Guides Amsterdam is the short list we would give a friend who is coming to stay - kept current, and honest about what we have actually seen.
We are a few people who live in Amsterdam and like eating well. This site started as the answer to one question we kept getting - where should I go? - asked by every guest who came to stay. Rather than retype it each time, we wrote it down, and kept it up to date.
No top-fifty lists. No copied recommendations. If we have not been, we say so.
We read the reviews, then make up our own mind. A high Google rating gets a place onto the list of things to check, never onto the page by itself - we look at how recent the reviews are and how fast they are coming in, not just the number. Then someone goes. The pages that work are the ones with a real opinion and a specific detail: a name, a year, a dish, a reason to cross town. That is the standard we hold every page to.
The date we last confirmed the facts - address, hours, price - by web or by phone. Every page carries one.
Said only when we physically went. Where we are going on reputation, the page tells you plainly. More credible, not less.
We pay for our own meals and buy our own tickets. No place pays to be on a list here, and we take no press invitations. When a venue gets the top spot it is because it earned it, not because it asked.
Found a mistake, or something has changed? A place we should try? We read everything at [email protected]. Local tips are the best ones.