Miri Mary

Butter Chicken Benny and a Goan omelette floating in coconut sauce, on a brunch card that only exists Friday to Sunday.

Foram and Anand, she a former criminal lawyer in New Delhi, opened Miri Mary on Van der Helstplein in June 2022 with a simple rule: the cooks come from different parts of India and cook what they actually grew up eating. Mumbai chef Nirvaan, trained at the Culinary Institute of America, built the original kitchen and still flies in once a year to rewrite the menu, which is why the food reads like a point of view rather than a survey. The weekend brunch is a genuinely separate card, not the dinner menu in daylight: Butter Chicken Benny puts chicken tikka and poached eggs under makhani on brioche for 20 euros, the Goan Ros Omelette floats cheese omelette in coconut sauce with poee bread for 18, and Idli and Sambar comes in at 12. Smoked Eggplant Shakshuka and lassi pancakes cover the two ends anyone brings a table to. The room is warm plywood and walnut with a terrazzo bar front, a rattan wave light strung over the spirits shelf and cane chairs, and the terrace takes the plein when the sun is out. It holds 4.7 across more than five thousand Google reviews and Het Parool put it in its Indian roundup in September 2025, which for a De Pijp side square is a serious hit rate. The catch is simply arithmetic: three mornings a week, one small room.

Brunch runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday 10:30 to 15:00 only, and the brunch card does not exist outside those hours. Book, the room is small and the plein terrace goes first. Order the Butter Chicken Benny at 20 euros with the Idli and Sambar at 12 to share.

Photo: Miri Mary