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Ron Gastrobar Amsterdam: Ron Blaauw's Michelin Star and Wagyu Burger

In 2013 Ron Blaauw gave up two Michelin stars to serve €15 plates, then won a star back. Is his wagyu burger still on the menu in 2026?

By AlexPublished

Ron Gastrobar Amsterdam on Sophialaan, the Michelin-star restaurant of chef Ron Blaauw

Ron Gastrobar Amsterdam is chef Ron Blaauw’s Michelin-starred restaurant at Sophialaan 55 in Amsterdam-Zuid, about a five-minute walk from Vondelpark. It opened on 4 April 2013, days after Blaauw closed his two-star fine-dining restaurant in the same building. It has held one star since 2014, and the MICHELIN Guide Netherlands 2026 confirms it again. The wagyu burger with blue cheese and brioche is what made the place famous with burger lovers. It is also history: I could not find it on any menu dated after 2021. The star, the shared-dining format and the address are all current, so the trip still makes sense. If the burger is your only reason to go, call first.

Ron Gastrobar Amsterdam: key facts for 2026

I checked every line of this table on 7 October 2026 against the official site and the MICHELIN Guide.

Ron Gastrobar (Sophialaan)
Chef and owner Ron Blaauw, founder
Address Sophialaan 55, 1075 BP Amsterdam (Oud-Zuid)
Getting there About a five-minute walk from Vondelpark
Phone +31 (0)20 496 19 43
Opening hours Daily, 12:00–22:30 (official site)
Michelin status One star, MICHELIN Guide Netherlands 2026 (ceremony of 5 October 2026), held since 2014
Cuisine (Michelin label) Creative French
Price level (Michelin) €€€
Format À la carte by day; in the evening, an aperitif at the bar, then classics, specials and chef’s creations
Opened 4 April 2013

Ron Gastrobar Amsterdam key facts for 2026: address, phone, daily hours 12:00–22:30, one Michelin star since 2014, Creative French cuisine, €€€ price level, opened 4 April 2013. (Table: Burger Breton, from rongastrobar.nl and the MICHELIN Guide (facts, not copyrightable))

Who is Ron Blaauw?

Ron Blaauw is the Dutch chef who founded and owns Ron Gastrobar, and who held two Michelin stars before walking away from them on purpose in 2013.

He trained in Amsterdam’s fine-dining kitchens: De Kersentuin (The Cherry Garden), the Michelin-starred restaurant of Hotel Bilderberg Garden, then Aujourd’hui and ’t Jagershuis. In 1999 he opened his own restaurant, Ron Blaauw, in Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, just south of the city.

That restaurant earned one Michelin star in 2004 and 2005, then two stars from 2006 to 2013. In 2011 Blaauw moved it into Amsterdam, to Sophialaan. At the old Ouderkerk address he opened a fish bistro, Ron’s Vis van de Dag.

Step chart of Ron Blaauw’s Michelin stars, 2004–2026: one star in 2004–2005, two stars in 2006–2013 at the Ron Blaauw restaurant, then one star at Ron Gastrobar from 2014 to the 2026 guide. (Chart: Burger Breton, data from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and the MICHELIN Guide Netherlands 2026 list)

He is a familiar face on Dutch television, too. According to Wikipedia, he appeared as a judge or participant on the Dutch edition of Top Chef (RTL) in 2009, 2011 and 2012. The same page says GaultMillau named him ‘Restaurateur/ondernemer 2009’ and that he became an SVH-meesterkok in June 2010. Wikipedia is my only source for those three titles, so read them as reported, not double-checked.

Why Ron Blaauw gave up two Michelin stars in 2013

Ron Blaauw closed his two-star restaurant on 30 March 2013 because he wanted an accessible place with good food at a reasonable price, not another formal tasting-menu room.

He announced it on 27 March 2013, three days before closing. Ron Gastrobar opened in the same building on 4 April 2013. Amsterdam Now quotes his goal: ‘an accessible place serving good food at a reasonable price. Accessible to all and sundry.’

The launch concept was radical for a two-star chef: about 25 back-to-basics dishes, every one of them €15. Portions sat between a starter and a main, so three or four plates made a meal. Even the cheese had a pedigree. Dutch affineur Betty Koster selected it, according to Your Little Black Book’s launch review of 12 April 2013.

I think the move was braver than it looked. Blaauw swapped a tasting menu for a price anyone could read at a glance. Michelin followed him anyway, a year later.

Some English-language pages, including Amsterdam Now, date the opening to 2014. That is the year of the first star, not the opening. The documented opening date is 4 April 2013.

Does Ron Gastrobar still have a Michelin star?

Yes. Ron Gastrobar appears with one star in the MICHELIN Guide Netherlands 2026, announced at the ceremony dated 5 October 2026.

The star first came in 2014, one year after opening. The restaurant’s own news page says it kept the star ‘for the ninth year in a row’ at the ceremony held at the DeLaMar Theater in Amsterdam on 10 June 2022. If the streak never broke, 2026 would be its 13th year with a star. No source I found confirms every year in between, so I won’t claim it.

Michelin files the cooking under ‘Creative French’ with a €€€ price level. Its inspectors cite pigeon cooked rosé with goose liver, beef Wellington, an onion ‘Martini’ with Comté foam, and meats from the barbecue. Older articles, Dutch Wikipedia among them, call the cuisine Asian; I go with Michelin’s label because it is the current one. GaultMillau rated the restaurant 14/20 in its 2016 edition.

The Ron Gastrobar wagyu burger: a dated history

The ‘Wagyu hamburger met Blaauwe kaas en brioche’ (wagyu burger with blue cheese and brioche) was Ron Gastrobar’s signature burger from 2013 to about 2021, and it is the dish that made the concept famous with burger lovers.

The name is a pun. ‘Blauwe kaas’ is Dutch for blue cheese; the extra ‘a’ in ‘Blaauwe’ spells it like the chef’s surname. Cheeky, and a fair summary of the whole idea: a two-star chef putting his own name on a burger.

Here is the timeline I could document, source by source:

  • April 2013: the wagyu burger with Blaauwe kaas and brioche is on the launch menu at €15, like every other dish (Your Little Black Book, 12 April 2013).
  • February 2017: still on the menu at €15, in a lunch review by Cynthia.nl (3 February 2017).
  • Around 2021: still listed on an owner-uploaded menu on Restaurant Guru that is about five years old.
  • January 2025: a menu dated 23 January 2025 lists oysters, steak tartare, fish, beef Wellington and Wagyu, but no burger (het-menu.nl).
  • October 2025: the Sophialaan restaurant is restyled with a new day and evening format (Amsterdam Now).

Timeline of the Ron Gastrobar wagyu burger with Blaauwe kaas, 2013–2025: on the launch menu at €15 (April 2013), still €15 (February 2017), listed around 2021, missing from the January 2025 menu, then the October 2025 restyling. (Chart: Burger Breton, from Your Little Black Book (2013), Cynthia.nl (2017), Restaurant Guru and het-menu.nl (2025))

So, is the wagyu burger still on the menu at Ron Gastrobar? I can’t confirm it. The latest dated menu I found leaves it out, and I found no menu at all from after the October 2025 restyling. If the burger is the point of your trip, call +31 (0)20 496 19 43 before you book.

No source I found gives the beef’s origin, the patty weight, the cooking method or the exact blue cheese, and I won’t guess. The €15 price belongs to 2013–2017, not to today.

How ordering works at Ron Gastrobar today

Since the October 2025 restyling, Ron Gastrobar serves à la carte during the day, and in the evening the meal starts with an aperitif at the bar before a mix of classics, specials and chef’s creations.

The roots are in shared dining. The official site says Ron Gastrobar pioneered the concept in the Netherlands, with the motto that eating out should be a celebration with ‘no fuss and pretense’. In practice it began with the 2013 format: mid-sized plates the table orders together, three or four per person.

That is what ‘gastrobar’ means here: a relaxed, bar-style room with the cooking of a starred kitchen. The 2013 launch review also mentions a terrace along Amstelveenseweg.

Terrace of Ron Gastrobar on Sophialaan, Amsterdam, Ron Blaauw’s Michelin-star gastrobar The terrace of Ron Gastrobar on Sophialaan, Amsterdam, where the shared-dining format of Ron Blaauw’s Michelin-star gastrobar spills outdoors (October 2025). (Photo: Hay Kranen, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (5712×4284))

How much does a meal at Ron Gastrobar cost?

Michelin places Ron Gastrobar in its €€€ price band; I could not verify current dish prices, so I do not quote any.

The flat €15 per dish that built the restaurant’s value reputation is documented for 2013 to 2017 only. Plenty of travel pages still quote it as if nothing had changed. Don’t budget on it: check the menu on rongastrobar.nl before you go.

Ron Gastrobar locations: Sophialaan, Oriental and Indonesia

The Michelin star belongs only to the original Ron Gastrobar on Sophialaan; the other venues carrying the name are separate restaurants.

The official site lists five locations in October 2026:

Venue Town Street
Ron Gastrobar (Michelin star) Amsterdam Sophialaan
Ron Gastrobar Oriental Downtown Amsterdam Kerkstraat
Ron Gastrobar Indonesia Ouderkerk aan de Amstel Amstelzijde
Ron Gastrobar Indonesia Laren Brink
Ron Gastrobar Bij de C Bloemendaal Hoge Duin en Daalseweg

The five Ron Gastrobar locations in October 2026: only the original on Sophialaan, Amsterdam, holds the Michelin star; Oriental Downtown (Kerkstraat), Indonesia (Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, Laren) and Bij de C (Bloemendaal) are separate restaurants. (Table: Burger Breton, from rongastrobar.nl (facts, not copyrightable))

Kerkstraat 23 in Amsterdam, home of Ron Gastrobar Oriental, separate from the Michelin-star Ron Gastrobar Kerkstraat 23, Amsterdam: the 18th-century coach house that has housed Ron Gastrobar Oriental since 2015, a separate restaurant from the Michelin-star Ron Gastrobar on Sophialaan (2019). (Photo: Paul2, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (1600×1199))

Older articles mention a Ron Gastrobar Downtown on Rokin, inside the former Hudson’s Bay store, and a Ron Gastrobar Paris. Neither is on the current official list, so I treat both as closed or historical.

Ron Gastrobar address: Sophialaan 55, near Vondelpark

Ron Gastrobar is at Sophialaan 55, 1075 BP Amsterdam, in Oud-Zuid just south of Vondelpark.

Map showing Ron Gastrobar at Sophialaan 55 in Amsterdam-Zuid, about a five-minute walk from the southern edge of Vondelpark. (Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL (iframe 800×450; local poster to download))

That makes it an easy add-on to a walk in the park or a day in Oud-Zuid. It is a different Amsterdam from the canal ring, and from De Pijp and the Jordaan, the neighbourhoods our Amsterdam burger page points casual burger hunters to.

Vondelpark in Amsterdam, a short walk from Ron Gastrobar on Sophialaan Vondelpark, Amsterdam’s best-known park: walk out of its south side and Ron Gastrobar’s Michelin-star kitchen is about five minutes away. (Photo: Rob Young, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (4000×3000))

Is Ron Gastrobar worth it for a Michelin-star burger in Amsterdam?

Yes for the story and the star, with one caveat: go for Ron Blaauw’s cooking, not a guaranteed wagyu burger.

My verdict: this is the restaurant that showed the Netherlands a two-star chef could sell burgers and shared plates at one flat price and still earn a Michelin star. That story is the reason to go. The star is current, the room opens daily at noon, and the menu is still built for sharing. The burger is another matter. Until a current menu shows it, it belongs to the restaurant’s past, and I won’t score a dish I can’t confirm exists. Want a wagyu burger tonight? Don’t book on the strength of a 2017 review. Want to eat where Dutch fine dining loosened its tie? Book.

For a wagyu burger you can still order, including one made only 12 times per service, see my guide to the best burger restaurants in New York.

How I researched this profile

I built this profile from the restaurant’s official site, the MICHELIN Guide, dated menus and local food press, all checked on 7 October 2026.

I kept current facts (address, hours, star, format, locations) apart from historical ones (the €15 menu, the burger) and dated every historical claim. Where sources disagreed, I went with the most authoritative: Michelin for the cuisine label, the documented 4 April 2013 for the opening. Anything with a single source is flagged; anything with none is left out. I have not eaten at Ron Gastrobar for this piece, so there is no score.

Ron Gastrobar FAQ

Who is Ron Blaauw and why did he give up his two Michelin stars?

Ron Blaauw is the Dutch chef who founded and owns Ron Gastrobar. He closed his two-star restaurant on 30 March 2013 to open an accessible restaurant with good food at a reasonable price, Ron Gastrobar, in the same building on 4 April 2013.

Does Ron Gastrobar still have a Michelin star?

Yes. It holds one star in the MICHELIN Guide Netherlands 2026, announced on 5 October 2026, and has held a star since 2014.

Is the wagyu burger with blue cheese still on the menu at Ron Gastrobar?

It is unconfirmed. The burger is documented from 2013 to about 2021, but a menu dated January 2025 does not list it. Call the restaurant to check.

How much does a meal at Ron Gastrobar cost?

Michelin rates it €€€. The famous €15 per dish dates from 2013 to 2017 and should not be taken as today’s price.

Do I need a reservation, and is Ron Gastrobar open for lunch?

It is open daily from 12:00 to 22:30 with an à la carte menu during the day, so lunch works. I could not verify a reservation policy; call +31 (0)20 496 19 43 or check rongastrobar.nl.

What is the difference between Ron Gastrobar, Ron Gastrobar Oriental and Ron Gastrobar Indonesia?

Ron Gastrobar on Sophialaan is the original, Michelin-starred restaurant. Ron Gastrobar Oriental Downtown (Kerkstraat, Amsterdam), Ron Gastrobar Indonesia (Ouderkerk aan de Amstel and Laren) and Ron Gastrobar Bij de C (Bloemendaal) are separate restaurants in the same group.

What does ‘gastrobar’ mean at Ron Gastrobar?

It means a relaxed bar-style restaurant serving starred-level cooking. Ron Gastrobar says it pioneered shared dining in the Netherlands: the table orders several mid-sized dishes to share.

More burgers in Amsterdam and the Netherlands

For De Pijp and the Jordaan, where Amsterdam’s casual burger places cluster, start with our Amsterdam burger page. Beyond the capital, we have city pages for Rotterdam, Utrecht and Eindhoven, and every city is on the Burger Breton restaurants hub.

Sources

All sources checked on 7 October 2026.