De Librije

For three decades De Librije has been the standard-bearer of Dutch fine dining — the country's only three-Michelin-star restaurant, held continuously since 2004, and a longtime name on the World's 50 Best. It was built by Chef Jonnie Boer and his wife Thérèse, who took it over in 1993; Jonnie became the most influential Dutch chef of his generation, a pioneer of cooking the Dutch landscape through foraging, local produce and fermentation, before his sudden death in 2025. The kitchen carries on under longtime head chef Nelson Tanate, with Thérèse leading the room, and the food still reads as a love letter to Dutch terroir — IJsselmeer pike-perch, house-smoked bacon, a Riesling beurre blanc. You dine in the glass-roofed courtyard of a former women's prison. Singular, and quietly moving.