Upcoming Saturday 18th May is the international Restaurant Day. This recurring festival invites everyone to open up their own pop-up restaurant for a day. The Netherlands have embraced the concept as well with over 35 temporary restaurants in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Amersfoort, Soest, Breda, Maastricht, and many other cities. The initiative which started in Helsinki is a tribute to good food, spontaneity and liveliness in the city.

Restaurant Day allows everyone to try out a restaurant concept for a day. In Amsterdam there will be over 20 hobby chefs witch a pop-up restaurant, coffee bar, picnic, or barbecue dinner. Utrecht will be at least 8 extraordinary restaurants richer on 18th May. During this one day, pop-up chefs will create delicious menus in surprising settings and with unusual service. Earlier editions in the Netherlands had, among others, an anti-hangover breakfast in pharmacist’s style, a spicy nacho bar with live music, tapas by Spanish chefs, and Mexican pinchos served in sombreros of guests.

This edition will offer seasonal dishes, American cakes, Columbian gastronomy, homemade bonbons, while queuing in diverse living rooms, a picturesque courtyard, a camper in a park and on a houseboat in the river Amstel.

Restaurant Day takes place four times a year. Hobby chefs worldwide enter their restaurant for a day on www.restaurantday.org, with description, location and opening hours. Visitors can view the initiatives through the website and the free Restaurant Day app. On 18th May, the pop-restaurants are open for business.

Restaurant Day was founded in May 2011 in the Finnish capital Helsinki. Each edition has about 700 pop-up restaurants worldwide and the first Dutch edition took place in 2012 in Amsterdam.