Michelin Guide Netherlands adds eight new restaurants

The Michelin Guide Netherlands has added eight restaurants to its Dutch selection, published on Thursday, a month before the annual ceremony on 5 October.

Two are in Amsterdam. FuLu Mandarijn, a Sichuan and Cantonese kitchen that has stood on the Rokin for four decades, enters on its spice work and dim sum. Utage Sake Bar, in the Rivierenbuurt, is an izakaya with a sake list built from small family producers, a category the guide has been slow to recognise anywhere.

The other six sit outside the capital. Granville in Alkmaar is Bram Haver's kitchen, named after the market island in Vancouver. ORA Taverna & Bar in Breda works Greek and Mediterranean sharing plates with Greek wine. Bistro Bleu in Enschede reworks French bistro classics on local produce. Lagom in Harderwijk cooks to the seasons on a Swedish idea of enough. Shun in Medemblik is Bas Varga's French technique with Japanese seasoning. Petite Pucelle in Bergen op Zoom is Pieter Bosters in the kitchen and Simone Tak on the wine, using Zeeland and Brabant produce.

An entry in the guide is not a star. It is a receipt for a visit.

What the Michelin Guide Netherlands has and has not said

An entry into the selection is not a star and not a Bib Gourmand. It means the inspectors have visited and consider the address worth the guide's name, and it usually means nothing further until the ceremony. Any distinction for these eight will be read out on Monday 5 October, and the Dutch gala stays in Maastricht for the next three years.

The monthly drip has become the guide's habit in most of its markets. It keeps the brand in the trade press twelve times a year rather than once, and it gives an inspector's visit a public trace before the awards. For an operator it is a marketing asset with no fee attached, which is more than most rankings offer.

Geography, not fine dining

The interesting line in this list is the map: Alkmaar, Enschede, Harderwijk, Medemblik, Bergen op Zoom. Six of the eight are regional, in a country where the guide has historically clustered on Amsterdam, Rotterdam and the coast. Amsterdam still gets its openings, and Sidney Schutte's new room in the city is due this winter.

Michelin reads out Toronto on 22 September and the Netherlands on 5 October, as our Toronto preview sets out. Eight names in September is a shortlist, not a verdict.