Japans Restaurant AN

Couple-run Japanese home cooking since 1989, where even the mochi and the ice cream are made by hand.

AN has been making Japanese home cooking on the Weteringschans since 1989, which makes it one of the oldest Japanese restaurants in the country and the kind of place expats measure other restaurants against. A couple runs it, the kitchen is open, and everything, from the gyoza wrappers to the ice cream to the wagashi sweets, is made by hand, an approach that predates the word artisanal and will outlive it. The omakase is the move: a Japanese tray crowded with small dishes, sashimi and tempura and simmered things, generous for the price and quietly precise. Vegetarians and vegans are taken seriously rather than tolerated. The room is plain, the pace unhurried, the welcome genuinely warm. Nearly four decades in, it does not chase attention and does not need to; it simply reopens after the summer break and the regulars flow back. Book by phone, like it is 1989.

Closed for summer holidays, reopening 1 September 2026. Normally dinner Tue-Sat 18:00-22:00, last order 21:30, closed Sun-Mon. Book by phone and just say omakase.