MichelinPhoto: FuLu Mandarijn
Centrum (Rokin) · Added to the Michelin guide 21 August 2026
FuLu Mandarijn
Fifty years on the Rokin, and the Michelin inspectors have finally walked in.
Michelin added eight restaurants to its Dutch selection on 21 August, and two of them are here. FuLu Mandarijn has been on the Rokin since 1975, two minutes from the Dam, on the stretch of town most locals write off as tourist territory. The inspectors went anyway and came back talking about Sichuan pepper tingle, deep umami and generous plates built for sharing, plus a Cantonese side and proper dim sum. The other Amsterdam name on the list is Utage Sake Bar on the Lekstraat, where the tuna tartare arrives with nori, shiso and fresh wasabi for you to roll yourself. Stars and Bibs get handed out at the annual ceremony.
Chef movePhoto: Kees van Duinhoven, via Hospitality Management
Grachtengordel (Gouden Bocht) · Started 3 August 2026
Pasquale Carfora, Waldorf Astoria
JRE Chef of the Year takes over the Waldorf Astoria kitchens after Spectrum's exit.
The Waldorf Astoria has answered the Sidney Schutte question. Pasquale Carfora, named JRE Chef of the Year 2025 and until May the chef-owner of the garlanded Italian restaurant Aroma in Vaassen, became executive chef of the whole canal-house operation on 3 August. It is a proper full-circle move: Carfora started out in luxury hotels before going solo, collected Michelin and Gault&Millau recognition plus a 50 Top Italy listing at Aroma, then closed it this spring at its height. His first job is the big one: shaping the restaurant that will follow two-star Spectrum, which went dark when Schutte left in May. Watch this address.
New openingPhoto: De Westkrant
Kinkerbuurt (Oud-West) · Opened 22 July 2026
Mano Bakery
A Veronese couple bake their grandfather's legacy onto the Kinkerstraat.
Lara and Alex moved from Verona four years ago, kept proper jobs, then did the sensible Italian thing: six months of intensive baker training and a bakery of their own in the old Chez Rosie space. The name honours Lara's grandfather, whose garage bakery forty years ago grew into a wholesale business back home. The counter runs from sourdough and tomato-basil focaccia to an almond-cream pastry with peach compote and jasmine chocolate at five euros, and the mortadella sandwich with pistachio pesto and burrata at six fifty is an instant Kinkerstraat lunch answer. The kitchen is open to the street, the window seats are built for people-watching, and Wednesday to Sunday the block smells like Verona. Daytime only, until four.
New openingPhoto: De Westkrant
Bilderdijkbuurt (Oud-West) · Opened mid-July 2026
dubble
Monks is gone. Two friends turned the space into a room where the record player runs the show.
Monks Coffee Roasters held this corner for a decade, so the successor had a lot to answer for. Dubble is a listening cafe, which in practice means two friends, one French, one Spanish-rooted and Dutch-raised, decided the sound system deserved as much budget as the espresso machine. Records play all day, black leather hanging sofas and rugs make the place feel like somebody's front room, and on Saturdays a DJ takes the decks from three to seven. Coffee comes from Kaf, the croissants and toasties from Louf at seven fifty, and the wine runs red, white, orange and none at all. Daytime only, Wednesday to Sunday.
New openingPhoto: 't Lemmeke
Oud-Zuid · Opened 7 July 2026
't Lemmeke
The Wijmpje Beukers crew cross an English country pub with a Dutch eetcafé.
The team behind Wijmpje Beukers, Schotsheuvel and De Zingende Zwaan took a corner on the Van Breestraat and built the pub Amsterdam didn't know it was missing: candlelight, no reservations, and a card that swings happily between Britain and the Low Countries. Chef De Groot came over from Ron Gastrobar Sofialaan. Bangers and mash at €17 sits next to a stamppot of the month at €18; there is steak tartare at €14, a cordon bleu, a burger with bacon jam, Zeeland oysters, and then sticky toffee pudding or Eton mess to finish. Walk in from 17:00, from 16:00 at weekends, stay as long as the evening lasts, closed Mondays. Fourth address for this crew, and the cosiest by some distance.
New openingPhoto: Stadscafé
Westerpark (Cultuurpark Westergas) · Opened 1 July 2026
Westergas finally gets a proper all-day room, built by the Teds, Roest and De Willem crowd.
Westergas has never been short of places to drink and has been short of anywhere to actually sit down and eat, which is the gap Stadscafé walked into on 1 July. It occupies the old district office attached to Conscious Hotel Westerpark, and the pedigree is heavy: Michiel Huisman from Teds, Jamie van der Will and Maarten de Vries from De Willem and Roest, with Jef van den Hout cooking as co-owner. Antwerp's Gestalt architecten did the room in black, dark brown and red velvet, roughly 125 seats plus a terrace that runs straight into the park. Doors at 07:00 daily. A nduja tosti with gruyère and shallot compote is ten euros.
New openingPhoto: AmsterdamNow
Oud-West (Jan Pieter Heijestraat) · Opened late June 2026
Vermut
A Michelin-trained chef swaps the pass for a vermouth bar on the JP Heijestraat.
Simon Witmaar cooked at Michelin level and ran Coulisse, and then he did the thing tired chefs quietly dream about: opened a bar where the whole point is a glass of vermouth and whatever you fancy eating next to it. Vermut took the old Nonna site on the JP Heijestraat in late June and is unembarrassed about the Spanish aperitivo hour. Sourdough with butter is six euros, grilled sea bass with salsa verde sixteen, and around them sit anchovies with creme fraiche and lemon, meatballs in tomato with parmesan, panna cotta with strawberries. Bread comes from Farine in Bos en Lommer. No reservations, doors at four.
New openingPhoto: De Boule De Boule
Centrum (Waterlooplein) · Opened June 2026
The country's first ice cream and wine salon, in the Stopera plinth of all places.
Ice cream with natural wine is either the daftest pairing of the year or the smartest, and Kirsi Rautiainen and sommelier Dominique have bet the Netherlands' first ice-and-wine salon on the second answer. It sits in the Stopera plinth at Waterlooplein, part of the city's Amstel 1 project, and it has been going since June. Every scoop and sorbet is made in house and fully plant based, running from straight pistachio and dark chocolate out to hojicha stracciatella and pandan shiso. The wine is natural and mostly by the glass, with croissants, crepes and savoury bites for anyone who turns up at ten in the morning. DJs later.
Coming soonPhoto: AmsterdamNow
Centrum (Utrechtsestraat) · Opening announced for September 2026
KAMA Handroll Bar
The 212 crew go loud and cheap with a 35-seat handroll counter.
Richard van Oostenbrugge and Thomas Groot hold two Michelin stars at 212 and have a habit of opening rooms that grow a queue within a fortnight. KAMA is their handroll bar, going into Utrechtsestraat 32 with a 35-seat counter and a private space upstairs. Roef Lanen, currently at 212, runs the kitchen alongside Japanese chef Tomoaki Ikegami. The name comes from the fatty cut of tuna near the gills, and the format is deliberately unserious by this group's standards: rock and roll volume, no barriers, seven days a week, single handrolls from seven to nine euros and a full chef's menu if you want the whole thing. Announced for September. The site still says soon.
Chef movePhoto: Hospitality Management / The College Hotel (Sidney Schutte)
Oud-Zuid · Opening September 2026 (announced)
Sidney Schutte, The Gym
Two-star Spectrum chef trades tasting menus for a gym in Oud-Zuid.
The biggest chef move of the year: Sidney Schutte, who held two Michelin stars at Spectrum in the Waldorf Astoria for over a decade, has left and is opening The Gym this September, in the actual former gymnasium behind The College Hotel, high ceilings, own entrance, quiet terrace and all. The point, he says, is that the top end is changing: no evening-long menu marathons, just sharp cooking with fish, shellfish and vegetables, serious wine, and the freedom to leave after two courses. He'll also run the hotel's entire food operation. Mark it: opening soon, book fast.
