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Amstelzijde · Amstelveen · Netherlands

SAAM restaurant

A riverside fine dining kitchen on the Amstel where Dutch produce meets indigenous South African ingredients across a five-course tasting menu.

The essentials, at a glance

◐
Impact score
2 - Engaged
→
Documented practices
Seasonal cooking
Plant-forward menu
Health-intentional kitchen

Style
Fine dining
Cuisine
Dutch
Fusion
Good to know
Terrace
Bar
Wheelchair accessible
Recognised by
We're Smart Green Guide·2 radishes

The delicious details

SAAM sits on the banks of the Amstel just south of Amsterdam, in a historic building that opened as a restaurant in November 2022. The name draws together South Africa and the Amstel river, and also means "together" in Afrikaans, reflecting the kitchen's twin culinary heritage.

The team is led day to day by chef Jasper Hermans, in a partnership with co-owner Margot Janse, the South African chef previously of The Tasting Room at Le Quartier Français. Together they build dishes that begin with a seasonal Dutch ingredient and finish with a South African accent, pulling in elements like granadilla, suurvygie and rooibos alongside North Sea fish and Dutch dairy.

The room seats forty-eight on the ground floor, with a chef's table for ten at the kitchen counter and an upstairs bar for twenty. A summer terrace runs along the water with its own boat landing.

Menu
What's on the table, and what's left off

Five-course Spyskaart tasting alongside a four-course lunch menu built weekly around what producers have available. Vegetarian and pescatarian variants on request with advance booking. SAAM participates in Nierstichting's (Dutch Kidney Foundation) Samen Smaak Maken programme for lower-salt cooking; chef Hermans competed in the Minder Zout, Meer Smaak award in 2023.

Cuisine
Dutch
Fusion
Dietary options
Vegetarian options
Health-intentional kitchen✓
Specific health practices named in at least one sub-area
Vouched

SAAM participates in Nierstichting's (Dutch Kidney Foundation) Samen Smaak Maken programme, promoting lower-sodium cooking. Chef Jasper Hermans competed in the foundation's 'Minder Zout, Meer Smaak' (Less Salt, More Flavour) award in 2023, designing a three-course menu capped at two grams of salt.

Impact score
How this restaurant rates
2 - Engaged

SAAM has clearly committed to one area of responsible practice on present evidence: seasonal cooking, with a menu that reads as carefully shaped to what local producers have at hand and a lunch programme rebuilt week by week around producer availability.

Beyond seasonality, the public picture is thinner. The kitchen describes its products as pure, honest and traceable, and co-owner Margot Janse runs the Isabelo Feeding Hungry Minds charity in South Africa, which serves daily meals to around 1,800 schoolchildren, but specific sourcing relationships, waste practices and SAAM-level social commitments are not yet documented in detail online.

No recognised third-party audits, certifications or guide endorsements were found at the time of screening.

The impact dimensions
Local & direct sourcing
Seasonal cooking✓
Sustainable animal products
Social impact
Plant-forward menu✓

Sourcing positioned as a kitchen value; no specific farms or suppliers named.

SAAM positions local sourcing as a kitchen value (consciously chosen ingredients, pure, honest and traceable products) but does not name specific farms or suppliers. The five 'smaakpartners' listed via the Nierstichting Samen Smaak Maken programme are partners of that initiative rather than documented direct sourcing relationships.

Strongest sourcesaamrestaurant.nl ↗

Menu rebuilt weekly around seasonal producer availability.

Seasonality is consistently stated as a guiding principle across SAAM's own and affiliated channels. The Amstelzijde restaurants page describes 'exclusively pure and honest seasonal products', and the four-course lunch menu is built weekly around what producers have available.

Strongest sourceamstelzijderestaurants.nl ↗

Third-party listings reference Dutch dairy and line-caught seafood; one fishmonger listed via the Samen Smaak Maken programme.

Third-party editorial coverage references Dutch dairy and line-caught seafood. One fishmonger, Tromp en Rueb, is listed among the Samen Smaak Maken programme's partners.

Strongest sourcesaamrestaurant.nl ↗

Co-owner background in fair-trade and social enterprises; a social charity influenced the restaurant's positioning.

Co-owner Margot Janse runs the Isabelo Feeding Hungry Minds charity in South Africa, serving daily meals to around 1,800 schoolchildren. Co-owner Henk Jan Beltman is a former CEO of Tony's Chocolonely, a fair-trade chocolate company.

Strongest sourcelinda.nl ↗

Five-course tasting centred on animal proteins; vegetarian and pescatarian options available with advance notice.

The five-course Spyskaart tasting is structurally built around meat and seafood—mackerel, North Sea crab and goat dishes—with vegetable and dessert courses. Vegetarian and pescatarian options are available on request with advance notice.

Strongest sourcethecitizen.nl ↗
Visit & practical info
Address, price, and more
Address
Amstelzijde 59, 1184 TZ Amstelveen, Amstelveen, Netherlands
Open in Google Maps ↗
Price
€€€
Format
Forty-eight seats, seasonal tasting menu, booking required
Hours
MondayClosed
Tuesday18:00–00:00
Wednesday18:00–00:00
Thursday12:00–16:30, 18:00–00:00
Friday12:00–16:30, 18:00–00:00
Saturday12:00–16:30, 18:00–00:00
SundayClosed
Style
Fine dining
Good to know
Terrace
Bar
Wheelchair accessible
Web
saamrestaurant.nl
Reviewed by My Treats
Last reviewed 04 May 2026
Reserve
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How we score
The My Treats impact scale

Every restaurant is assessed against SEERO, our six-dimension sustainability framework — covering sourcing, seasonality, waste, animal products, social impact, and plant-forward cooking. Each finding is weighted by how strongly it is corroborated. The combined result is translated into a planet rating from 1 to 5.

The five levels

SEERO is an acronym for Starting, Engaged, Endorsed, Recognised, Outstanding:

Starting First verified signals of sustainable practice.
Engaged Credible practice across two dimensions.
This place
Endorsed Meaningful practice across three or more dimensions.
Recognised Strong practice across four or more dimensions, with independent corroboration.
Outstanding Top-tier practice, confirmed by recognised third-party audit.

How a level is reached. Each level needs two things together: a minimum number of dimensions covered, and a minimum overall strength of evidence across them. A dimension only counts once its evidence is specific and substantiated — a passing mention doesn't qualify. Meeting only one of the two keeps a restaurant a level lower.

Ratings of four or five planets require human validation and, at the top tier, an external audit. Scores are based on publicly available evidence and restaurant submissions at the time of assessment.

Full methodology→
Impact dimension
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How this dimension works
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How evidence is weighted
Self-declared Stated by the restaurant on its website, menu or in a submission. Plausible, but not yet independently corroborated.
Researched Found through independent research; one credible third-party source backs the claim.
Vouched Corroborated across more than one independent source. Some gaps may remain.
Audited Fully corroborated across independent sources or by a recognised third-party certification.
What the sourcing checkmarks mean
✓ Full check — independently verified: corroborated across more than one source, or audited / third-party certified (vouched or audited).
✓ Light check — self-declared or from a single source. Not yet independently verified.
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