Dinner at ⭐️⭐️ Spectrum in Amsterdam. Several people recommended that I eat here, sighting it as THE restaurant to visit whilst in the city, and I am grateful that they did. It’s exciting when you visit restaurants that are clearly pushing for that next accolade, wether that is a new young-gun shooting for her/his first Michelin star or an established two star that is reaching for the pinnacle. Spectrum feels like the latter. Maybe the chefs will say that they don’t care about such things but it certainly has an air of confidence and boldness that suggests otherwise. I say confidence because not all the dishes are pretty to look at, but they deliver on flavour. Meaning that the kitchen has made a conscious decision that any further prodding of tweezers will compromise the dish.
There are two menus here, one being a vegetarian menu. I was advised by more than one person to order the vegetarian menu as the cooking is apparently incredible. Not being psychotic, I decided to order the regular menu containing delicious meat and seafood but to ask them very nicely to add a couple of dishes from the vegetarian menu as well. They were more than happy to oblige. I recommend you do the same, it’s certainly not too much food.
There were certainly echoes of the excellent restaurant De Librije in Zwolle, where chef Sidney Schutte and restaurant manager Sascha Speckemeier worked together over a decade ago.
Overall it was a great meal and I look forward to them being awarded a third ⭐️. It’s only a matter of time. Less