Balthazar's Keuken

One weekly menu, thirty seats, an old forge: the platonic Jordaan restaurant since 1995.

A former blacksmith's forge on the Elandsgracht that has served one weekly-changing set menu since 1995, now run by the founders' son Beau, his wife Zwaan and chef Wanne. The formula hasn't moved in thirty years because it doesn't need to: five small starters land family-style, then one main, your only decision is meat or fish, then dessert. You sit more or less inside the kitchen, thirty covers, elbow to elbow with the stoves and each other, watching dinner get finished a meter away. It's the platonic ideal of the Jordaan restaurant: unfussy, generous, personal, and impossible to leave grumpy. A handful of terrace tables appear in good weather. Ask what's cooking this week before you book, or better: don't ask, and just let them feed you.

Your only choice is the main, when the fish is North Sea sole or cod, take the fish.