September 2025 – Restaurant 212, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Luke Griffiths
- Oct 2
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 4
Chef’s counter at this intimate and friendly venue
Eating somewhere really nice was a really big part of our plan to show that you can visit a city in 34 hours without having to take time off work (we will write about the rest of the trip soon). We hit the jackpot with Restaurant 212 in Amsterdam! I booked for us to sit at the chef’s counter as it adds an amazing extra dimension to the experience and this was certainly the case here.
As you would expect at a 2 Michelin star restaurant, the kitchen was run like a well-oiled machine. What was unusual though was how much prep went on in front of us. Often it seems like food is prepared ‘out the back’ and then brought to the open kitchen to be assembled but here it seemed that the whole process was done in front of our eyes. Despite the restaurant being full (around 20 covers) the friendly team went out of their way to talk to us, whether explaining the dishes or giving insights into their time at the restaurant. I think it was the most friendly and personable fine dining experience that we have had.
The food was incredible from start to finish, delicious flavours combined with elaborate presentation – the dishes were works of art on a plate. My favourite dish was ‘Seabass puffed on the scales’ which had a brilliant range of textures as well as tasting incredible, and showed that grape can be used as an accompaniment to fish (which is a reference to a previous restaurant review of mine). The food overall was excitingly different and allowed the creativity of the chefs to shine through.
I’m going into a fourth paragraph just to further explain the attention to detail that was present at Restaurant 212! One of the desserts was called ‘apple’, which is a restaurant signature dish of an apple and ginger sorbet presented in a blown sugar apple shaped case. Think glass blowing but with sugar. It was amazing to see how many of these casings didn’t make the grade so were melted down and redone perfectly. It was also funny that the instrument of choice to cool the casings once formed was a hairdryer…Restaurant 212 is definitely the first kitchen where I have witnessed a hair dryer making an appearance!
