Restaurants for a cheaper price

This week here in the Netherlands we have annual Restaurant Week, when loads of restaurants all over the country offer a special menu for a set price - 27,5o euro for 3-course menu (drinks not included).

I discovered this wonderful idea back in 2009 and went with a few friends to one of the restaurants. This year I decided to repeat the idea and go to other restaurants where usually I would not go.

Unfortunately none of my friends in Amsterdam was able to join this time, so we had nice romantic dinner together with Michael. I was browsing through the huge list of restaurants in Amsterdam and picked two ones. We couldn't choose which one to go, so ... we simply went to both!

On Monday evening our host restaurant was "Casa Peru". It was quite small and empty, but that didn't matter. We were even able to choose which dishes to have (which is normally not the case during the Restaurant Week) and opt for different ones for each of us - so we could taste more of Peruvian cuisine!
The food was delicious and enough even for Michael who is eating a lot. :) I am not sure how authentic it was, but either the chef or the restaurant owner is from Peru, so I hope that it is traditional indeed (no, I do not remember the names of the dishes, sorry).
Unfortuntely the service was not so good as the waitress took me the wrong main dish and in the end of the evening gave out less change than she was supposed to. No tip for her then, sorry.

Yesterday - on Wednesday - we went to "Nomads", which is some kind of Turkish-Arabic restaurant. It was completely full of people and it was a very interesting experience. We were sitting on a large mattress instead of chairs and there were no tables - but a very, very big plate which the waitress put on the mattress (the same one where we were sitting). There was also a bellydancer (with coloured white hair and fake smile) dancing around, a woman with taro cards and a girl offering massage.
The food was served in several small bowls and was not outstanding, but still interesting.
There were quite a lot of waitressses almost "running" from one mattress to another and in total we spent in the restaurant almost thre;e hours as it took a lot of time to get the food.

In the end, I enjoyed "Nomads" more because of the atmosphere and I would definitely recommend "Nomads" as an interesting experience to group of friends or couples who like to be very close to each other (as the mattress is not so huge).

I am not sure if I would go to those restaurant in an ordinary day both because we do not dine out of house so often and because it is not so cheap. But that's why there is Restaurant Week!