Bib Gourmand Netherlands adds ten restaurants before the stars
Michelin names its ten new value picks a week before the Maastricht star ceremony: three in Amsterdam, five in Noord-Holland and none in Utrecht or Gelderland.
The Bib Gourmand Netherlands list gains ten restaurants this year, three of them in Amsterdam, a week before Michelin reveals its new Dutch stars in Maastricht on 5 October.
Michelin published the names on 28 September on its Dutch site, ahead of the MICHELIN Guide Restaurant Ceremony at MECC Maastricht. The Bib Gourmand, awarded since 1997, marks restaurants where inspectors judge the cooking to be good value for money; stars, green stars and special awards stay under wraps until Monday's gala. The 2025 edition added nine Bib Gourmands, the 2024 edition fifteen.
Amsterdam's three newcomers cover very different ground. FuLu Mandarijn cooks Sichuan food built on aromatic spice and umami, Utage Sake Bar runs an izakaya-style kitchen around its sake list, and Boon & De Koot is a vintage-styled bistro that puts vegetables and simple combinations first. All three can be set against our guide to what to eat in Amsterdam, dish by dish.
Ten value addresses, six of them in Holland: the Bib Gourmand map still leans west.
Where the new Bib Gourmand Netherlands addresses are
Noord-Holland takes five of the ten. Bistro Toost in Amstelveen works with familiar flavours, good produce and generous portions, while Brasserie Bruis in Haarlem gives French cooking a contemporary finish. Further south, ORA | Taverna & Bar in Breda serves Mediterranean dishes with a Greek accent, Ramen Kitanoya in The Hague recreates a Tokyo ramen bar with gyoza and chewy noodles, and Bistro Luux in Weert sticks to classic French cooking.
Two names come from the north and east. Wijn Boer in Zwolle, which Isabelle Boer built around her family's wine business, only entered the guide's online selection in September, as our report on that Michelin update noted; within weeks it moves up to a Bib Gourmand. Dokjard, a brew-bistro in a former warehouse on Groningen's Noorderhaven that often cooks with its own beer, is also on the list, although Discover Groningen reported in October 2024 that the same restaurant had already received the distinction. Michelin's announcement does not explain the difference.
Bib Gourmand Netherlands before the star gala
Michelin presents the list as proof that Dutch cooking is building its own signature from local terroir and international influences, De RestaurantKrant reports. The map tells a narrower story: six of the ten Bib Gourmand Netherlands newcomers sit in Noord- and Zuid-Holland, and none in Utrecht, Gelderland, Friesland or Zeeland.
The complete 2026 selection goes online on 5 October, when Michelin names its new stars at the ceremony in Maastricht, which hosts the event until 2029. For ten kitchens the verdict is already in; for the rest of the country the wait ends on Monday.
