Hotspots

Tip Tip Tip: cocktails and Asian food at this hotspot in Amsterdam

Branie

Wow, I ate so well on Wednesday. And drank, too. Maybe, actually, in terms of quantity, I mostly drank, and I definitely noticed that the next morning. But hey, I simply don’t have much of a backbone, especially when it comes to cocktails. And there were cocktails aplenty. You do the math.

Foto van culinair journalist Wieke Veenboer

My backbone disappeared like snow in the sun the moment I got that first drink in my hands.

I was having dinner at Branie, where distillery Hooghoudt had organized a dinner. Its ambassador, Lennart Deddens, personally made the cocktails. Does that name not ring a bell? Then let me add that in 2015 he won the Best Bartender award, and you’ll probably understand even better why I eagerly and gratefully accepted all the cocktails. My favorite was the Look At That Mango, made with, among other things, Absinth; dangerous, and dangerously delicious. I drank several of those. Now that I’m bringing it all back up like this, that mediocre feeling the next morning is becoming increasingly understandable too.

Best dessert and veggie chicken (!) in ages

But thankfully, there was food too. And it was insanely delicious. The dessert, a pandan panna cotta, was honestly unbelievably good. But I could eat the salmon tartare, beef tataki (godly) and especially the veggie KFC every day. I should explain the last one: it isn’t chicken, but mushrooms. And seriously, I don’t believe there’s anyone who could taste the difference if they didn’t know beforehand. It tastes exactly like juicy, crunchy chicken wings from KFC, only genuinely so much better.

I didn’t know it was possible, because I was so arrogant that I thought I knew all of Amsterdam’s hotspots by now, but I have a new favorite on my list.

Read also:

 

Geen foodnews Missen?
Ontvang een update in je inbox