Walking into an indian restaurant with an unfamiliar menu can feel like sitting an exam you never studied for, so at Rasoi on Maasstraat 10 in Amsterdam we wrote the study guide. The short version: order one bread, one gravy dish and one rice dish for every two people, tell the staff your heat limit honestly, and let the kitchen guide the rest.
That formula alone will carry you through any Indian menu on earth. The longer version below answers the questions we hear at our tables every single week, from first timers and veterans alike.
How much should we actually order?
The mistake almost everyone makes on a first visit is ordering Western style, one main per person.
Indian food is built for the middle of the table. Dishes land together, everyone reaches in, and the meal works as a conversation between flavours. For two people, one gravy dish, one biryani or rice, and two breads is a full, generous dinner. For four, add one more gravy and a starter from the tandoor. Ordering this way costs less, wastes nothing, and eats better.
If the table cannot agree, and tables rarely do, a Sizzling Chicken Platter or Sizzling Veg Platter settles arguments, three kinds of tikka arriving loud on a hot plate with rice and butter gravy included.
Is everything going to be spicy?
No, and this is the myth that keeps too many people at the door.
Spice and heat are different things. Cardamom, saffron, fennel and cinnamon are spices, and none of them burn. A Korma Chicken is sweet with coconut and nuts. The Butter Chicken, our signature, is rich and gentle enough that children order it regularly, and we keep a kids menu besides.
The genuinely hot dishes announce themselves on our menu. Chicken Vindaloo and Kadai Mutton are marked very hot and mean it sincerely. The markings exist so heat is a choice you make, never a trap you fall into. Say your limit out loud when ordering, nobody in an Indian kitchen has ever judged a mild request.
What should a first timer order, exactly?
Ask ten of our regulars and you will hear the same safe opening line-up.
Start with a tandoor appetizer, the Tandoori Chicken Tikka or, for vegetarians, the Mushroom Galouti Kebab, kebabs so soft the menu promises they melt and guests keep testing the claim. Main round: Butter Chicken or Malai Kofta with garlic naan, plus a Chicken Dum Biryani for the table. Finish with Gulab Jamun, warm fried dough in saffron syrup.
That order has converted more curry sceptics at Maasstraat 10 than we can count. Adventure can start on visit two.
What do all these menu words mean?
A tiny glossary carries you far.
Tandoor is the clay oven, running near 480 degrees, responsible for every kebab and naan. Dum means sealed pot cooking, rice and meat steaming together until they become one thing, old royal kitchen technique. Kadai is the Indian wok, fast and hot. Paneer is fresh cottage cheese, the backbone of vegetarian mains. And masala simply means a spice blend, not a threat.
Menus that use these words correctly, and organise dishes by region the way ours travels from Kashmir’s Mutton Rogan Josh to Punjab’s Amritsari Chole Bhature, are telling you the kitchen knows its geography.
What if someone at the table is vegetarian, vegan or eats Halal?
Then an Indian restaurant is the easiest booking you will make all year.
Vegetarian cooking is half of India’s food culture, not a menu apology. Our vegetarian mains run nearly twenty deep, several available vegan on request, from the Vegetable Biryani to the Khatta Meetha Baingan. The meat kitchen is 100% Halal across every dish. One table, every diet, nobody eating around the edges.
Do we need to book, and when?
Weeknights, walking in usually works fine. Friday and Saturday evenings fill up, and arriving at 8PM without a booking can mean a wait, that is our honest pattern after years on Maasstraat. Book by phone or online if your evening has a schedule.
Worth knowing too, Thursday to Sunday we open at noon, so a slow weekend lunch is on the table, not just dinner. Monday to Wednesday doors open at 4PM.
Does the same food work for delivery?
It does, with one insider tip. Sealed dum biryanis and thick gravies travel beautifully through UberEats and Thuisbezorgd, the trapped steam keeps working in transit. Tandoor items are at their peak in the first half hour, so if you live close, collecting by phone order keeps that char at its best.
Three friends opened this restaurant believing Amsterdam deserved Indian food made the slow way, and the TripAdvisor Travellers Choice award that followed in 2023 came from a full year of guests, many of whom walked in as nervous first timers holding a menu like an exam paper. The full story of who they are and why they cook sits on our about page. The exam, it turns out, was open book all along.
