Zoldering

A Michelin star wearing a brown-café jacket, with an 800-bottle wine list.

Founded by a Ciel Bleu sommelier, a chef who did time at De Librije, and two partners who also run the Lof wine shop up the street, Zoldering is what happens when wine people build the restaurant instead of the other way round. The room feels like an old Amsterdam café, dark wood, low light, people actually laughing, but the plates are starred-level French with the collar unbuttoned: a strawberry-shingled pavlova poured over with Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise, turbot in a brown-shrimp foam, a caramel-drenched tartlet finished at the table. The list runs past 800 labels, from twenty-euro honest to icon-cellar silly, and three sommeliers will happily meet your budget wherever it lives. Open until midnight Monday through Saturday, which on the Utrechtsestraat makes it both the smartest dinner and the best last stop.

Surrender to the wine pairing, it is the whole point of the place, and save room for the pavlova.

Photo: Zoldering

Photo: Zoldering