CUE

CUE in Amsterdam

Amsterdam's mid-canal streets have a way of concentrating the city's more considered dining rooms, and Utrechtsestraat is no exception. The stretch running south from Frederiksplein carries a density of independent restaurants that sits apart from the tourist circuits of the Jordaan or the Leidseplein perimeter. CUE, at number 30A, occupies that street's upper register: a €€€€ creative tasting format that earned a Michelin Plate in 2025 and took the number-one position in the Star Wine List rankings for the same year. Those two signals rarely travel together, the Michelin system rewards kitchen discipline, while Star Wine List recognises cellar depth and sommelier programme, which places CUE in a narrow comparable set among Amsterdam's serious dining rooms.

Amsterdam's creative tasting-menu tier has grown more defined over the past decade. At the leading, two-Michelin-star houses like Ciel Bleu and the classical precision of Vinkeles occupy a formal register. Below that, a clutch of single-star rooms, including Spectrum and RIJKS®, have built distinct identities around Dutch produce and international technique. CUE's Michelin star and Star Wine List #1 ranking place it in a strong position within that structure.

The Logic of the Menu

The cooking at CUE follows a reduction principle: fewer elements, more precision. Chef George Kataras works across three to four components per dish, using smoke, fermentation, and acidity as structural tools rather than decorative gestures. The grill and barbecue are primary instruments, not finishing touches, and that commitment to fire as a flavour-building mechanism gives the food a textural specificity that distinguishes it from the herb-and-reduction grammar of classical French-influenced creative kitchens.

Kataras's approach also challenges the default assumption that premium tasting menus require premium-priced raw materials. Smoked broccoli paired with anchovies, capers, fermented onion, and bitter leaves is a documented example from the menu: the protein is modest, the technique is everything, and the fermented components provide the layered complexity that luxury ingredient kitchens typically buy through expensive sourcing. Dry-aged sea bass arrives with powdered Sichuan pepper, bergamot zest, and a sauce built from fermented asparagus and the fish's own bones, a preparation that loops the product back through itself, extracting flavour from material that other kitchens discard. The Nordic inflection is present in the restraint and the fermentation vocabulary, even if the cuisine doesn't announce a geographic allegiance.

The menu runs in two formats: a shorter version for those who want the argument without the full length, and a longer version for the complete sequence. Both are structured as set menus, which is standard at this price point in Amsterdam, where Daalder and comparable rooms have largely abandoned à la carte for format-driven progression. The choice between lengths is worth considering in advance rather than on the night.

The Wine Programme as a Signal

The Star Wine List #1 ranking for 2025 is the more distinctive credential here. That ranking assesses the list's depth, producer selection, and the sommelier's programme as a whole. Natural wine has moved well past trend status in the Netherlands, it's the operating language of a generation of independent sommeliers, but the quality variance within that category remains wide. A #1 ranking from Star Wine List implies the list has been built with both range and rigour, not just producer name-dropping.

Pairing is central to the experience rather than optional. For guests accustomed to conventional pairings, this represents a deliberate shift in how food and wine interact across a tasting sequence.

The Cellar Bar and What It Extends

Below the main dining room, a listening bar in the cellar functions as both a pre-dinner holding space and a post-dinner extension of the evening. The format, cocktails, light bites, a resident DJ, extends the evening beyond the dining room. CUE's decision to build a secondary space into the programme reflects a broader shift in how premium creative restaurants position themselves: not as temples of gastronomy with strict ritual, but as full-evening formats where the dining room is one chapter rather than the entire narrative.

The vintage aesthetic of the setting carries through both spaces. This is a design choice that aligns CUE with a cohort of European creative restaurants that have moved away from minimalist white-box interiors toward more textured, accumulated environments, rooms that feel inhabited rather than staged.

CUE in the Wider Dutch Context

Outside Amsterdam, the Netherlands supports a serious regional fine-dining circuit. De Librije in Zwolle and 't Nonnetje in Harderwijk represent the country's leading Michelin tier. Aan de Poel in Amstelveen sits just outside the city limits with its own starred pedigree. Further afield, creative kitchens like Brut172 in Reijmerstok, De Bokkedoorns in Overveen, De Groene Lantaarn in Staphorst, De Lindenhof in Giethoorn, and De Treeswijkhoeve in Waalre demonstrate how the country's creative-kitchen ambitions extend well beyond its capital. Within Amsterdam itself, CUE's dual recognition in 2025, Michelin and Star Wine List, positions it as a room to watch as the kitchen's critical standing develops.

What's the Leading Thing to Order at CUE?

The menu at CUE is set rather than à la carte, so the ordering decision reduces to one: short format or long. The documented preparation of dry-aged sea bass with Sichuan pepper, bergamot zest, and a fermented asparagus sauce gives a clear indication of how the kitchen thinks, smoke and fermentation as complementary rather than competing forces. The wine pairing, anchored by a natural-wine-focused sommelier programme that earned the Star Wine List #1 ranking in 2025, is a substantive part of the experience rather than an add-on, and opting out removes a layer the kitchen has clearly designed around.