Please note that since writing this blog post, 101 Gowrie has closed down
I probably say this every year, but in 2023 I feel like Amsterdam outdid itself in terms of the quality of food and breadth of restaurants on offer. Usually, my annual Top 10 is made up of some newcomers plus several old favourites that I revisited during the year. This time, however, the majority of these actually opened in 2023 (or possibly late 2022) which speaks to the culinary creativity and quality sweeping the city.
From fine-dining ramen and gaijin cuisine, to outstanding Peruvian and Nepali restaurants, to wine bars that punch well above their weight, Amsterdam genuinely offers something for every flavour of foodie. I hope you enjoy these recommendations – I certainly did!
My Top 10 Restaurants in Amsterdam – the 2023 edition!
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Troef
Within six months of opening, Troef is fully booked pretty much every night. And this despite it being down a very unprepossessing side street off the River Amstel in the location once occupied by Pizza Heart. But I understand why: walking into Troef, we were shaken by the hand and were immediately on first name terms with the maître d’. The service continued to be beyond friendly, while the interior glowed with a warm, convivial atmosphere that was part ski chalet, part French bistro, part Dutch café. The food was casual but creative: the signature dish appeared to be the Giethoorn eel with crispy potatoes and a horseradish foam. We were sitting at the bar, and must’ve seen hundreds of these paling towers being prepped in the kitchen in front of us. It was salty, sweet and mildly fiery from the horseradish, and went perfectly with a glass of German Pinot Blanc. We stuck with the fishy theme, continuing with a velouté of clams, mussels, crayfish and sea lavender, with a hint of spice from ‘nduja. I also loved the lobster with an antiboise of baby artichokes, cherry tomatoes, creamy bisque and zesty orange. Be sure to ask for a peek inside Troef’s wine cellar as well – it’s an oenophile’s dream.
Giethoorn eel: one of Troef’s best-loved dishes
Fuku Ramen
A bowl of ramen might not be something you’d readily peg as fine dining. But Fuku Ramen is here to prove us all wrong. Opening in spring 2023, word of mouth quickly spread about this Japanese restaurant with its regularly changing fixed five- or six-course menu, culminating in some of the finest ramen Amsterdam has to offer. But before you get to that, you’ll be treated to all sorts of tasty morsels, plus a whole range of sake. On the evening we visited, highlights included lobster gyoza with lobster-head cream and oyster leaves; monkfish with BBQ bimi, burnt butter and a sauce based on sake residue, which made it taste almost cheesy; and an umami-tastic fermented tomato dish. All this was followed up with a rich tontoksu broth housing homemade noodles, smoky pork loin and the usual ramen trimmings. A memorable meal that left me more than a little impressed.
I’d first come across 101 Gowrie during a lockdown takeaway situation back in the dark days of 2020. But my dinner there in 2023 was a far cry from those fancy ready meals.* From the rose-hued sea bream with vanilla ponzu, to the ludicrously umami anchovy egg custard, to the simple but perfectly formed dumplings with eel dashi – everything we ate was utterly exquisite. An accomplished fusion of Japanese flavours with local ingredients. Plus, the bread – oh, the bread! Every diner got their own individual sort of brioche tower with whipped butter that was almost cheesy from the addition of kefir. And not only did Chef Alex Haupt and his team do a stellar job on the food menu; the wine list was expertly curated, too. In my wine geek opinion, the 2020 Mosel Riesling was a stroke of perfectly balanced genius.
*Oops! I’ve just realised that 101 Gowrie was not new in 2023 at all. But it happened to be one of my favourite meals of the year – so it stays!
Sea bream with vanilla ponzu at 101 Gowrie
Bottleshop
Genuinely new in early 2023 was Bottleshop – located in that strange Beetlejuice building on Wibautstraat that used to be home to Undercover. It’s a natural wine bar that also serves some fantastic, upscale bar bites. I’m not usually a huge fan of natural wines, but I loved Bottleshop’s fruity, farmyard-y French Gamay and juicy, low-extraction Cabernet Franc. Not to mention their pungent cheeses, melting beef short rib, punchy chicken yakitori and simple but heavenly bread and butter. I’m glad this is only 50 metres down the road from my apartment!
French Gamay and yakitori skewers at Bottleshop natural wine bar
Oocker
Opening on Frederiksplein in late 2022 (ok, this doesn’t quite count as a 2023 opening either!), Oocker occupies a skinny space but makes it both elegant and cosy. I visited with a small group for a friend’s birthday, and we polished off several fantastic bottles, from a smooth Jura crémant to a fresh-yet-full bodied Dao blend to a buttery Argentinian chardonnay. The staff were extremely knowledgeable, gave us great recommendations and were happy to have a chat about wine in general. During the daytime, there’s a limited snacks menu – of which we tried the caccio e pepe croquettes and the burrata bruschetta – both delicious. After 17:30, the menu expands into larger warm dishes, which you can share or not depending on how hungry you are. I loved the bone marrow and the slow-cooked neck of lamb. Oocker has a tiny terrace that acts as a sun trap, too.
An abbreviation of “modern ceviche,” Moche has been a highly welcome 2023 addition to the Oostpoort/Watergraafsmeer neighbourhood. The evening I visited, service was relaxed yet attentive, the décor modern but featuring patterned tiles and colourful artwork, and the food quite simply a Peruvian pleasure. We started with the croquettes filled with a mixture of chicken and aji, while we tucked into an expertly mixed pisco sour. Next, we tried the ceviche of the day: a classic combo of white fish, shrimps, choclo, chulpe corn, sweet potato purée and red onion – all swimming in a perfectly balanced, spicy, citrusy leche de tigre. The chef’s signature dishes of achiote aubergine with smoked yoghurt and Padron pepper (as a starter) and rocoto-marinaded chicken with coriander yoghurt (as a main course) were both pitch perfect: smoky yet fresh, and with a satisfying bite. Prices were on a high side but for quality this good, it’s a price worth paying.
With two locations in Amsterdam, Bhatti Pasal and Bhatti Pasal Klinkers serve authentic Nepali flavours from their smaller and larger restaurants respectively. I visited the larger and newest of the two, Bhatti Pasal Klinkers, primarily because I’d heard great things about the momo. And I was not disappointed: juicy pork dumplings, lightly pan-fried, came in an umami-rich sesame sauce. We split a portion of ten between us, but I could’ve happily eaten them all to myself. Next, we shared the “Khaja Set” to try a little bit of lots of dishes: pork choila (marinated cubes of pork), chicken bhutun (gizzards and heart), aalu ko achar (sesame potato salad), badam sadeko (peanut salad) and furandana (like squashed rice crispies!). Pretty much all of it was new to me, and it was great to see a restaurant doing something truly different and truly authentic.
There’s a sorry dearth of Greek restaurants on this website, which is partly because I don’t seem to eat at them very regularly and that’s partly because I’ve rarely found one that’s any good. All that changed in 2023, however, with the arrival of The Greek Embassy about a block from my apartment. They started as a coffee and pastries bar known as Kafenion, and then rebranded into a full-blown Greek restaurant that now serves dinner and Greek wines and beers as well. The first rainy November evening I visited, we started with the taramasalata, which was white (not that lurid pink of my 90s memories), smoky-meets-creamy, savoury and delicious with the lightly toasted pita bread (ordered separately). We also got a portion of zucchini fritters, which were light, fluffy and delightful with the accompanying fresh tzatziki. As a main course, we split the mixed grill, which was a combo of beef patties (rather like kofte), succulent pork chops, sausage and a carb-heavy mix of fries and more pita bread. With hindsight, we should’ve ordered everything at the same time and used the pitas from the mixed grill to accompany the taramasalata (and any other dippable starters) because, as it was, we wasted quite a bit of bread. True to type, I also tasted two Greek wines: a white Chardonnay-Assyrtiko blend and a red Agiorgitiko from the Nemea region. Both were new grapes on me, and both were delicious.
Greek gezelligheid at The Greek Embassy
KID Amsterdam
The new kid (geddit?) on Amsterdam’s fried chicken block, KID Amsterdam opened in very late December 2022 or early January 2023 (it’s hard to tell from their social media) having found a permanent location after their very successful pop-up. It was a chef who told me about it, so I was keen to try their famed chicken. The crispy fried wings with mango-habanero sauce were the bomb, while the Sichuan chicken sandwich was a lot more manageable than it looked (the brioche bun squished down nicely and the spice and sauce made it pleasantly hot and sweet). We enjoyed everything else as well: from the various Asian-style meaty skewers to the lip-smacking cucumber salad and umami-rich roasted cabbage. The food was a triumph all round. I was less of a fan of the wines, which were all natural and therefore variously cloudy, funky and low intervention. Neither the website nor the wine list mentioned that this was the case, which made picking crowd-pleasing wines (I was with a group of six) a bit of a challenge. But I’d go back for fried chicken and cocktails!
I was lucky enough to spend six weeks in Portugal in spring 2023, where I had to rein myself in from indulging in a daily pastel de nata habit. So on my return to Amsterdam, you can understand that I was fiending for a real-deal Portuguese custard tart. Luckily, nata masters Mister Nata had opened their own café on Van Woustraat last Christmas (too late to make it into my 2022 roundup!) and I found myself gravitating towards their appropriately pastel-hued, Portuguese-tiled interior for my fix of pastel de nata and coffee. I don’t even have a sweet tooth and I’m addicted to these creamy, wobbly, flaky parcels of joy!
