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TOP 14 of 2014 in 020 (Amsterdam)

HAPPY 2015!

Let's start the year by compiling a list of 14 things in Amsterdam that were memorable.

1. BAK
Wonderful organic creative cuisine. In my top 3 of favorite Amsterdam restaurants.

2. Graceland Bar-B-Q

Authentic southern comfort food. A lot of meat, slow cooked in a massive made in USA BBQ by a very competent NYC chef.

3. De Foyer

Another restaurant from my Amsterdam top 3 list. Great location, great concept, amazing food, great service, a  lot of creativity.

4. Minimarkt

The first really cool store in my street. Creative kid stuff, play corner with a lot of toys, good coffee and cakes.

5. Headfirst Coffee Roasters
The best filter coffee in town.The Ethiopian coffee is to die for. Barista's who know what they're doing.

6. Le Coq

The white restaurant Open turned into the all black pop-up restaurant Le Coq. Delicious bites, great shared dining place.

7. Hotel de Goudfazant
A surreal venue, massive, buzzing, great views, fantastic food.

8. De Foodhallen

The best concept to immerse in Amsterdam. A food market with a wide variety of high quality food stands. A great place. Check it out before it makes the tourist guides.

 9. Marathonweg

The first cool restaurant in Oud Zuid with a great price/quality ratio. Great meat. Some kind of colonial/expat ambiance inside.

10. Citea
A wonderful cozy place serving a lot of delicious teas. A wonderful place to chill out.

11. Six & Sons
A very fun men's store, great coffee, a lot of beards. It can be that simple to make this list.

12. Tripel
Great service, improved music selection, a lot of nice Belgian beers.You'll often find me there.

13. Gekaapt
So Jan&Eef popped out, Gekaapt popped up. A very nice store, great gift ideas, realistic prices.

14. Walter Woodbury Bar
The best looking bar in Amsterdam, plain and simple. It's a cool  place.

THREE THINGS I LOVE ABOUT MY FAVOURITE CITY

Here are 3 things I love about my favorite city Amsterdam:

1. Sightseeing on your own boat (sloep)

The nicest way to see this gorgeous city is from the water. But don't get on one of the heavily polluting sight seeing boats that race tourists through the canals. Rent your own little boat, bring some wine, bionades, lunch, snacks, portable bbq, speakers on board and cruise the many canals at your own pace. On warm sunny days, it seems that most of Amsterdam's social life happens on the water.

25% of Amsterdam's surface is water, so you have a lot to explore, stick to the historic canal belt, Amstel river, western and eastern islands, the IJ river and venture east past the Scheepvaartmuseum towards Brouwerij 't IJ and the windmill De Gooijer, drinking Brouwerij 't IJ beer on the jetties adjacent to Brouwerij 't IJ is THE thing to do on a sunny day.

2. Getting lost in Amsterdam by bike

The best way to get around town is by bike. However, if you're not comfortable on a bike, don't get on a bike. A very fun thing to do is to join rush hour traffic on a sunny week day. Since I manage 3 construction sites in the city (one in east, one in west, one in south) I often join rush hour traffic on my bike, it's the fastest way to reach any destination in the city. And the cheapest.

Amsterdam is very compact. The A10 beltway circumvents Amsterdam's area of interest. East-West is a 9km trip. North to South is a 10km trip. What I love to do is to venture out, to an unknown area and just bike random streets. What happens is that I always make new discoveries on such expeditions, shops, bars, restaurans, play grounds, parks, markets, galleries... Amsterdam has a lot of hidden gems, and the real Amsterdam experience is to be found outside the historic canal belt. Every little neighborhood in Amsterdam has it's own cool bars, shops, markets,....

3. The food scene

Holland is not famous for it's food. However, there's a lot of good food in Amsterdam, and a thriving food scene.

Sure you can dine at world class Michelin star restaurants. But in my humble opinion, they aren't better or more special than the ones you found in Belgium or France. Price/quality wise you're better off abroad if Michelin star restaurants is what you're after. BUT: exception to this is Yamazato, the Japanese 2 star restaurant in the Okura Hotel. The only Japanese restaurant with 2 stars outside of Japan. Highly recommended.

What is much more exciting are the various food concepts that emerge all over town. Often organic, biological infused ideas, often set in very cool locations, and quite often emerging as a pop-up concept. Think of Wilde Zwijnen, the boys of Repere and Foyer, BAK, Baut, Restaurant As, Rijsel, Speijkervet, Cafe Modern, Goudfazant.... More conceptual ideas emerged as well, Fier with Limburg food, Bar Brouw specialized in pulled pork, Rotisserie focusses on chicken, Julius is all about the BBQ. Shared dining was introduces and now counts 5&33, Bocinq, Mercat, Boca's. In addition to all that there's now a huge selections of bars and brasseries serving excellent food: Carters, Bar Moustache, American Bar & Kitchen, Hugo's Bar & Kitchen, Franklin Bar & Kitchen...

There's now also a serious breakfast and brunch scene, with G's as the pioneers, and Little Collins, Drover's Dog, Staring at Jacob seeing their stars rise. Flanked by hundreds of exciting coffee spots scattered all over town: Bedford Stuyvesant and Bru in East, Mem's in South, Quartier Putain in the red light district, White label coffee and Berry in West and Headfirst Coffee Roasters in the Jordaan.

All in all, no matter how you find your way across Amsterdam canals and streets, there's always exciting places to discover where you can find good food, good drinks, good people, and crazy moments!

Write your own article and win great prizes: http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/content/tale-of-3-cities.shtml

Lazy weekends in Amsterdam

Amsterdam is one of the best cities to live. Especially when it's not raining. So what to do in Amsterdam on a dry sunny weekend day in winter?

Neighbourhood Food Market

Sampling fine food in a relaxed, cozy setting.

There is almost something going on at the Westergasfabriek all the way in West. It's a good thing it's one of my favorite hang outs in the city, and not only because it's an urban brownfield redevelopment project. Last sunday Westergasfabriek hosted the Neighbourhood Food Market. Inside the Zuiveringshal West a wide variety of food stalls were put up, a DJ spinned old vinyl records, outside there were french fries, pancakes, mexican burritos were made in rolling kitchens.

The atmosphere is relaxed but it gets quite crowded after 3pm, so get there early. There is also some second hand stalls in the western half of the hall. The place is pretty kid friendly, and a photograper was taking cool pictures of families on the southern part of the building. 

Some of our favorite stalls: the pinxtos, vegetarian Indian and definitely the Vietnamese spring rolls.

http://neighbourfoodmarket.nl/

Six and Sons

Cool retro vintage concept store for men.

 Coffee and vintage furniture, clothing, decorations, fragrances... This is a gentlemen's store with a living room look and feel. Browse through the unique collection downstairs, rest and relax in the coffee bar upstairs with a coffee, sandwich, cake...

Cool stuff, good coffee, great prices!

 www.sixandsons.com/‎

Zimmerhoeve

Kids love animals, and you don't need to venture to Artis or to the countryside to find some sweet animals your toddles can pet and play with. Off De Clercqstraat, in the Kinkerbuurt there's a quaint little wooden city farm called the Zimmerhoeve. Before there was a petting zoo and playground installed there was a factory making iron cast potholes.

Free entrance, cute place, there are sheep, rabbits, chickens, pigs, goats, guinea pigs... Outside the petting zoo there is a large play ground, some ruins of the old pothole factory are visible on the playground. Warm up with a nice coffee, or a good glass of Belgian beer at nearby Cafe Louter.

 http://www.zimmerhoeve.nl/

Coffee in Amsterdam - my favorite places to chill for coffee

1. Headfirst Coffee Roasters : Coffee|Filter Coffee|Hipster|Jordaan

2. Bedford Stuyvesant: Coffee|Espressobar|Great Sandwiches|Oost

3. Mem's: Espressobar|Trendy|Artsy|Brand New|De Pijp

4. Boulangerie 1072: Bakery|Coffee|Snacks|Retro|Breakfast|De Pijp

5. Back to Black: Tearoom|Coffee|Specialty Beers|Lunch|Historic|Courtyard|Centrum.Zeedijk

6. Six & Sons: Coffee|Vintage Furniture|Decoration|Hipster|Jordaan.Haarlemmerdijk

7. Tazzina: Espresso|Lunch|High Tea|Scones|Jordaan

8. Boterham: Hipster|Breakfast|Lunch|Interior Decorations Shop|Oost

9. Koko Coffe & Design: Coffee|Design|Clothing|Red Light District

10. Scandinavian Embassy: Coffee|Hot Chocolate|Cake|Nordic Design|De Pijp

January Restaurant Update - Amsterdam

Fier

Belgian|Limburg cuisine in Oud West.

The place looks urban retro, open kitchen, high tables, low tables, lot's of wood, lot's of copper, lot's of steel. Good acoustics, nice buzz, very comfy, very pleasant.

The food is supposed to be Belgian|Limburg cuisine. Being Belgian (and actually born in Limburg) I found that the menu didn't support their claim. Zoervleisj is on the menu (a typical Dutch-Limburg horse meat dish), there was duck sausage, duck (confit), imported USA beef diaphragm, game sausage, a burger, and a fish (cod). I was unable to spot the Belgian part on their menu apart from maybe the fries and the sauces: Mayonaise and Andalouse. 

I make it a point to consume locally grown products. I'm slightly carbon footprint aware. I just don't like the idea things I eat being transported from overseas if there's perfectly good products locally, or even in Belgium (blanc-blue belge beef for instance).

So I went for the Zoervleisj and confit de canard was selected on the other side of the table. The game sausage was spicy and delicious. The food was well prepared, and the zoervleisj was very harty, tasty and tasted genuine (and something you don't get often in Amsterdam).

The wine was mediocre and not memorable at all. Some more top shelf options would be welcome.

All in all, a fun place to have a meal and excellent value for money. We will be back!

https://www.facebook.com/FierAmsterdam

Oldschool

High School Dissapointment

I have been wanting to go check Oldschool out as soon as they opened. It's very close to where I live, they claim to mix art with cuisine, it's in an old school building... a lot of good qualities.

The setting is cool, it's in an old school building, huge venue, a lot of tables, simple lighting, you feel like you're back in school, cool. Unfortunately you also use the old (unrefurbished, plain, dirty) school toilets. Not so cool.

The service is not good. Very clueless, clumsy and slow. When your server is making guesses about what the grey stuff on your plate is, I start to get worried. It took forever to get anything done, a drink, a bottle of wine, menus, first course, main course, the check... we were fed up with waiting, so we decided not to wait for dessert.

The food then: not meeting expectations. Not memorable, very basic, very middle of the road, and they have a very peculiar view on ravioli (see image below). If the chef decides to deconstruct a ravioli, maybe it's worth while mentioning that on the menu. If something is deconstructed, try to be original, creative, think out of the box, go beyond covering the inside of ravioli with a sheet of pasta. Too easy, too middle of the road. The cooking is not excellent, the ruin textures in the kitchen. It's mediocre and the lack of creativity makes it all a little disappointing in a venue like this.

AND the dirty toilets are a disgrace!

 Not highly recommended. I won't go back there.

http://oldschoolamsterdam.com/

Yamazato

World class delight

Every now and then it's good to try out established, world class restaurants in our fair city. We decided to try out Yamazato in January (my upstair neighbours often raved about Amsterdam's best Japanese restaurant). They are right though. It's a real treat. Definitely worth their Michelin star (the only Japanese Michelin star outside of Japan)

You're taken to Japan, to sample traditional Japanese haute cuisine. As soon as you take a bow and walk through the door into the restaurant, you're aware that you've left Holland and teleported to Japan. It fits, it works, it's genuine, it's calm, controlled, zen,... Don't expect a daring or hipster decor, it's all about authenticity and Japanese traditions.

The service is courteous, professional, the right amount of presence, friendly with a smile and a wink and... with a lot of knowledge. 

The food is fantastic. True traditional Japanese dishes, top quality ingredients, perfect cooking. Exciting flavours, nothing too modern or creative, pure sensations. We went for the 97,5 euro traditional menu, and spent 45 euro per person on wine. So eating here won't drain your account.

Highlights of the meal were the lackered yakimono cod, the fighting fish sashimi, duck breast with shredded soy sauce and the main course: lobster tempura.

This IS the Japanese embassy in Europe, it's an institute! I will be back here once a year for sure.

Very very very highly recommended.

http://www.okura.nl/okura-culinair/yamazato/

Barrique

The best cheese plate in Amsterdam.

Located in the heart of the bustling Pijp. An adult, modern, clean & tight, serious, Scandinavian looking setting. Friendly generous staff who seem to know how the minds of foodies work. Open kitchen, calm and relaxed atmosphere. Somehow this place felt like an oasis in the Pijp to me. Good stuff.

Allright, on to the food. Well, in short, it's very good actually. Especially the appetizer was kind of daring. You don't often see chefs preparing gamba's in a chef's menu.It came with crispy an delicious vegetables, a nice couscous and tasty sauces. I enjoyed it a lot.

The main course was beef diaphragm (Dutch beef) and a stew with tomatoes. Simply delicious. The chef goes for local and seasonal. I can't agree more with that. Top quality products are used, and cooking and seasoning is done to perfection.

Then the dessert! 8 amazing cheeses, good choices, and we got 'encores' on the cheeses we loved most. This is definitely the best cheese plate in town. Excellent price|quality ratio. Add stunning wines to the meal and you'll realize that this place made it on the highly recommended list.

 http://www.restaurantbarrique.nl/

Stay tuned for more reviews!

On my 'to go' list:
- Goudfazant
- Sinne
- Julius
- Kiebert
- Marathonweg
- Voldaan
- Odeon
- Johannes