not Italian and this is a choice of the director, Mr. Hans Duijf, who told me: 'Italian chefs are often very one-sided in their education, while we want more an Italian Mediterranean way of cooking'. 

 

 

 
Some of Pasta and Basta's chefs are Michelin Star trained chefs, like Arend Nieboer, who worked as a sous chef in restaurants like George Blanc, Bocuse and Amstel Hotel. They use Barilla dry pasta's, and most of ingredients come from Italy. Fresh pastas like the ravioli filled with pumpkin are made by their colleagues of restaurant D'Antica.

 

 

 

As about the wines, I had one of my favorite red wines, Valpolicella, and the white Soave, company Pieropan, both from Verona, Veneto, so I felt at home. The Bianco Chardonnay from Mendoza (Argentina) tastes like a good Burgundy wine, oak aged, and they serve this as a house wine for '‚¬3.50 per glass of '‚¬19 per bottle. Their top range from Italy, like the red Angelo Gaja Promis 2004, is charged '‚¬47.  

 

The director of the restaurant, Mr.Duijf, completed his studies in the USA, University of Hartford. He started his business in Amsterdam importing pianos and he promoted and organized a lot of cultural projects such as the famous Prinsengrachtconcert (20.000 visitors). In 1995 he opened Pasta e Basta, where he had the possibility to serve many wonderful people like Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Sting, Andrea Bocelli and Eros Ramazzotti. The restaurant performs worldwide with its crew from Dubai to Cuba and form Johannesburg to Cannes.
The restaurant is always pretty busy, so do not forget to make a reservation.

For more information: www.pastaebasta.nl