For the past 12 years I've been living in Amsterdam and as a young adult I imagined Amsterdam as a real big city, the capital of the Netherlands. In reality it's much different. Yes, Amsterdam is still the capital, although de facto The Hague is the real capital. But what's a big city? Amsterdam has less then 1 million citizens, which means there are around 100 cities in China alone which have more residents. So, in a global perspective Amsterdam might be called a small city, but is relatively very well known. That's because of the history of the city, as it once was the financial capital of the world. The Dutch tends to forget this great history and instead of looking out to the rest of the world, the view get blocked and we looking to much inward.
Let's get back to the topic i wanted to write about: having a dinner at midnight is a nightmare, restaurants kitchens closes at around 10 pm and after this time you're designated to eat fast food. This lack of choice is not worthy of a city like Amsterdam. This is partly caused by her residents in the city center are blocking longer opening times, tourists, airbnb, new hotels etc. Just be prepared if you come to this nice city, a nice late dinner is not possible, not even Chinese. Welcome to the capital of The Netherlands :)