Ever since I visited Istanbul, I’ve been crazy about Turkish food. I am hunting down good Turkish restaurants wherever I go. Amsterdam has a number of good Turkish places but the recent addition to the dining scene, Restaurant Revan, is fabulous. Better yet, the prices are reasonable. The starters range in price from €4.50-€7.50; main [...]

There are many advantages to staying in an apartment over a hotel. You have more space and more privacy, you can cook your own meals or get takeaway from a good traiteur in the neighborhood and you don’t have to adhere to the disruptive hotel cleaning schedule.
Amsterdam has a lot of fabulous apartments for short-term [...]

Amsterdam has been blessed with a lot of outstanding restaurants opening in the past five years. Once ethnic food meant a choice between Indonesian and bland Chinese food, now we’ve got Moroccan, Thai, Japanese and finally, Afghan cuisine from a new restaurant called Mantoe in the Jordaan. It’s become a neighborhood favorite because the food [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

I don’t know why it took me so long to post my favorite restaurants in Amsterdam, given that I reside there. Here they are, with my absolute favorite – Quattro Gatti – listed first. I have also included takeaway places because they’re often so much better than restaurants (note: service in Amsterdam restaurants is often [...]

Het Parool, the Amsterdam newspaper, has finally redesigned its website and it looks great. Better yet, they put all of Johannes van Dam’s restaurant reviews on a map. Van Dam is Parool’s opinionated restaurant critic. His standards can sometimes be a bit too traditional for me, but I agree with most of his assessments. I [...]

It’s that time of the year again when people are making travel plans for the summer. Here are my personal favorites, many of which I have visited. There are more on Weekendhotel.nl, a website that selects the best B&Bs and small hotels in the Netherlands and Belgium.
The last five years have seen an explosion in [...]

There’s no reason why anyone should have to spend a lot of money eating great Italian food in Amsterdam and put up with snobby personnel or overdesigned “trendy” spaces.
Quattro Gatti, a tiny Italian restaurant in my neighborhood (the Negen Straatjes or Nine Streets), is absolutely the best in town. Prices are reasonable and the food [...]

I think I’ve found the best Thai restaurant in Amsterdam. It’s a new place called Kinnaree, located in the heart of the Jordaan. Unlike other Thai places in town, the interior decor departs from the traditional features of bamboo and loud colors. Instead the space is airy (it’s in a 19th century building with high [...]