If you are coming to Amsterdam and want to stay in the heart of the luxury shopping district, Hotel Patou is for you. It’s right on the PC Hooftstraat, where Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Gucci have boutiques. Named after legendary French couturier, Jean Patou, the hotel also has a brasserie where you can rest your weary shopping feet.

• Vibe: minimalist luxury with all kinds of amenities such as free Wi-Fi, flat screen TVs, amazingly comfortable beds and linen.
• Pros: you are right on the chic shopping street of Amsterdam, one block from the Rijksmuseum, two blocks from the Van Gogh Museum, five minutes from the Concertgebouw, ten minutes from Vondelpark.
• Cons: expensive (lowest rate is 180 EUR).

Hotel Patou
P.C. Hooftstraat 63
Amsterdam, Netherlands
+31 20 676 0232
www.hotelpatou.nl

Check out Mapplr’s other favorites in Amsterdam:

Momo: hottest new restaurant, lounge and bar with excellent sushi and sashimi

Top 10 boutique hotels and B&Bs in Amsterdam

Mapplr’s favorite restaurants in Amsterdam

Quattro Gatti: best Italian restaurant, reasonable prices

- – - – - – - – - – -

Click here to see all of Mapplr’s Amsterdam articles and the Google map of Amsterdam hotels and restaurants.

What a fabulous addition to the dining and bar scene in Amsterdam! This week I went to the terrific opening party of Momo, a new restaurant, bar and lounge specializing in sushi, sashimi and Asian style dishes, then I went back the next evening for dinner. It’s now my favorite place to hang out in Amsterdam. The quality of the fish they use for sashimi and sushi are far above what you get in Amsterdam sushi restaurants, and the presentation of the food is a feast for the eyes. There are set menus for four or more persons, an astounding menu if you want to eat at the bar (you don’t really need to sit down for the full dinner because these little plates are so delicious and filling), and a list of unusual cocktails.

The chef, Anthony Sousa Tam, used to work at Hakkasan in London, so you can set high expectations. Other noteworthy dishes: the grilled chilean sea bass in an aromatic curry sauce was divine — the curry was very spicy (no concession whatsoever to bland local tastes). Desserts were out of this world: chocolate fondant with chocolate mousse and ginger creme brulee served in a spider’s web “cage” of crunchy caramel.

Momo’s interiors were done by Baranowitz & Kronenberg, the Tel Aviv architecture firm that did Herbert Samuel and Sushi Samba, two excellent restaurants in Tel Aviv.

Finally, Amsterdam gets an elegant, cosmopolitan place to hang out that actually has really good food!

• Vibe: urban chic, white airy interiors filled with light; attracts a flashy vulgar fashion/design crowd from Amsterdam-Zuid, with a few conservative banking types hanging out at the bar; location is perfect – next to Vondelpark and one block from the luxury boutique shopping street, PC Hooftstraat.

• Pros: best sushi and sashimi outside the Okura Hotel, savoury bar food like chicken wings (but nothing like chicken wings you’ve ever tasted), excellent cocktails.

• Cons: can get very loud when the place is packed; you must reserve otherwise you eat at the bar; the PC Hooftstraat shopping crowd (fake tan, fake body parts, botoxed foreheads and plumped-up lips) can be quite vulgar so be prepared to forgive their crude behavior by downing even more of Momo’s incredible cocktails.

Momo
Hobbemastraat 1
Amsterdam, Netherlands
+31 20 671 7474
www.momo-amsterdam.com

- – - – - – - -

See more of Mapplr’s favorite hotels and restaurants in Amsterdam and the Google map.

This is one of the restaurant openings I’ve been waiting for in a long time. La Mar Cebicheria, a Peruvian restaurant and ceviche bar, has just opened on the Embarcadero next to the Ferry Building. It is part of the La Mar Cebicheria group of restaurants in Lima, which includes La Mar and Punto Azul, where I had excellent ceviche in August 2008 (see my Lima, Peru restaurant recommendations). I love Peruvian food, but when outside Peru, I am leery of restaurants that claim to serve “authentic Peruvian”. La Mar, however, is the real thing.

Here’s what you can expect from some of the dishes:

- ceviche mixto: just the right amount of lime and if you want it spicy, just say so and they’ll add more aji peppers;

- ensalada nikei: delicious Japanese-style salad with green papaya, jícama, soybeans, pickled carrots and daikon, crunchy quinoa, Peruvian purple corn and rocoto;

- chorrillana: pan-fried Alaskan halibut filet, mashed yucca, tamarind, red onion and tomato sauce, very savory and piquant;

- picarones: amazing dessert, African in origin, deep-fried ring-shaped pumpkin fritter coated with molasses, with a fig sauce.

And finally, the Pisco Sour, my favorite drink in Peru. At La Mar, they make it just like they did in Lima: strong and sour.

• Vibe: large airy open space with separate area for ceviche bar, wooden tables and chairs, relaxed seaside feel

• Pros: authentic Peruvian food, good service; excellent ceviches, very spicy upon request; they make a wicked pisco sour

• Cons: it can get very loud at times; the only real drawback I can foresee is the temptation to dumb down the food to attract more tourists (since they are on the Embarcadero and have a large space to fill). They must resist!

UPDATE (9 February 2009): I went back to La Mar this week and found that the food was not as good as it was before. I was disappointed. The pisco sour is still, however, the best in SF.

- – - – - – - – - –

La Mar Cebicheria Peruana
Pier 1 1/2, The Embarcadero
San Francisco, CA
+1 415 397 8880
www.lamarcebicheria.com

Book online via Open Table

- – - – - -

Click on the Google map to see my favorite restaurants in San Francisco.

As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, lunching in downtown SF can be a nightmare. But slowly I’ve been posting my favorite lunch places so you no longer have to waste time choosing between office worker food pits (fast, huge portions) and tourist traps (fake Italian eateries and “child friendly” burger joints), both of which have been a catastrophe for the downtown SF food scene.

I recently posted a few of my favorite lunch spots in downtown SF and Embarcadero: Katana-ya near Union Square, and two Ferry Building restaurants, Delica RF-1 and Boulette’s Larder.

Now you can add Miss Saigon to that list. The location is a bit dodgy, on the corner of Mission and Sixth. But it’s close to Bloomingdales and Mint Plaza (where my favorite cafe, Blue Bottle, is located). The restaurant itself is stylish and clean (in contrast to a lot of Vietnamese restaurants that pay no attention to decor). It’s the food — savoury, spicy and inexpensive — that makes Miss Saigon my favorite place to eat in that part of town. It’s MUCH better and cheaper than Out the Door, the Vietnamese restaurant in the basement of the Westfield shopping center, which is owned by the Slanted Door folks.

What to order: the Vietnamese crepe which is filled with shrimp and pork. The crepe is paper thin and crispy on the edges. You cut a piece, wrap it up in a lettuce leaf with mint leaves, and dip in fish sauce. Heavenly!

Miss Saigon is also open for dinner and takeaway. I have had the shaking beef which is excellent, too. Their curries are fantastic especially if you tell them to make it very spicy.

Miss Saigon
100 6th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
+1 415 522 0332
www.misssaigonsf.com

- – - – - – - -

Click on the Google map of Mapplr’s favorite restaurants in San Francisco.

View Larger Map