Arles
Numa Muller's jazz-scored neo-bistro is De Pijp's smartest French table.
Chef Numa Muller named this snug room after his Provençal hometown, hung it with prints of the place, and set the whole thing to jazz, then started cooking French food good enough to make the Michelin inspectors take notes. The format is a set menu that changes every month, which keeps the kitchen restless and the value startling for cooking at this level: think beetroot sharpened with smoked yoghurt and trout roe, or a fish course sauced with the kind of patience most bistros abandoned decades ago. It's neo-bistro in the honest sense, classical technique, modern nerve, zero tweezers-for-the-sake-of-it. The room seats few and books out accordingly, and dinner unfolds at a Southern French tempo rather than an Amsterdam one. For a serious date that doesn't require hotel-lobby formality, this is the neighborhood's answer.
Menus change monthly, if the beetroot with smoked yoghurt and trout roe appears, order it.
What to order
Full menu- Chef's menu€48–€68
The move here, monthly-changing neo-bistro courses at neighbourhood prices.
- Steak tartare€18
With chili mayonnaise and radish, classic technique, un-classic accents.
- Pappardelle with porcini and chanterelle€25
The autumn-comfort plate reviewers linger over with the jazz on.
- Entrecôte 400g€86
The showpiece cut for two appetites, potatoes and greens included.
- Riz au lait€10
Caramel-vanilla rice pudding, the giveaway that real French chefs run this kitchen.
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