Lars Amsterdam is the restaurant of chef Lars Scharp, located in same building as the Residence Inn by Marriott Amsterdam Houthavens, with a sunset view of the Amsterdam harbor (Houthavens).

Lars opened in 2018 and has held a Michelin star since 2022. This is where I took Anja to celebrate her birthday. Lars offers three degustation menus: Experience (5 courses for 120 euros or 6 courses for 140 euros), Green (6 courses for 100 euros), and Exclusive (Lars’ favorite 8 dishes from 2018-2024 for 195 euros). We opted for the 6-course Experience with wine pairing (65 euros).

We started with a nice glass of Extra Brut Champagne (23% Pinot Meunier, 32% Chardonnay, 45% Pinot Noir) from one of the oldest houses in Champagne.

It took quite a while for the first amuse bouche to arrive (40 minutes after we were seated), so they were served with the first wine of the pairing rather than with the champagne. The first wine was a 2024 Sauvignon Blanc from Cape Town, South Africa. Because it is from the Southern Hemisphere, 2024 is already the current vintage. The wine was fruity, aromatic and full-bodied, with relatively low acidity for a Sauvignon Blanc.

The first amuse bouche with rhubarb, lovage, and asparagus.

The second amuse bouch was quite nice with langoustine kissed by fire and flours from the restaurant’s garden.

The final amuse bouche with Swiss cheese (Belper Knolle). The waiter said it contained balsamic vinegar, but we both thought it tasted more like red cabbage.

The first dish was raw mackerel with dill, fennel, aniseed, and crispy samphire. A very mellow dish that could use a bit more tension and was slightly overpowered by the wine. The menu also listed lemon, and I think just a touch more lemon would have improved this dish. The mackerel was impeccably fresh and a nice combination with the dill/fennel/aniseed.

The next wine was a white Rhône blend (Grenache blanc 60%, Vermentino 20%, Roussanne 15%, Bourboulenc 5%) from Saint-Chinian in the Languedoc (France). Nicely aromatic and structured but low acidity.

This was an excellent pairing for the hamachi (yellowtail) tartare with a ‘sheet’ of Thom Kha Kai, finger lime, and cantaloupe. One of the best dishes of the menu, elegant, balanced, and complex. The Thom Kha Kai was nicely spicy without being too spicy and the hamachi impeccably fresh, just like the mackerel.

As a wine lover I have a rule of thumb that I’d like to spend about the same on the wine as on the food. The wines of the pairing were not bad at all and paired well with the dishes, but of a lower level than what I am used to drinking at home. And so I enquired whether any upgrades would be possible. The wines in the pairing are the only ones available by the glass, but there is a nice selection of half bottles. The sommelier allows you to taste each wine before pouring a whole glass, and we did not like the next wine. I looked at the list of half bottles, saw a Meursault, and asked the sommelier whether it would pair with the dish. He said it would, and so that was an easy choice for me as a lover of Côte d’Or whites. This 2022 Sous la Velle Meursault by Domaine Michelot was very elegant (i.e. not as rich as Meursault can be) with great minerality and a nice balance, wonderful. This was the first time ever I’ve had a Meursault with a screwcap.

And it was indeed a good pairing with the sea urchin with kiwi and milkbread. I had been looking forward to this dish when I saw it on the menu because I love sea urchin (also known as uni). The dish was nice, but the uni did not stand out as much as I had hoped.

The next wine was a Chardonnay from California, a warm climate style with tropical fruit and some oak. The Meursault was a tough act to follow, but this simpler wine was a better pairing for the next dish…

…which was a ‘paella’ of pearl barley with red mullet…

…and socarrat (the crispy bottom of paella) with mussel. My favorite part of this dish was the very flavorful sauce.

The sommelier suggested a half bottle of 2016 Chateau Musar from the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault, and Carignan that has been aged in oak for 12 months. Very nice dark fruit (blackberry) and elegant acidity and tannins.

It was mostly a good pairing for the roe deer venison with strawberry and pine cone, but had some trouble with the sweeter elements of the dish (parsnip and apple syrup).

We finished the Chateau Musar with a selection of cheeses from the cheese cart. The Testun al Barolo was the best combination.

The sommelier gave us a sip Pineau des Charentes, a mix of grape must with cognac, that was an excellent pairing with the aged cow milk cheese.

The pre-dessert with strawberry was very sweet.

The dessert of cherry with almond, tarragon, and woodruff was nice but not memorable. The restaurant had run out of the red dessert wine that pairs with the dessert, and we declined the alternative of an Austrian Spätlese that would have clashed terribly with the dessert for lack of sweetness and high acidity.

We concluded our meal with tea or coffee with a nice selection of friandises. The pastel de nata, canelé, and baclava that I tried were all very nice.

The chef was mostly present in the dining room rather than in the kitchen, and it was great to talk to him and get to know him a little (very down to earth guy). The restaurant has a lot of tables for a restaurant at this level and that could be the reason why the service wasn’t always at level that I would expect from a one Michelin star. I already mentioned the long wait between our arrival and the first amuse bouche. After that it was okay for a few courses, but then again the time between courses was 30-40 minutes. The dessert was already melting when it was served, and it was served before the wine (which we skipped because it didn’t match).

The food was very tasty and beautifully presented, the Michelin star well deserved. I noticed that some of my least favorite dishes were also on the Exclusive menu with the chef’s favorite dishes, so it seems our preferences are not entirely aligned. I am curious about the other dishes on the Exclusive menu though, like the Foie Gras and the Lobster.

We talked to the chef about the wine pairing, and he explained that this ‘cheap’ wine pairing is what most of his guests prefer and therefore it would not be feasible to offer a premium pairing as well. The half bottles are a good solution though, and of course there is the wine list if your party is a bit larger so you can order whole bottles. The flavor profile of the dishes varies considerably, so pairing one bottle with multiple dishes could be challenging. (Of course not everyone cares as much about wine pairings as I do.) The wine list has a nice selection and the prices are very reasonable for a restaurant (e.g. the Meursault was 95 euros for a half bottle, whereas a full bottle retails for 80 euros — that is very decent markup compared to most restaurants in the Netherlands and allows you to order nice bottles from the wine list without spending excessively).

The prices are very reasonable for the quality offered. We had a very nice evening at Lars.