Sagardi is an Amsterdam outpost of the Basque restaurant group — the building is a canal-side white-painted brick merchant house, and the ground-floor frontage has been fitted with amber hanging lanterns that are warm enough to operate as a source of external light on the pavement. The outdoor terrace tables and benches run along the building face; the set tables inside are visible through the large windows. The kitchen programme is Basque in orientation: txakoli wine, pintxos, whole grills, the precision of a cooking tradition that does not require novelty to be interesting. The location — in the old city centre near a canal — means the evening atmosphere outside has the particular quality of Amsterdam at dusk: the water, the houseboats, the reflected lamplight.
Centrum, Amsterdam, Netherlands