Cafe George

Brunch in Amsterdam is still the exception rather than the rule; but slowly, slowly, ventures like Jason Hartley's LoveFood, Greenwoods tea room and Cafe George are putting brunch on the menu.

Cafe George serves food throughout the day, and the menu is filled with bistro classics, such as croque monsieur, Caesar salad, onion soup and steak frites, as well as a smattering of brunch options.

R. ordered eggs Norwegian, poached eggs with smoked salmon. The muffin was not home-made and the portion size not as generous as LoveFood, but the egg yolks were runny and the Hollandaise sauce had a good vinegary bite.

I chose the club sandwich, a triple decker of whole-meal toast stuffed to capacity with grilled chicken, crispy bacon, lettuce and tomato. It was nigh on perfect, although the sheer size made it impossible to eat elegantly. By the time I took the final bite, mayonnaise was running down my chin and the plate littered with filling that had escaped on the club sandwich's short journey to my mouth.

Cafe George’s robust little espressos were excellent too, so it was a shame that the service was the restaurant equivalent of an iPad - nice to look at, but no one's quite sure what it does.

The owners of Cafe George and the pretentiously named restaurant George WPA (Williams Park Avenue - the English translation of Willemsparkweg, the street on which it is located) added George Deli to their growing culinary empire in early 2011. Perched above Marqt wholefood supermarket in the former ABN Amro building on Rembrandtplein, the deli offers a simpler version of Cafe George's menu in architecturally impressive but draughty surroundings.

Cafe George tries a little too hard to be edgy and cosmopolitan. Look beyond the would-be-sophisticated veneer, though, and the substance is actually quite good.