This Michelin-starred restaurant in Amsterdam serves one of the most expensive menus in the world
If you go for lunch or dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant, you know it won’t be cheap. In fact, it is often downright bloody expensive. (Unless you make a reservation at one of these affordable Michelin-starred restaurants.) Even ‘bloody expensive’ comes in different degrees. And then there is one that tops them all, and in the Netherlands that is…
Ciel Bleu. Yep, at this Amsterdam two-Michelin-starred restaurant, you pay the absolute most for a tasting menu. The price per person? 595 euros. That puts it in thirteenth place among the world’s most expensive Michelin-starred restaurants, tied with Paris’s Le Cinq. You’d better start saving.
Menus with exclusive ingredients
This is revealed by research by Chef’s Pencil. The online magazine investigated the world’s most expensive Michelin-starred restaurants based on the most exclusive tasting menus of this season—autumn and winter. And this is an expensive season, after all. It is the season for ingredients such as snow crab, white truffle and caviar. Ingredients Michelin-starred chefs are eagerly using in their menus right now—and as a guest, you see that reflected in the price.
This is the most expensive Michelin-starred menu
595 euros is still a mere pittance compared with the price you pay at the world’s number one. Ginza Kitafuku, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Japan, charges no less than (the equivalent of) 2,044.80 euros for its Echizen Crab Kiwami menu. More than two thousand euros for a menu… Talk about saving! It is rightly bloody expensive.
What makes this menu almost unaffordable is the Echizen Kiwami crab. Echizen crab is a type of snow crab caught exclusively off the coast of Echizen, a region north of Kyoto. It is a rare creature known for its sweet, tender, high-quality meat, which the Japanese imperial family is only too happy to enjoy. The Echizen Kiwami crab is even rarer, however. It has to meet all kinds of requirements and is therefore rarely caught. And you know: rare = scarce = expensive. That is why a whole month’s salary goes toward the menu at Ginza Kitafuku.
The Ciel Bleu menu
All right, so that crab is not on the menu at Ciel Bleu. There is another type of crab, though: king crab. And plenty of caviar. The menu included in Chef’s Pencil’s research is the Caviar Experience. Among other things, you can enjoy lobster with Baeri caviar, ajo blanco and Mezcal; king crab with Blck pearl caviar, chestnut and pecorino cheese; and A5 wagyu with Beluga caviar, beetroot and plum. Incredible combinations with—indeed—exclusive ingredients. All in all, a menu worth 595 euros, giving Ciel Bleu thirteenth place on the list.
The image below even shows that it has the second-most expensive Michelin-starred menu in Europe, with only Paris’s Guy Saboy (700 euros for a menu) ranking higher…
More about Ciel Bleu
Ciel Bleu is the restaurant of Hotel Okura in Amsterdam. It is a well-known name in the world of Michelin stars; the restaurant has held two stars for 15 years. Onno Kokmeijer was head chef at Ciel Bleu for 20 years. In 2019, Gault&Millau named him Chef of the Year. His former colleague, Arjan Speelman, is still at the helm as Executive Chef. And honestly: what comes out of his kitchen is fantastic. In fact, at Ciel Bleu you are truly blown away. We recently enjoyed Arjan’s lobster roll with caviar, which he made especially for the ‘100 Chefs van Gault&Millau‘ event, and it was genuinely mind-blowing!
So perhaps it is time to save up for a meal at Ciel Bleu?
Also read:
- Michelin ceremony 2024: all the winners and losers at a glance
- This restaurant in the Netherlands has held a Michelin star the longest
- These are all 122 Michelin restaurants in the Netherlands in 2024
Source: Chef’s Pencil, header image: Arjan Speelman’s signature bluefin tuna
