NELA
Live-fire glamour inside the Valley building; Zuidas finally learned to have fun.
The Zuidas eats a thousand expense-account lunches a day, but NELA is the one address down here that feels like an actual night out. Hari Shetty and Ori Geller run a live-fire kitchen on the second floor of the Valley building, that jagged glass mountain you've squinted at from the A10, sending out shared plates cooked over charcoal and open flame while the room does its low-lit, high-volume thing. The formula worked well enough that London got a NELA too, but Amsterdam is the original. Come with a group, order too many skewers and grilled things, and let the DJ-adjacent soundtrack carry you past midnight. Is it subtle? No. Is the fish charred exactly right while someone orders another magnum two tables over? Yes. Sometimes that's precisely what the doctor ordered.
The Sunday yakitori brunch is the sleeper hit, skewers off the binchotan instead of another eggs benedict.
What to order
Full menu- Charred hamachi kama€22
Collar straight off the coals with chimichurri, the sharing plate reviewers fight over.
- 30-day dry-aged beef fillet€42
180g over embers; the Zuidas expense-account main that actually delivers.
- Fire-roasted corn tempura€11
Chipotle aioli, unlikely hero, the sleeper side that keeps getting name-checked.
- Open-flame sea bream€32
Whole fish, green rub, live fire, the lighter lunch-meeting main.
More in Zuid
The whole chapter
RIJKS
Bijdendijk's Low Countries cooking is the Rijksmuseum's best exhibit, and it's edible.
Wils
Michelin-starred fire worship on the third floor above Stadionplein.
Restaurant Blauw
The rijsttafel that converts skeptics, served where Vondelpark meets Amstelveenseweg.