. . Off The Main Beat Amsterdam IN DE WAAG Nieuwmarkt 4 This designer bar-restaurant is in a historical building that used to be the old gates to the city/weigh-house. Bang in the middle of the Nieuwmarkt square it looks like a castle inside and out. Its only lighting is candles hung in huge chandeliers. Also, upstairs (I don't know how possible it is to run up and have a peek) I went to see a multi-media exhibition and it was held in this spooky old room that used to be an anatomical theater. Criminals were dissected in front of a crowd of around 300 onlookers. Bleugh! (But morbidly fascinating.) This is also where Rembrandt famously painted 'Dr Tulip and The Anatomy Lesson'. Drinks can be pricey though and the terrace is uninspired. Open: Daily 10.00-midnight Lloyd Hotel-Special Hotel in Amsterdam I agree with other travelers, this place was awful. It was an old prison and our room felt exactly like a prison cell. We paid about $200 for one night and were given a room in the basement with almost no sun light. The bathroom and room set up is exactly like a prison cell, dark and gray and stark. I literally felt like we were being punished while staying there. We didn't eat there because we just wanted to be away from the place. If you came to tour Amsterdam it is set far far away from everything else in the city center and there are no restaurants or anywhere to stroll in the nearby vicinity. There is a direct tram line, but if you came to vacation in Amsterdam Europe this is not the place to stay. I agree the pictures on the website are every misleading. Would not stay here again. This place was horrible, it's an old prison that had had changed little in terms of atmosphere since it became a hotel. In fact I struggle to apply the term 'hotel' to it. Think cramped corridors with old shabby furniture from a yard sale, it feel like you are being punished for staying here. It's miles away from the city centre in an area that has obviously been 'regenerated' i.e. rough and industrial so taxis cost a lot to get away from it. Please note that the website is completely misleading and makes the place look really good. It's positioned as a newly done up place of all things cool and edgey, it's not. For the money they charge you're better off staying anywhere in the centre of town. I was there for business but it was so bad I had to check into another hotel after one night. If I was paying to stay there myself I would have cried. The decor is not just terrible but shabby. In my room the toilet was in the shower, I had no hanging rail in the cupboard that was suppose to be my wardrobe and I had 7 chairs of faded quality. The linen didn't look to clean and the base of the bed was dirty. My headboard was a radiator surrounded by cracked tiles. I had requested a double bed but was given a room with two singles that weren't even pushed together. Because the whole place is covered in (ugly, brown) tiles I was kept awake all night by people walking by my room. The pictures on the sight made the rooms look chic and Scandinavian but they are just sparse and cold. I have no problems with the main space in the hotel, the restaurant / lounge / bar, although it did all look like a canteen (a prison one at that). When I came back from work I was subjected to a documentary about ... of all things ... tulips. Nice. It was projected onto a wall in the open space so there was no escape unless I accepted a 5% room service charge in my room. But since I wanted to spend as little time as possible in there and being miles away from anywhere else I suffered it. In addition when I ordered a drink I was informed with a shrug of the shoulders that the hotel didn't have what I wanted so I would have to order something else. I was fine with that but then the drinks that came were made with so little care and tasted terrible we had to complain. The best thing about this hotel was leaving it. I pity anyone who stays here. More about Amsterdam .