Test-Sleeping: Lloyd Hotel & Lloyd Restaurant in Amsterdam
Hotel restaurants, once the neglected child of the hospitality industry, have suddenly become the only places where we can still eat out. And completely safely, too! The only downside is an advantage: you have to stay the night. So in the coming weeks, we’ll be test-sleeping in hotels. In search of the best restaurant hotel, but also to give the hospitality industry a helping hand. Today: Lloyd Hotel & Lloyd Restaurant in Amsterdam.
100 years old
This is a building full of stories. You feel it immediately when you step inside. The imposing building on the quayside, with its symmetrical clock gables, was built 100 years ago by the shipping company Koninklijke Hollandsche Lloyd. A hotel, specifically for emigrants, who slept here for a few nights before making the crossing. After they had been examined and deloused in the adjacent quarantine building. It then became a prison, an artists’ studio and, since 2004, a hotel for foreign guests and neighbours. ‘How nice to see you again,’ says the hotel manager. At reception, I’m given a form for my breakfast preferences. ‘You can have breakfast downstairs or in your room.’
Bath in the room
The room is on the sixth floor. I also slept here ten years ago, in the hotel’s eaves, in the enormous room with a swing. It is the same, except for two new sofas, a headboard made of processed marble, bathrobes on the edge of the bath and different lighting. The room seems more luxurious, warmer. It has grown up. Or have I changed? The cat makes an inspection tour along the sloping wooden walls and happily jumps into the bath, which stands in the middle of the room. The headboard turns out not to be hard and cold at all, but wonderfully soft, just like the bed. I want to quarantine here.
Serene tranquillity
I wander through the building, along corridors with photographs and art objects, searching for the stories. It feels like a monastery. A serene calm prevails. Even in the restaurant there is no music, only a cheerful song coming from the kitchen. I’m early for dinner, but I sit at the bar with a glass of wine. Neighbours come in to collect food and drop off parcels at the new parcel point. The duty manager switches effortlessly between his roles as postman, waiter and team leader, remaining calm and friendly. If an ambulance were suddenly to deliver a seriously injured patient, he would perform an operation in complete tranquillity, while occasionally bringing me wine.
Speculaas-flavoured venison pepper
The menu features creative dishes alongside old favourites. I choose beetroot, pickled in gin, with burrata, salame calabrese and orange. The combination of the fresh beetroot and crunchy salami is surprising, but very tasty together with the creamy burrata. The wonderfully tender, speculaas-flavoured venison pepper, with stewed red cabbage and apple, scorzonera and potato-parsnip purée, puts me in a winter mood. ‘You did choose something healthy, didn’t you?’ the hotel manager calls out with a laugh as he walks past. ‘Would you like some fries?’ I ask to buy off my guilty conscience, holding the bowl out to him.
Across the IJ
Breakfast in bed
There is a knock at the door. A girl enters the room and places the breakfast tray on the wooden desk. A croissant, yoghurt, fruit salad, cappuccino, orange juice and a soft-boiled egg, exactly as indicated on the form. A hotel breakfast in bed is the best invention ever. No people around you stirring mercilessly in cups or shamelessly wolfing down large plates of scrambled eggs with bacon, but enjoying yourself in the safe surroundings of the bed.
Snore Sleepover Party
Lloyd, Oostelijke Handelskade 34, Amsterdam
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