Leonardo's Ravioli Bar

Toscanini's chef gone rogue with a marble counter, five ravioli, and a guest-chef special worth asking about.

Leonardo Pacenti spent years making Toscanini the Jordaan's Italian institution, then decided what Amsterdam really needed was a bar that serves almost nothing but ravioli. He was right. Behind the blue facade on the Eerste van der Helststraat you get a marble counter, an open kitchen, and a short list of filled pasta rolled so thin it barely counts as a wrapper. The spinach and ricotta with ragù is the classic, the brasato in butter and sage the comfort order, and the baccalà with lobster bisque the one to show off with. The clever bit is the Specialità, a rotating ravioli developed with another Amsterdam chef, so the city's serious kitchens take turns moonlighting as pasta stuffers in De Pijp. Start with cicchetti and a spritz, finish with the cold zabaglione, and you have a complete evening for less than the first act of a tasting menu.

Ask what the Specialità is before ordering anything else; it is the guest-chef collaboration and it rotates without much warning. The counter seats come with the open kitchen as entertainment.