In the courtyard of the Bethany Convent, which has stood in the Red Light District since the 13th century, sits a restaurant you don't come across easily. No canal-side terrace, no name on an awning along the busy street. Bellezza sits out back, enclosed by convent walls, and that's exactly how it works. You step into another world as soon as you enter, and the evening that follows is directed from start to finish.
Head chef Davy van Wezel is the driving force behind the menu. He does not work with a menu to choose from, but with a fixed program of seven courses that changes theme every quarter. For each new theme, Bellezza seeks collaboration with outside artists and designers. The current quarter (April through June 2026) is called ‘The Sixth Sense,’ and for that the restaurant is collaborating with photographer and designer CHAN. Previously, from January to March 2026, everything revolved around the theme ‘The Colors of the Rainbow.
The room itself is a hall of mirrors surrounded by curtains and mirrors. Twenty-seven chairs, no more. During dinner, the room changes with each course: the light shifts, the sounds change, sometimes there is smell. It is not a backdrop you pass by but an environment that actively plays into what you taste. What that means in practice depends entirely on the ongoing theme. ‘The Sixth Sense’ is all about sensory acuity, about being aware of what you perceive before you name it.
At Bellezza, you don't come just for the exquisite food. The restaurant changes with each course: the light shifts, the sounds change, sometimes there is smell.
The Bethany Convent itself is a destination in itself. The courtyard, the monastic architecture, the quiet setting in the middle of a neighborhood that is otherwise anything but quiet: the contrast is great and palpable. Bellezza fits into that contrast. Fine-dining in the Red Light District may sound like an unlikely combination, but in this building it feels perfectly logical. The room is small, the evening is long, and you know in advance that you're not just going to eat.