Please note that since writing this blog post, Kam Kee has closed down
I’ve been in this restaurant-reviewing game since 2006, and before that – well, let’s just say I’ve done a lot of dining. But every now and again, something shakes my confidence in my own opinion: do I really know what I’m talking about?
Nam Kee (made famous by the Dutch film “Oysters at Nam Kee’s”) was one of those places I liked in a budget-four-stars kind of way. Everything we ate was under €10, and it was decent and tasty for the price. But then not one, but two trusted individuals told me they weren’t fans of Nam Kee but instead rated Kam Kee highly (apologies for the naming confusion – apparently “Kee” must mean something very important when you consider there’s another restaurant called Wing Kee…). As it happened, yesterday I found myself on the Zeedijk at around dinner o’clock, so I popped into Kam Kee to find out what all the fuss was about.
Only I didn’t. Find out what all the fuss was about, that is. Instead, I left feeling baffled. The steamed shrimp dumplings formed a slightly sticky mess on the bottom of the metal steamer (where was the paper?). The Chinese greens were treading water in a gloopy, bland, yellowish puddle thickened with something I’d rather not know about, and came with various pappy bits of grey and white protein (which was odd in general – everything in the “vegetable dishes” section of the menu contained meat). The roasted ribs were chewy and didn’t taste of all that much, although the roast Peking duck was the meal’s only saving grace. The beer was expensive, and there was no free water to come by.