Restaurante Dona

Ten tables, one fixed Portuguese menu, and a room built entirely around two grandmothers' recipes.

Sjors Nouwens runs the floor and Diogo Campaniço runs the kitchen, and between them Restaurante Dona is a two-person operation with ten tables and nowhere to hide. The four-course menu changes with what's good that week, built around Diogo's memories of his grandmothers Tana and Tonica: bread soup with fish, salted codfish with chickpeas and bell peppers, plaice with clams and garlic, an egg pudding with tawny port and passion fruit to finish. Petiscos fill in the gaps, chouriço flamed at the table, a plate of Portuguese cheeses, codfish fritters three to a plate. Almost everything is imported rather than substituted: the tableware, the olive oil, some of the wine, poured from producers nobody in Amsterdam had touched before. The dining room reads like somebody's actual living room, mismatched china, soft lighting, tram-route wallpaper nodding at Lisbon. The Parool called it a gastronomic tribute to grandmothers, and three years after opening that description still holds. Book ahead. Ten tables fill fast and there's no walking in on a Saturday.

Open Wednesday to Saturday, 18:30-23:00. Ten tables a night, so book at least a week out for weekends.

Photo: Restaurante Dona, via Your Little Black Book