Guides Amsterdam
Amsterdam has a proper fine dining scene that most visitors never find. The benchmark we use is BREDA on the Singel - modern Dutch and French, genuinely warm, and the best tasting menu we have found in the city. We have been twice and would go back.
None of these are stuffy. The food is serious but the rooms are not. If you want one restaurant to book for a special occasion in Amsterdam, it is BREDA.
- Where
- Singel 210, Centrum
- Price
- €€€ - dinner from €72.50 per person, before wine
- Menu
- Chef's menu: 5, 7 or 9 courses at dinner; 3, 4 or 5 for lunch
- Hours
- Daily: lunch 12-2:30pm, dinner 6-10pm
- Book
- in advance - fills up
Three founders from Brabant who grew up together and brought their idea of how a restaurant should feel to a canal house on the Singel. Good food, good wine, a room where people are actually having fun rather than performing reverence. The cooking is modern Dutch and French. Local produce, seasonal, no theatre. The wine list is worth paying real attention to. We have been twice: both times excellent, and both times the meal felt like a proper occasion without being tense about it. At €72.50 for the small dinner menu before wine, it is not cheap, but it is fair for what you get.
Find on Google Maps- Where
- Utrechtsestraat 6, Centrum (around the corner from Rembrandtplein)
- Price
- €€ - dinner 3 courses €43, 4 courses €49, 5 courses €56
- Menu
- Chef's menu 3, 4 or 5 courses, lunch and dinner
- Hours
- Daily: lunch 12-3pm, dinner 6-10pm
Same three founders, smaller room. Klein BREDA is the neighbourhood version - a proper chef's menu with seasonal dishes from the same kitchen team, but shorter and easier on the wallet. At €43 for three courses it is good value for food at this level. Good option if you want a real restaurant meal without committing to a full evening. The quality is there because it is the same people.
Find on Google MapsAlso worth knowing
These three sit further along the price and formality spectrum. Worth knowing they exist if BREDA does not fit the occasion.
- Where
- Nieuwe Doelenstraat 2-14, Centrum (inside De L'Europe, overlooking the Amstel)
- Price
- €€€€
- Stars
- Two Michelin stars, Michelin Green Star for sustainability
- Book
- well in advance - 11 tables only
Chef Bas van Kranen runs a vegetable-led tasting menu inside the De L'Europe hotel. Locally foraged, seasonal, no imported shortcuts. It is the most decorated restaurant in Amsterdam right now and the most ambitious. If you want the full fine dining experience - the kind of meal that takes three hours and you think about for a week - this is it.
Find on Google Maps- Where
- Keizersgracht 384, Centrum (inside The Dylan hotel)
- Price
- €€€€
- Note
- Michelin-starred. Dining room set in an 18th-century bakery.
French cooking in a room that used to be a bakery in the 1700s. The Dylan is a boutique hotel on the Keizersgracht, and Vinkeles sits inside it. Probably the most romantic room in the city for a dinner - quiet, beautiful, well away from the main streets. The cooking is classic French rather than modern Dutch. Worth it for an occasion that calls for that particular kind of setting.
Find on Google Maps- Where
- Schollenbrugstraat 8, Oost
- Price
- €€-€€€
- Hours
- Daily 5:30-11pm
- Note
- Michelin Guide, Bistronomy of the Year 2024
Dutch classics reworked with French technique, fully a la carte rather than a set menu. Troef is in Oost and is probably the most accessible of the lot on price. Good if you want food at this level without a tasting menu commitment. It is harder to get a table than you would expect - they do not take online bookings, so call ahead.
Find on Google Maps