Author Profile: Vicky Hampton

It had been 15 years since I was last in Barcelona, and my only real memory of the city was walking down La Rambla and having the life frightened out of me by a guy dressed as an ostrich racing up behind me and screaming in my...   view more

Portugal is one of those countries I’m steadily falling in love with. I’d not been at all until I was 33 (the same age I also experienced my first waterpark – go figure) but I’ve been three times...   view more

I’d never even been to New York when I started watching Carrie & Co., but already I felt Miranda’s pangs of dread about leaving Manhattan for Brooklyn keenly. Surely that would be like moving to Amsterdam Noord eight years ago?...   view more

Two days after I booked my flights to Istanbul, the news broke of a military coup that left 300 dead and over 2,000 injured. In the 48 hours that followed, I contacted KLM to see if I could cancel, but they refused to refund my money or let me change the...   view more

London. Wonderful to visit. Unbearable to live in. Getting from A to B takes about 2 hours, and that’s if public transport is all working according to plan – which it probably...   view more

Edinburgh and I have a strange relationship. I was an undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh for four years, so the city should be full of fond student...   view more

I’d heard Cape Town was food lover’s paradise, but beyond the vague sense that it was going to be pretty bloody awesome, I didn’t have many...   view more

When a wedding recently brought me to Chicago, I took the opportunity to tack a few days onto the weekend to do some...   view more

I once wrote down a quote (I can’t remember who it was by) that went something along the lines of: “Sex is like Shakespeare: even when it’s bad, it’s still a damn sight better than the...   view more

Perhaps surprisingly, I didn’t have high expectations of Lisbon. Not that I thought I wouldn’t like it, mind you – I had just done zero research about the city. I was over there for the wedding – everything else was just bonus material as far as I was...   view more

Spring has officially sprung. The Westerpark’s trees are in blossom, the clocks have gone forward, the temperature has been consistently in double figures for at least a week… All that’s left is to dust the winter off my grill and spring will have morphed into my favourite time of year: BBQ...   view more

Phew. So the Dutch national election came and went, and Geert Wilders won far fewer seats than all us Amsterdammers feared. I like to think I played a role in this by writing about how bereft Dutch food would be without culinary influences from Muslim countries in the Middle East and North...   view more

In this post, Deepa and I came up with a list of the top 10 child-friendliest places to eat in Amsterdam based on her experiences as a mum and mine as a, umm, greedy...   view more

This year’s top 10 is based purely on my experiences of places I’ve eaten during 2016. Not all of these opened this year – some are new, while some are old...   view more

Ten years later, times have changed. A lot. People who don’t live in the Spaarndammerbuurt have actually heard of it. And that’s not all – they come here to go out in the evening but get away from the tourists at the same...   view more

Last year, I ate my way around London – yes, I ate pub grub in an English gastropub. I also ate Spanish jamon, French cassoulet, and Levantine hummus. But since I don’t know enough about restaurants in the UK to write this post about them, here are 10 “European restaurants” in...   view more

On a conference call with a guy in London the other day (we’re working on a website that involves an Amsterdam travel guide), he asked: “So what type of restaurants are there in Amsterdam? Dutch? French?...   view more

For the first time last year, I posted an (entirely subjective) round-up of the best Amsterdam restaurants of 2014. The reaction was so immense that it – umm – broke my...   view more

I make no secret of the fact that half the time I can barely remember what I ate for dessert – or even if I ate dessert at all. My penchant for all things alcoholic replaces any kind of a sweet tooth I may once have had; and if I do indulge in something sweet, there’s a good chance that the booze will completely obliterate the...   view more

“Burgers” in Dutch can of course mean the meaty patties we will like to grill and serve in a bun; but it can also mean people – I’m listed as a “Britsburger” (British citizen) on my residency...   view more

In all honesty, I don’t eat a huge amount of Dutch food. Yes, I live in the Netherlands – but it seems that even the average Dutch person doesn’t eat that much of their national cuisine – especially those who live in...   view more

Amsterdam is known for its Surinamese cuisine… apparently. I don’t know about you, but in my experience Surinamese and Indonesian food often get lumped in together, and even when you think you’ve ordered the former it turns out to be the...   view more

When I started Vegetarian January, I promised I’d write a complete guide to vegetarian Amsterdam at the end of the month. Of course, that didn’t happen – but there are good reasons...   view more

Paris: City of Lights, City of Love, Gourmet Capital of the World… But better known to me as the first place I lived after leaving home aged...   view more

Perhaps because it was stuck under British rule for a long time, or perhaps because a tiny island is going to struggle to keep up with global gastronomy trends, but it wasn’t easy to find good food in...   view more

I was all ready to publish this article when another ramen restaurant opened in Amsterdam, which just goes to show how hot the ramen trend seems to be right...   view more

Like many Amsterdammers, I rarely leave the capital except to go to the airport. But two years ago I promised my other half that I’d take him to Rotterdam and we’d eat and drink our way around the Netherlands’ second...   view more

The Amsterdam food scene, meanwhile, has blossomed in ever more unexpected ways over the past 12 months. 2017 was the year in which ramen restaurants started multiplying, and my ramen post got more views in a week than most of my reviews get in a...   view more

So. Hummus. It seems to be officially a thing. I mean, of course there were places like Beyrouth and Orontes selling it forever – but now there are entire restaurants just dedicated to the humble chickpea...   view more

My favourite moment of the day is somewhere around 6.30 pm, when work is finished, it’s not yet time for dinner, and the kitchen is filled with the familiar glug-glug-glug sound of a just-opened bottle of wine being...   view more

When I first moved to the Dutch capital as a student in 2001, French restaurants in Amsterdam were the height of fashion. Things have moved on since then, but there’s still some good French food to be found if you know where to...   view more

According to some, the Wibautstraat is the ugliest street in Amsterdam. And admittedly, it’s no Canal Belt. But what it does have is space – and that’s something that comes at a premium in...   view more

Portland wears its politics on its sleeve. Black Lives Matter placards crop up on front lawns every other block. Bernie Sanders 2016 stickers are still proudly displayed on car bumpers. Portland even has bike lanes and pavements – it’s nothing like the America I know from the Deep...   view more

We had only 24 hours in Seattle, but we made the most of them the only way we know how – by eating! If you want to follow our itinerary, you’ll need to arrive by lunchtime on day 1 and leave after brunch on day...   view more

While the Dutch were mostly eating bread with hagelslag for breakfast until fairly recently, the last few years have seen a trend in international brunch...   view more

Despite my best efforts to relax, I still came back with a list of recommendations for restaurants in Dubai that I wanted to share with everyone. Plus a few more food tips for good measure. So here...   view more

From rye bread to crispbreads, and from flavoured butters to Jackson Pollock-style dipping sauces, Latvian chefs have made their exquisite bread the star of the...   view more

When I asked people what Hamburg’s cuisine is known for, I got three clear messages: seafood (Hamburg is a harbour city), Franzbrötchen (cinnamon buns) and Labskaus (a potato/corned beef/egg...   view more

For those of us who don’t have the funds to splash on Michelin-starred dining, Camarena also has a couple of more affordable restaurants in the city – including Canalla Bistro in the trendy Russafa...   view more

You can’t visit Belgium without sampling the country’s national treat: chocolate. And while there are any number of spectacularly high quality chocolatiers in Antwerp, we certainly found that Goossens fitted the...   view more

Let’s take a look back at the Amsterdam restaurants that have defined 2019 for me. The list below is based primarily on my Restaurants of the Month – a revolving selection I make (unsurprisingly) once a month – which means they’re not necessarily new but they were new to me at the...   view more

Dubrovnik. When you’ve finished your Game of Thrones tour and descended the spectacular walls of the Old Town, you’re going to be hungry. So this list covers the restaurants and bars that we discovered in Dubrovnik’s Old Town that didn’t break the...   view more

Food in Budva is as you might expect from a town at the heart of the Adriatic: heavy in fish and seafood, with some traditional Balkan dishes but a strong influence from the Mediterranean – especially Italy. I’ve decided to focus on the food that might be a little harder to...   view more

There are plenty of independent restaurants, diners, bars and food stores to keep you interested in between water sports on Lake Michigan. Here are six of my favourite Michigan City food...   view more

Portugal is one of those places that keeps calling me back… I’d visited Lisbon and the Algarve several years ago, and then I finally made it to Porto last autumn. Regular followers of this site will know the love affair I conducted with Madeira over six weeks at the start of 2022, and I’m already plotting my return next...   view more

Until about a decade ago, fine dining in Amsterdam was a little thin on the ground. There were a few stuffy, formal, French restaurants with Michelin stars, but not a lot else. Fortunately, that’s now all changed and there are lots of creative, high-end restaurants displaying their international influences in new and innovative ways. I’ve selected 10 of my favourites, but there are plenty more that didn’t make this list – not because they’re lacking in quality but because I’ve not...   view more

Italian food in Amsterdam still hasn’t quite reached the same regional level as it has in Italy (as in, here, Italian restaurants exist. In Italy, only Roman restaurants, Florentine restaurants, Sicilian restaurants, and so on, exist). But, that aside, there’s some very well-prepared, fresh, homemade Italian cuisine to be found. And while the regional split still isn’t that strong, there’s certainly differentiation among Amsterdam’s Italian...   view more

As all Amsterdammers know but many visitors don’t, Indonesian food is widely eaten in the Netherlands due to the two countries’ colonial history (too complicated to go into here, but Google it). So when in the Dutch capital, checking out one of the Indonesian restaurants in Amsterdam is a must. Don’t leave the city without trying a rijsttafel (literally: “rice table”): dozens of small, shareable dishes ranging from mild to spicy, in all colours of the rainbow, served with...   view more

If I were to pick one region’s cuisine to eat for the rest of my life, it would likely be the Middle East. Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Iran, Israel, Lebanon – all these countries were once part of the Ottoman Empire and all have similar climates, which probably explains the similarities in their cuisine. It’s varied, full of herbs and spices, and with a great balance of sharing dishes (meze, mezze, mazzeh, mazze, spell it how you will) and grilled meats and...   view more

Every time I travel to the US (which, admittedly, has not been much lately) I find myself gorging on Mexican food. And that’s probably because, in the 15 years that I’ve lived in Amsterdam, Mexico has been sorely underrepresented in the city’s food scene. Long-term readers of this blog will know that I first started my search for tacos in Amsterdam back in 2013. My quest led me to plenty of disappointments as well as a few gems. But many of the best taquerias were either pop-ups to begin...   view more

I once wrote down a quote (I can’t remember who it was by) that went something along the lines of: “Sex is like Shakespeare: even when it’s bad, it’s still a damn sight better than the alternative.” The same is probably true of food in Rome: even if you’re in an over-priced pizza joint that’s equidistant from the Vatican, Colosseum and Spanish Steps, it’s still not going to be that bad. And yet, like everything, there are degrees: there are thinner, crispier pizzas and fatter,...   view more

I didn’t have many expectations of Tallinn – capital of Estonia, the northernmost Baltic country on the border with Russia. And yet this quiet, compact, clean and efficient city enchanted me. Its walled, cobbled Old Town is much like many others throughout Europe, but the relative lack of tourists make it far more enjoyable to explore. The Kalamaja neighbourhood to the north is a combination of traditional wooden workers’ homes, hipster street art and modern...   view more

When four of my closest friends all announced they were leaving Amsterdam and moving to Stockholm in January 2021, I was pretty devastated. After a year of lockdowns, my friendship circle had already diminished, and this was a major blow. Fortunately, however, there’s been an equally major upside: free accommodation in one of the most expensive cities in Europe! So far I’ve spent around three weeks in Stockholm, catching up with friends and (of course) going out to eat and drink. Yes, the...   view more

Last week, I wrote about Nashville – a city that I still love but that’s changed immeasurably in the last decade. And while Nashville is Tennessee’s official capital, Knoxville is the state’s eastern metropolis – albeit with a much smaller population. I’d been to Knoxville a couple of times before (Mr Foodie’s parents moved to East Tennessee in 2019 so it’s been our home base in the US for a few years now) but this spring was the first time I felt like I actually got the...   view more

I first visited Nashville in 2011, as a stop on a foodie road trip that I was making through the Deep South. I fell for the city immediately: the country music pouring out of every bar, the legendary southern hospitality, the deeply fabulous cowboy boots (of which I bought a pair from Betty’s Boots that I still wear with pride today). I knew that to return to Nashville was to risk tainting that memory, but it was a risk I desperately wanted to...   view more

Madeira. Home to Jurassic landscapes, endlessly changing weather conditions, lethally strong Poncha and ultra-fresh fish. I spent six weeks on the island this past winter, and to say I fell in love with the place would be an understatement. It’s a Portuguese paradise, and I’m already nostalgic thinking of its vivid greens, salty air and floral scents. We were staying in Funchal – the biggest city in Madeira and the ideal jumping off point for exploring the island. I loved the Old Town in...   view more

A few weeks ago, I published my foodie’s guide to restaurants in Funchal – the capital of Madeira. The article got so long (I was more than a little enthusiastic about Madeira after six weeks!) that I decided to save my restaurant recommendations for the rest of the island for a separate post. This article will be a lot shorter, because we only left Funchal at weekends when we could rent a car. It’s very difficult to get around the rest of the island without a car, so I’d highly...   view more

It’s always struck me as strange that Porto – with its name so clearly related to that of the country – should not be the capital of Porto. It’s struck me as equally strange that, almost a decade since first falling in love with the Algarve and later Lisbon, it’s taken me until now to visit Porto. But with my newly minted double-vaxxed corona pass status, autumn 2021 was finally the time to set off to warmer climes and see Portugal’s second...   view more

I’ve been lucky enough to go to Spain’s sunniest city, Valencia, four times in five years. My brother lives in Valencia part-time, and I’ve visited him every year since he moved there (except of course in the dark days of 2020). So this foodie guide is very much a work in progress: during every trip, I eat in some new restaurants and re-visit some old favourites, tweaking my recommendations as the years go...   view more

St. Augustine – north Florida’s quintessential beach destination – is proud to be known as America’s oldest city. And this is everywhere in evidence in the downtown area: the old-timey architecture is so quaint as to look like something from Disneyland. You’ll find plenty of blogs and guides telling you where to eat in the historic centre, but less advice on the restaurants and bars outside of...   view more

I have a love-hate relationship with sandwiches. On the one hand, there’s something incredibly satisfying about a wodge of complementary ingredients between two pieces of freshly baked bread. On the other, the risk of disappointment in the Netherlands is dangerously high. My misery at the sad situation that is the average kaas broodje (supermarket sliced bread with a thin slice of Gouda and nothing else) was once so keen that I was inspired to write an entire cookbook about alternative lunches...   view more

Much like my recent piece about tacos in Amsterdam, this article wouldn’t have been possible to write even just a couple of years ago. But fried chicken is having a moment in Amsterdam, and who am I to count calories when there’s serious research to be done? Whether you like your fried chicken hot or sweet, with biscuits or booze, there’s a kip joint in Amsterdam that’s got your name on it. ‘Cause these places are all finger...   view more

Ever since I visited Tallinn earlier this autumn, I’d had a slightly OCD obsession with getting the hat trick of Baltic countries: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. I’d spent some time eating my way around Riga a few years ago when I was asked to judge Latvia’s 30 best restaurants (not the kind of invitation one gets every day!) and I’d loved the restaurants in Tallinn more...   view more

This time last year, I was writing about the food of Madeira – a cuisine that’s as unique to itself as it is similar to Portuguese food. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, the same can be said of the food of the Canary Islands – a Spanish archipelago off the coast of Morocco that combines the flavours of Spain with its own very local traditions. I’ve been lucky enough to spend the last seven weeks on Gran Canaria, making the most of the winter sun and (of course) the culinary bounty around...   view more

I’ll be honest and say the food wasn’t the primary reason we chose Lucca. I mean, it’s Italy, so I knew we couldn’t go too far wrong. But our main thinking behind Lucca was – believe it or not – its attitude towards dogs (you can read a whole article about dog-friendly Europe here). After spending three months in relatively dog-unfriendly countries, we wanted somewhere we could take our Yorkie everywhere – into restaurants and bars, to parks and public spaces. Lucca is an old...   view more

I do realise that Asia is a large continent and that trying to cover restaurants from so many diverse countries in one article is a bit bonkers. But for many other restaurants that would loosely fall into the “Asian” category – Chinese restaurants serving dumplings or hotpot, Japanese restaurants serving sushi or street food, Thai restaurants or Vietnamese restaurants – there simply aren’t enough in Amsterdam that I’d recommend to make it worthwhile to publish a separate...   view more

The first green shoots for this article were planted way back in early November, when – on one particularly rainy and windy night – I found myself unable to walk more than half a block from my own front door for dinner. I didn’t have high expectations for Greek food in Amsterdam (I’d been to a couple of Greek restaurants here years ago, and they’d been abysmal) so perhaps that made it a little easier for The Greek Embassy to blow me away. This? Fifty metres from my front door? I was...   view more

I probably say this every year, but in 2023 I feel like Amsterdam outdid itself in terms of the quality of food and breadth of restaurants on offer. Usually, my annual Top 10 is made up of some newcomers plus several old favourites that I revisited during the year. This time, however, the majority of these actually opened in 2023 (or possibly late 2022) which speaks to the culinary creativity and quality sweeping the...   view more

The question I get asked more often than any other: what’s your favourite restaurant in Amsterdam? It’s like asking me which is my favourite child! (Or not, as I’m merrily child-free, but you know what I mean.) Of course, I have different favourites at brunchtime, or when I’m in the mood for Indonesian rijsttafel, or feel like splashing out on fine dining. But the list below is made up of the restaurants I find myself drawn to again and again when I just want good, honest food. A cosy...   view more

The supermarkets sell individually portioned chunks of meat in plastic packaging. And while the butchers are a better bet, they still often don’t stock large cuts of meat – although they’ll order them in for you if you call in advance. As a result, I’ve ended up ordering a lot of meat online – generally from Butchery.nl or Beef & Steak. Meanwhile, for all things BBQ, visit Barbequeshop.nl or Barbecue & Gourmet. And now, on with the meat...   view more

Despite being well aware of the environmental concerns, I am a confirmed omnivore. Not least because I’d find it very hard to be a foodie without eating absolutely everything. That said, I’m trying to become more flexitarian: eating less meat and more plants (especially at home) but never sacrificing flavour or pleasure. So bear in mind that these recommendations for vegetarian and vegan restaurants in Amsterdam are written in that context. Tastiness is top...   view more

While the ceviche revolution hit London a few years ago, it’s taken a little longer to make its way to Amsterdam. And even now, this list is a short one. But for those of us who love our pisco sours, leche de tigre, aji amarillo chillies and choclo corn, there are now a handful of Peruvian restaurants in Amsterdam with our names on them. Buen...   view more

I have a bit of a crush on Portugal. I keep coming back for more. Over the past three years, I’ve digital nomad-ed (no-made?) my way around Porto, Madeira and Ericeira – to the point that this year I finally downloaded Duolingo and started learning Portuguese. But nomads gotta roam, so instead of returning to old flames, I decided to explore pastures new: Lagos – a small city in the western half of the Algarve, on Portugal’s south...   view more

When you think of bars in Tallinn, Estonia’s capital and the northernmost city in the Baltic states, you might think of strong liquor to warm the soul through the cold winters. Or you might think of hand-achingly huge pitchers of local lager with which to celebrate the white nights of summer. And while both of these are true, it was the wine culture in Tallinn that particularly surprised and impressed...   view more

I’d been to Lille once before… it could be 10 years ago, it could be 20. Either way, I didn’t remember much about it and I didn’t have particularly high expectations. The only reason I was going to Lille at all was because northern France was the easiest place for my entire family – coming from England, Belgium and the Netherlands respectively – to get to without having to quarantine in the midst of the second year of the pandemic. We hadn’t seen each other in 18 months – the...   view more

I didn’t have many expectations of Tallinn – capital of Estonia, the northernmost Baltic country on the border with Russia. And yet this quiet, compact, clean and efficient city enchanted me. Its walled, cobbled Old Town is much like many others throughout Europe, but the relative lack of tourists make it far more enjoyable to explore. The Kalamaja neighbourhood to the north is a combination of traditional wooden workers’ homes, hipster street art and modern...   view more

The first thing you notice about Sardinia is that, while its inhabitants may speak Italian, the food and culture are distinctly different from mainland Italy. Of course, you will find generic pasta and pizza (it seems every Sardinian restaurant feels the inexplicable need for a pizza oven) but these primarily serve to put something familiar on the menu for...   view more

If Italian wines aren’t enough to wrap your head around, Sardinian wine needs its own chapter. The island is kept constantly cool (or at least cooler than many places at the same latitude) by the endless breezes blowing off the Tyrrhenian...   view more

Being an island, it’s no surprise that Ortigia’s cuisine leans heavily on fish and seafood – with the fresh swordfish and tuna being my particular favourites. In Siracusa specifically, you’ll often see spaghetti alla Siracusana on the menu: a punchy pasta dish with tomato, anchovy, capers and olives. There’s also penne alla Norma – a Sicilian classic of aubergine, tomato, basil and ricotta salata – as well as pasta with pistachio pesto and prawns (pistachios are cultivated on the...   view more

There are surprisingly large number of restaurants in Évora, and I was only able to scratch the surface in the three weeks that I spent there. However, if you’re interested in wine as well as food, you can find more information about Alentejo’s wineries, wine bars and shops over on my Substack: The Wine...   view more

The Azores is made up of nine islands, of which São Miguel is the largest – and its biggest city is Ponta Delgada. As digital nomads, it was where we decided to base ourselves for the six weeks we spent in the Azores, and of course we ate in plenty of Ponta Delgada’s restaurants while we were here. From seafood to steak, and from brunch to fine dining, Ponta Delgada has plenty of restaurant options to suit every palate and...   view more

Much like wine bars in Amsterdam, the city’s selection of independent wine shops seems to have ballooned in recent years. Amsterdam’s wine shops are understanding that consumers want more than a cheap tipple, and are starting to offer great advice about wine pairings, wine styles and more. Note that many of the shops mentioned below offer tastings and classes as...   view more

I don’t think you need to be in a relationship (or even dating) to appreciate the romance of Amsterdam. You can go on a date with the city all by yourself. Gaze lovingly at its hump-backed bridges, feel all aflutter at the lights twinkling in the water’s reflection, let Amsterdam’s perfect imperfections give you butterflies – even after you’ve known each other for years. And yes, while you’re basking in that glow, be sure to take a table by the window at one of the most romantic...   view more

It must be mid-December, because I’m back with my annual roundup of the best restaurants in Amsterdam! Each year for the past decade, I’ve selected the city’s restaurants that impressed me the most. And this time, they range in style from fine dining to simple sandwiches, and in geographical inspiration from Marseille to Mexico. Some of these restaurants opened in 2024; others have been around for longer but it took until recently for me to visit them. As always, this list is completely...   view more