MADRE

Amsterdam's only fully plant-based Mexican kitchen, running tacos and mezcal out of a former Jordaan cinema.

Cinema Paradiso played its last film on Westerstraat years ago, and Suzanne van Huuksloot walked in with an idea nobody else in the city had tried: modern Mexican cooking with nothing from an animal on the plate. Not a substitute menu, a proper one. Guacamole still gets built at the table, tostadas arrive stacked with charred pineapple and achiote-spiced potato, and the birria quesatacos use a slow-braised plant protein rich enough that most people don't clock it's vegan until you point it out. Chipotle mole cauliflower wings and mushroom carnitas tacos do the same trick from different angles. The old cinema now seats up to 120 under wood panelling, loud and full most nights of the week, with a mezcal-driven cocktail bar doing steady business before and after dinner. Weekend brunch has its own following. It is a narrow lane, plant-based Mexican, and Madre has it entirely to itself in Amsterdam, which would mean nothing if the food weren't this good.

Kitchen runs Monday-Thursday 17:30-22:00, Friday to 22:30, weekends from 12:00 with brunch until 16:00. Taco Tuesday (two tacos, one margarita, €21.50) is the cheapest way in.

Photo: MADRE