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Guests sit and servers circulate around tables inside a bright greenhouse, with fall foliage visible outside beyond.
Inside De Kas.
Rinze Vegelien

The 23 Best Restaurants in Amsterdam

A local Amsterdam food expert’s must-visit spots around the Dutch capital

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Inside De Kas.
| Rinze Vegelien

The Dutch capital gets more than its fair share of tourists, but they’re rarely in it for the food. The local cuisine has a reputation for being bland and Dutch restaurants for serving the same iterations on hamburgers, fish, steak, and pasta. Given the city is full of spicy Surinamese and Indonesian flavors (legacies of the Netherlands’ colonial past), I’ve always thought that was an unfair characterization. But a new wave of restaurants and bakeries — serving boiled eggs with North Sea shrimp mayo, seasonal chanterelle eggs Benedicts, and West African tasting menus — has made the quality of Amsterdam’s food indisputable.

These openings fit into a scene that’s generally laid-back, environmentally conscious, and accessible to folks with dietary restrictions. Amsterdam is largely below sea level, so concerns about climate change — and local, sustainable ingredients — are ever present. The relative lack of cars makes al fresco dining in the city center noticeably pleasant, and you can bike between every restaurant on this list (though getting to the Bijlmer market would be a workout). Dining culture is largely casual, and it’s not unusual to see someone walk into a trendy wine bar with a grandchild and massive dog in tow. It’s easy to eat all plant-based and even easier to go pescatarian. This diverse and thriving city has a fun, modern food scene to match, and it’s time visitors took notice.

In this latest refresh, we’ve revamped our write-ups to include even more relevant info for diners, including a rough range of pricing for each destination — ranging from $ for quick, inexpensive meals with dishes largely under $10 (or the equivalent in euros), to $$$$ for places where entrees exceed $30.

Pro-tip: If you’re coming from abroad, bring cash. While Amsterdam is better than most of the country, it’s surprisingly common to find places that only take Maestro cards.

Katharine Khamhaengwong is a Netherlands-based writer, editor, and researcher with a fondness for the cuisine of her adopted home country and of Georgia, where she lived and worked for several years.

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Eater maps are curated by editors and aim to reflect a diversity of neighborhoods, cuisines, and prices. Learn more about our editorial process.

Tropico Latin Flavors

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Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $$$

Tropico draws a crowd of assorted South Americans from across the Netherlands to Amsterdam West for its ceviches, empanadas, and other Colombian specialties. The Bandeja Paisa, with chicharrón, chorizo, and mince, is a meat-lover’s feast, but there are also vegetarian options. As a resto-bar, it can get a little loud in the evenings, with Colombian musicians, live soccer games, and even karaoke, but that’s all part of the experience. Keep an eye out for specials like chicharrón sushi. 

Know before you go: Make sure to bring cash.

Belly Pepper

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Open for: Breakfast, brunch, lunch

Price range: $$

This Turkish-inspired spot, from chef Esra Acar Koç and partner Esra Çalapkulu, serves remixed brunch items like egg-topped börek towers and sucuk breakfast burritos. The menu changes seasonally, so catch the classic Turkish menemen in summer, when tomatoes and green peppers are at their best. Despite a relatively small menu, there are vegan and gluten-free options, as well as a selection of sweets, like tahini rolls and mastic gum pudding.

Vibe check: The staff is friendly and the space is cozy, with soft benches, marble tables, and big windows, making it an inviting place for a long lunch.

A curl of pumpkin accents a breakfast plate of two fried eggs, sautéed spinach, and oyster mushrooms.
Baked pumpkin with fried eggs.
Belly Pepper

Restaurant Kenneh

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Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $$$$

The Netherlands’ first West African fine dining restaurant, from Liberian Dutch chef Samuka Kenneh, is a welcome change from the monotonous onslaught of French- and Italian-inspired fine dining in Amsterdam. Set menus offer reimagined West African dishes, with highlights like spicy and tart ampesi (Ghanaian spinach and yam stew) and bofrot, a type of Ghanaian donut, served here with nutmeg ice cream, a crunchy plantain wafer, and fresh citrus. The use of Atlantic fish, like mackerel and sardines, reminds diners that West Africa’s only a boat ride away. 

Know before you go: You can walk in at lunch, and, for now, you might get lucky enough to be served by Kenneh himself.

A top-down view of a smashed doughnut with a scoop of ice cream on top.
Bofrot at Restaurant Kenneh.
Restaurant Kenneh

Rue D’alger

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Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $$

Through the windows of this sunny corner spot, you’ll see piles of fruit, cheerful tins of olives and tomatoes, and trays overflowing with brightly colored dishes inspired by owners Nadir Soltane and Youcef Ait-Touati’s Algerian heritage and seasonal, sustainable, local ingredients. The largely vegetarian selection varies by day, but can include stacks of roasted pumpkin with goat cheese, artichokes filled with cheese and figs, beet salad, and braised chicken quarters. Choose a few items and order some tea to drink while the staff warms it all up for you in the oven. 

Best for: Groups with mixed dietary needs.

A man pours tea for a woman sitting on a bench in front of a storefront, surrounded by baskets of produce.
Tea in front of Rue D’alger.
Nadir Soltane

Salvo Bake House

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Open for: Breakfast, lunch

Price range: $

This made-for-Instagram, Italianish bakery has a line out the door, but the wait is worth it for the pistachio custard-filled croissants. A rotating array of treats, like Biscoff custard brioche and creme brulee bomboloni, maintain a delightful balance between fun and delicious. The bakery can get crowded inside, but it’s just around the corner from one of the city’s cheapest boat rental places; taking some pastries on a cruise along the canals is an impeccable way to spend a sunny afternoon.

Know before you go: Check the Instagram for the day’s “release” schedule.

A bomba, split and filled with light green cream, and topped with chopped pistachios.
Pistachio bomba.
Salvo Bake House

Chez Nina

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Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $$$ 

This relatively new vegetarian restaurant from Swedish chef Nina Olsson fuses Mediterranean and East Asian ingredients into beautiful, seasonal dishes. The menu changes periodically, but might include a beet-shallot tartar with carrot miso “yolk” or cauliflower fritters with Madame Jeanette pepper mayo. On a quiet intersection just outside of the tourist center, Chez Nina is a charming place to try an affordable tasting menu accompanied by a glass of natural wine (from a list that promotes female winemakers) or an unusual cocktail — chlorophyll matcha horchata, anyone?

Must-try dish: Peanut bucatini with makrut lime.

A hand lifts a forkful of bucatini.
Peanut bucatini.
Susanne den Otter/Chez Nina

Mirínda Ams

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Open for: Brunch, lunch

Price range: $$

Tucked into a vaulted space that was once a church entryway, this little mother-daughter-run cafe in the Jordaan specializes in Moroccan baked goods. The rotating selection includes meat- or vegetable-filled triangles of briouat, spinach and feta pies, and pastilla, the famous Maghrebi savory-sweet chicken pastry. Sitting at a little outdoor table with a glass of mint tea on a chilly winter day, you could almost imagine yourself in the Rif Mountains, if not for the trams rolling by. 

Must-try dish: The lamb msemen wrap, a flaky flatbread filled with spiced meat and grilled peppers, crisped in a panini press, is a step up from the surrounding kebab shops (ask for it spicy).

Café 't Smalle

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Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $$

Pubs known as brown cafes, named for their dark wood interiors (or the remnant nicotine stains on their walls, depending on who you ask), are found across the Low Countries. This prime example has been open since 1978, but occupies a distillery building from the 1800s, lending the dark wood and stained glass bar some aged charm. In the summer, you can sit by the canal, and in winter, locals and visitors pile into the cozy interior. The beer is surprisingly affordable, given its central location, and the cafe offers a small but reliable menu of Dutch classics: bitterballen (crunchy balls of deep fried meat stew), meatballs, and snert (pea soup).

Vibe check: Despite the central location, Café ‘t Smalle is popular with locals.

Customers sit at tables and a bar beneath high ceilings, stain glass windows, and chandeliers.
Inside the gracefully aging Café ‘t Smalle.
Katharine Khamhaengwong

Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $$$

This newish wine bar invites customers in for a drink, then convinces them to stay a while with comfy seats, taper candles, and charming second-hand tableware. The well-executed menu of luxurious snacks — think chicken liver parfaits, mackerel rillettes, and fried artichokes — helps too, as do the individual servings of bitterballen, cheese sticks, and vlammetjes (mini spicy spring rolls), blessings for the solo drinker normally forced to order six or 10. 

Vibe check: The crowd skews towards groups of middle-aged Dutch women, but I’ve also seen grandfathers and grandchildren and at least one unnecessarily large dog, so really, anything goes.

Café Cenc

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Open for: Dinner

Price range: $$$

Café Cenc unites the best of southern European apéro culture with a fishy menu of the sort that should be more common so close to the North Sea. Options change seasonally, but recent hits include a tart mussel escabeche with samphire and an oeuf mayonnaise topped with Dutch gray shrimp, an appealingly named local delicacy. The terrace is packed on sunny afternoons and the place is full of visual treats: a butter tower behind the marble bar, light shining through little glasses of Campari-based cocktails, silver coupes of anchovies and olives.

Best for: Long summer evenings, especially when Amsterdam’s sunsets stretch past 10 p.m.

A bar in a glass-lined bar room, with a large red awning and patio seating visible on the sidewalk.
Inside the sunny Café Cenc.
Zwaan van Weert

Upstairs Pannenkoekenhuis

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Open for: Lunch

Price range: $$

Upstairs claims to be Europe’s smallest pancake restaurant; with only four tables, that’s believable. You have to clamber up a narrow flight of stairs to get in, but it’s charming enough to make up for the inconvenience. The building dates to 1539, the decor leans Dutch historical, and owners Arno Jakobs and Ali Sadikin will often fry up your meal themselves. Dutch pancakes are somewhere between crepes and fluffy American pancakes, and come with sweet and savory toppings. In the summer, fresh berries and whipped cream is the way to go, while bacon and cheese (with the strips of meat embedded in the pancake) is always good. If you’re looking for something a little wilder, Upstairs also offers combos like cheese with candied ginger or salami with cheese and pineapple.

Know before you go: Call, no more than a week ahead (no WhatsApp or email), to make a (probably necessary) reservation.

Eetsalon Van Dobben

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Open for: Brunch, lunch, dinner

Price range: $

The best place to go for a croquette in town — in a city where every other restaurant has a croquette — Van Dobben has been at it since 1945. The cafeteria offers a wide array of fried foods and meat products, mostly intended to be eaten on soft white rolls. The veal croquettes are crunchy and classic, but there are more adventurous options, like the broodje tartaar topped with raw hamburger, a boiled egg, and a generous dollop of mayo. The restaurant does have vegetarian options, though the menu definitely centers on meat. Retro vibes and communal mustard spoons add to the charm. 

Vibe check: Despite the central location, Van Dobben is popular with locals for lunch. Get a glass of milk with your sandwich if you want to blend in.

A top-down view of a croquette platter surrounded by various other sandwiches and dishes.
A full spread at Van Dobben.
Dobben’s Eetsalon

Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $

Hungry in the center of Amsterdam and want to eat something nice, unmediated by a long line or snail-like servers? Febo is the go-to choice. Walk in, tap your card to one of the snack automatieks, open a little door, and grab the glistening croquette, frikandel (deep-fried sausage), or burger that awaits you. 

Must-try dish: Indonesian-influenced snacks, like the satékroket (meat croquette with peanut sauce mixed in) and bamischijf (deep-fried vegetarian noodle block).

A person pushes the button beside a fried treat set in a little glass automat box.
The automatiek in action.
Febo

Tujuh Maret

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Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $$$

The Indonesian rijsttafel (rice table) is not, despite initial appearances, a popular meal in Indonesia. Rather, this Dutch Indonesian restaurant classic, consisting of a table laden with many small bowls of various Indonesian dishes, has roots in colonial banquets intended to highlight the wealth and diversity of the Dutch East Indies. Tujuh Maret’s rijsttafel, which includes 18 dishes, is nice, but the vegetarian version, full of tempeh, eggplant, and pickles, is even better. The warm, bustling restaurant and spice-inflected food are the perfect antidote to a Dutch winter’s day.

Best for: Introducing first-timers to Indonesian food.

Tjin’s

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Open for: Breakfast, lunch

Price range: $

Tjin’s began serving curried egg and sardine sandwiches from the back of Tjin’s Record Shop in 1977. It turned out the sandwiches were more popular than the records, and an institution was born. Today, the shop offers a wide variety of sandwiches, including bacalao, tempeh and long beans, and char siu pork, spiced up with house-made hot sauce and pickled cucumbers, as well as roti rolls, baras, blood sausage, and buns filled with pom (a casserole made with elephant ear root, chicken, citrus, and spices). There’s also an array of drinks on offer, but a soda from Surinamese brand Fernandes is classic.

Best for: A good, quick meal after walking past all the boring tourist snacks on the Albert Cuypstraat.

A sandwich of meat and vegetables on a long sliced roll.
One of Tjin’s popular sandwiches.
Katharine Khamhaengwong

De Hapjeshoek

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Open for: Brunch, lunch, dinner

Price range: $$

Surinamese cuisine reflects the history of the country. South American ingredients blend with culinary elements transported by African slaves and Indonesian, Indian, and Chinese laborers brought over by the Dutch colonizers. At De Hapjeshoek, you can get a little bit of everything: Indian-inflected lamb roti rolls, Indonesian sambal made with Caribbean peppers, and moksi meti: a Chinese Surinamese dish of meat, in this case roasted chicken, served with rice or noodles. 

Know before you go: The subterranean restaurant is located in the Waterlooplein metro station.

Hartog's Volkoren

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Open for: Breakfast, lunch

Price range: $

Hartog’s has been selling whole wheat bread in Amsterdam since 1896, and the bakery has been milling its own flour in the center of the city for nearly as long. Today, nearly everything is made with house-milled, Dutch-grown, whole wheat flour, including the oliebollen (Dutch New Year’s doughnuts), some of the best in town thanks to the whole wheat’s depth, a flawlessly crunchy exterior, and a coating of powdered sugar. While the oliebollen are only available in the winter, summer brings other treats, like speculaas ice cream sandwiches rolled in roasted hazelnuts, candied ginger, and rosemary, or crumbled sportbeschuit, a type of whole wheat cookie that the bakery’s been making for about a hundred years.

Best for: A little snack to keep you going while on a long bike ride around the city.

Shelves loaded with loaves of bread.
Stacked shelves at Hartog’s Volkoren.
Hartog’s Volkoren

Eethuis Sinbad

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Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $

The kapsalon (“hair salon”) is emblematic of the diversity of the modern Netherlands: A Cape Verdean hairdresser dreamed up the dish while visiting his local Turkish shawarma place. It consists of a pile of fries covered in döner meat, a slice of Dutch cheese, some miscellaneous vegetables, and doses of garlic sauce and sambal. Though the original hails from Rotterdam, you’ll find the nicest one in Amsterdam at Sinbad. Veal döner is the classic, but there’s also a highly regarded chicken version, as well as lamb. Watch a broad cross section of Amsterdam society churning in and out while you wait for your meal, and don’t forget to load yours up from the self-service sauces.

Know before you go: Get a soda, even if you don’t think you want one, to counter all that salt.

Fries topped with meat and fixings in a metal takeout container.
The kapsalon at Eethuis Sinbad.
Katharine Khamhaengwong

Euro Pizza Restaurant

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Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $$$

Once a fine dining restaurant, today Euro Pizza might serve a dish of clams, lamb sausage, and fig leaf oil before laying down a crisp sourdough miso margarita or jambon beurre pie. The staff, well-trained and unusually friendly by Amsterdam standards, are quick to tell you the restaurant isn’t a pizzeria, but a “pizza-driven wine bar.” This would be annoying in any setting that didn’t come with such great food, accompanied by low-intervention wines and cocktails perfumed with basil. Alas, as is the case with most places with good food, good drinks, and good service, you should make a reservation. 

If you take the train: If you time it right, you can enjoy sunset from the free ferry across the IJ to Amsterdam Noord before or after your dinner.

Two toasts topped with huge sardines and chopped chives.
Sardine toast.
Anna de Vogel

Brouwerij 't IJ

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Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $$

Despite the ubiquity of Heineken and affiliated products, the Netherlands does produce craft beer. Brouwerij ‘t IJ’s scenic brewery and taproom, located in a bathhouse next to a mill, is an idyllic place to try some for yourself. The place has something for everyone, including a Belgian-style Zatte Tripel, an IPA, and a wheat beer, Ijwit. The taproom also offers seasonal specials, a couple non-alcoholic beers, and an array of toasties, sausages, and fried things to snack on. During the weekend, you can tour the brewery, and the rest of the time, you can escape the stag parties and general madness that sometimes engulf the city center.

Best for: Finding a table big enough for a large group.

Chairs at a long bar, alongside shelves full of various beer bottles.
Inside Brouwerij ‘t IJ.
Brouwerij ‘t IJ

Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $$$$

The Netherlands is famous for its greenhouses, which have helped make the tiny country one of the world’s largest food exporters. However, as energy prices have gone up, the greenhouse sector has declined, leaving empty glass shells in its wake. De Kas (“The Greenhouse”) took up residence in one, originally built in the 1920s. A pioneer of Dutch farm-to-table dining, the restaurant follows a simple philosophy when it comes to ingredients — “harvested in the morning, on your plate in the afternoon” — and the team grows some of its produce right in the restaurant. Offerings are inventive and vegetable-centered, featuring components like bergamot vinaigrette, fennel ice cream, and mushroom butter. Despite the restaurant’s Michelin star and the green Michelin star, the lunch menus remain surprisingly affordable.

Know before you go: While De Kas is fully booked a month or two in advance, regular cancellations often free up next-day reservations.

Guests sit and servers circulate around tables inside a bright greenhouse, with fall foliage visible outside beyond.
The airy dining room at De Kas.
Rinze Vegelien

Paon Bali

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Open for: Dinner

Price range: $$

Following almost 150 years of Dutch colonization of Indonesia, the Netherlands is dotted with Indonesian takeaways, many serving recipes sweetened and de-spiced for cautious taste buds. Mixed in among some fairly uninspiring places, there are gems like Paon Bali, which serves up affordable (though inflexible) set meals. There’s only one plate on offer each day, consisting of a big scoop of rice surrounded by eight to 10 little portions of various meat and vegetable dishes and sambals. Bali is a historically Hindu island, so the cuisine includes more pork than elsewhere in Indonesia; the babi guling (traditional roast pork) here is excellent, as is the babi kecap (pork in sweet Indonesian soy sauce).

Know before you go: The restaurant only takes walk-ins for dining in, and there is often a vegetarian option available (though check the week’s on the website).

Lila Bara

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Open for: Lunch

Price range: $

There are at least five places to buy Hindustani Surinamese baras, savory fried breads or doughnuts, at or around the Ganzenhoef Bijlmer Saturday market in Amsterdam-Zuidoost, but Lila Bara’s chicken-filled version, topped with mango achar, is the best. The friendly staff expertly shape flying saucers of mung bean-flour dough, flavored with elephant ear leaves and spices, before frying, slicing, and filling them (or simply topping them with a layer of potato achar as a snack). Be sure to stop by one of the other stalls beforehand to pick up some dawet, a pink coconut drink, or orgeade, a sweet almond beverage, to counter the spice. Lila is relatively unmarked, but you’ll find it by the handwritten wooden menu and the line of people waiting for lunch.

Know before you go: Lila is relatively unmarked, but you’ll find it by the handwritten wooden menu and the line of people waiting for lunch.

A fried bara stuffed with fillings and surrounded by tin foil, with a server and more baras visible beyond.
The stuffed bara at Lila.
Katharine Khamhaengwong
Katharine Khamhaengwong is a Netherlands-based writer, editor, and researcher with a fondness for the cuisine of her adopted home country and of Georgia, where she lived and worked for several years.

Tropico Latin Flavors

Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $$$

Tropico draws a crowd of assorted South Americans from across the Netherlands to Amsterdam West for its ceviches, empanadas, and other Colombian specialties. The Bandeja Paisa, with chicharrón, chorizo, and mince, is a meat-lover’s feast, but there are also vegetarian options. As a resto-bar, it can get a little loud in the evenings, with Colombian musicians, live soccer games, and even karaoke, but that’s all part of the experience. Keep an eye out for specials like chicharrón sushi. 

Know before you go: Make sure to bring cash.

Belly Pepper

Open for: Breakfast, brunch, lunch

Price range: $$

This Turkish-inspired spot, from chef Esra Acar Koç and partner Esra Çalapkulu, serves remixed brunch items like egg-topped börek towers and sucuk breakfast burritos. The menu changes seasonally, so catch the classic Turkish menemen in summer, when tomatoes and green peppers are at their best. Despite a relatively small menu, there are vegan and gluten-free options, as well as a selection of sweets, like tahini rolls and mastic gum pudding.

Vibe check: The staff is friendly and the space is cozy, with soft benches, marble tables, and big windows, making it an inviting place for a long lunch.

A curl of pumpkin accents a breakfast plate of two fried eggs, sautéed spinach, and oyster mushrooms.
Baked pumpkin with fried eggs.
Belly Pepper

Restaurant Kenneh

Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $$$$

The Netherlands’ first West African fine dining restaurant, from Liberian Dutch chef Samuka Kenneh, is a welcome change from the monotonous onslaught of French- and Italian-inspired fine dining in Amsterdam. Set menus offer reimagined West African dishes, with highlights like spicy and tart ampesi (Ghanaian spinach and yam stew) and bofrot, a type of Ghanaian donut, served here with nutmeg ice cream, a crunchy plantain wafer, and fresh citrus. The use of Atlantic fish, like mackerel and sardines, reminds diners that West Africa’s only a boat ride away. 

Know before you go: You can walk in at lunch, and, for now, you might get lucky enough to be served by Kenneh himself.

A top-down view of a smashed doughnut with a scoop of ice cream on top.
Bofrot at Restaurant Kenneh.
Restaurant Kenneh

Rue D’alger

Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $$

Through the windows of this sunny corner spot, you’ll see piles of fruit, cheerful tins of olives and tomatoes, and trays overflowing with brightly colored dishes inspired by owners Nadir Soltane and Youcef Ait-Touati’s Algerian heritage and seasonal, sustainable, local ingredients. The largely vegetarian selection varies by day, but can include stacks of roasted pumpkin with goat cheese, artichokes filled with cheese and figs, beet salad, and braised chicken quarters. Choose a few items and order some tea to drink while the staff warms it all up for you in the oven. 

Best for: Groups with mixed dietary needs.

A man pours tea for a woman sitting on a bench in front of a storefront, surrounded by baskets of produce.
Tea in front of Rue D’alger.
Nadir Soltane

Salvo Bake House

Open for: Breakfast, lunch

Price range: $

This made-for-Instagram, Italianish bakery has a line out the door, but the wait is worth it for the pistachio custard-filled croissants. A rotating array of treats, like Biscoff custard brioche and creme brulee bomboloni, maintain a delightful balance between fun and delicious. The bakery can get crowded inside, but it’s just around the corner from one of the city’s cheapest boat rental places; taking some pastries on a cruise along the canals is an impeccable way to spend a sunny afternoon.

Know before you go: Check the Instagram for the day’s “release” schedule.

A bomba, split and filled with light green cream, and topped with chopped pistachios.
Pistachio bomba.
Salvo Bake House

Chez Nina

Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $$$ 

This relatively new vegetarian restaurant from Swedish chef Nina Olsson fuses Mediterranean and East Asian ingredients into beautiful, seasonal dishes. The menu changes periodically, but might include a beet-shallot tartar with carrot miso “yolk” or cauliflower fritters with Madame Jeanette pepper mayo. On a quiet intersection just outside of the tourist center, Chez Nina is a charming place to try an affordable tasting menu accompanied by a glass of natural wine (from a list that promotes female winemakers) or an unusual cocktail — chlorophyll matcha horchata, anyone?

Must-try dish: Peanut bucatini with makrut lime.

A hand lifts a forkful of bucatini.
Peanut bucatini.
Susanne den Otter/Chez Nina

Mirínda Ams

Open for: Brunch, lunch

Price range: $$

Tucked into a vaulted space that was once a church entryway, this little mother-daughter-run cafe in the Jordaan specializes in Moroccan baked goods. The rotating selection includes meat- or vegetable-filled triangles of briouat, spinach and feta pies, and pastilla, the famous Maghrebi savory-sweet chicken pastry. Sitting at a little outdoor table with a glass of mint tea on a chilly winter day, you could almost imagine yourself in the Rif Mountains, if not for the trams rolling by. 

Must-try dish: The lamb msemen wrap, a flaky flatbread filled with spiced meat and grilled peppers, crisped in a panini press, is a step up from the surrounding kebab shops (ask for it spicy).

Café 't Smalle

Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $$

Pubs known as brown cafes, named for their dark wood interiors (or the remnant nicotine stains on their walls, depending on who you ask), are found across the Low Countries. This prime example has been open since 1978, but occupies a distillery building from the 1800s, lending the dark wood and stained glass bar some aged charm. In the summer, you can sit by the canal, and in winter, locals and visitors pile into the cozy interior. The beer is surprisingly affordable, given its central location, and the cafe offers a small but reliable menu of Dutch classics: bitterballen (crunchy balls of deep fried meat stew), meatballs, and snert (pea soup).

Vibe check: Despite the central location, Café ‘t Smalle is popular with locals.

Customers sit at tables and a bar beneath high ceilings, stain glass windows, and chandeliers.
Inside the gracefully aging Café ‘t Smalle.
Katharine Khamhaengwong

Enté

Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $$$

This newish wine bar invites customers in for a drink, then convinces them to stay a while with comfy seats, taper candles, and charming second-hand tableware. The well-executed menu of luxurious snacks — think chicken liver parfaits, mackerel rillettes, and fried artichokes — helps too, as do the individual servings of bitterballen, cheese sticks, and vlammetjes (mini spicy spring rolls), blessings for the solo drinker normally forced to order six or 10. 

Vibe check: The crowd skews towards groups of middle-aged Dutch women, but I’ve also seen grandfathers and grandchildren and at least one unnecessarily large dog, so really, anything goes.

Café Cenc

Open for: Dinner

Price range: $$$

Café Cenc unites the best of southern European apéro culture with a fishy menu of the sort that should be more common so close to the North Sea. Options change seasonally, but recent hits include a tart mussel escabeche with samphire and an oeuf mayonnaise topped with Dutch gray shrimp, an appealingly named local delicacy. The terrace is packed on sunny afternoons and the place is full of visual treats: a butter tower behind the marble bar, light shining through little glasses of Campari-based cocktails, silver coupes of anchovies and olives.

Best for: Long summer evenings, especially when Amsterdam’s sunsets stretch past 10 p.m.

A bar in a glass-lined bar room, with a large red awning and patio seating visible on the sidewalk.
Inside the sunny Café Cenc.
Zwaan van Weert

Upstairs Pannenkoekenhuis

Open for: Lunch

Price range: $$

Upstairs claims to be Europe’s smallest pancake restaurant; with only four tables, that’s believable. You have to clamber up a narrow flight of stairs to get in, but it’s charming enough to make up for the inconvenience. The building dates to 1539, the decor leans Dutch historical, and owners Arno Jakobs and Ali Sadikin will often fry up your meal themselves. Dutch pancakes are somewhere between crepes and fluffy American pancakes, and come with sweet and savory toppings. In the summer, fresh berries and whipped cream is the way to go, while bacon and cheese (with the strips of meat embedded in the pancake) is always good. If you’re looking for something a little wilder, Upstairs also offers combos like cheese with candied ginger or salami with cheese and pineapple.

Know before you go: Call, no more than a week ahead (no WhatsApp or email), to make a (probably necessary) reservation.

Eetsalon Van Dobben

Open for: Brunch, lunch, dinner

Price range: $

The best place to go for a croquette in town — in a city where every other restaurant has a croquette — Van Dobben has been at it since 1945. The cafeteria offers a wide array of fried foods and meat products, mostly intended to be eaten on soft white rolls. The veal croquettes are crunchy and classic, but there are more adventurous options, like the broodje tartaar topped with raw hamburger, a boiled egg, and a generous dollop of mayo. The restaurant does have vegetarian options, though the menu definitely centers on meat. Retro vibes and communal mustard spoons add to the charm. 

Vibe check: Despite the central location, Van Dobben is popular with locals for lunch. Get a glass of milk with your sandwich if you want to blend in.

A top-down view of a croquette platter surrounded by various other sandwiches and dishes.
A full spread at Van Dobben.
Dobben’s Eetsalon

Febo

Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $

Hungry in the center of Amsterdam and want to eat something nice, unmediated by a long line or snail-like servers? Febo is the go-to choice. Walk in, tap your card to one of the snack automatieks, open a little door, and grab the glistening croquette, frikandel (deep-fried sausage), or burger that awaits you. 

Must-try dish: Indonesian-influenced snacks, like the satékroket (meat croquette with peanut sauce mixed in) and bamischijf (deep-fried vegetarian noodle block).

A person pushes the button beside a fried treat set in a little glass automat box.
The automatiek in action.
Febo

Tujuh Maret

Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $$$

The Indonesian rijsttafel (rice table) is not, despite initial appearances, a popular meal in Indonesia. Rather, this Dutch Indonesian restaurant classic, consisting of a table laden with many small bowls of various Indonesian dishes, has roots in colonial banquets intended to highlight the wealth and diversity of the Dutch East Indies. Tujuh Maret’s rijsttafel, which includes 18 dishes, is nice, but the vegetarian version, full of tempeh, eggplant, and pickles, is even better. The warm, bustling restaurant and spice-inflected food are the perfect antidote to a Dutch winter’s day.

Best for: Introducing first-timers to Indonesian food.

Tjin’s

Open for: Breakfast, lunch

Price range: $

Tjin’s began serving curried egg and sardine sandwiches from the back of Tjin’s Record Shop in 1977. It turned out the sandwiches were more popular than the records, and an institution was born. Today, the shop offers a wide variety of sandwiches, including bacalao, tempeh and long beans, and char siu pork, spiced up with house-made hot sauce and pickled cucumbers, as well as roti rolls, baras, blood sausage, and buns filled with pom (a casserole made with elephant ear root, chicken, citrus, and spices). There’s also an array of drinks on offer, but a soda from Surinamese brand Fernandes is classic.

Best for: A good, quick meal after walking past all the boring tourist snacks on the Albert Cuypstraat.

A sandwich of meat and vegetables on a long sliced roll.
One of Tjin’s popular sandwiches.
Katharine Khamhaengwong

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De Hapjeshoek

Open for: Brunch, lunch, dinner

Price range: $$

Surinamese cuisine reflects the history of the country. South American ingredients blend with culinary elements transported by African slaves and Indonesian, Indian, and Chinese laborers brought over by the Dutch colonizers. At De Hapjeshoek, you can get a little bit of everything: Indian-inflected lamb roti rolls, Indonesian sambal made with Caribbean peppers, and moksi meti: a Chinese Surinamese dish of meat, in this case roasted chicken, served with rice or noodles. 

Know before you go: The subterranean restaurant is located in the Waterlooplein metro station.

Hartog's Volkoren

Open for: Breakfast, lunch

Price range: $

Hartog’s has been selling whole wheat bread in Amsterdam since 1896, and the bakery has been milling its own flour in the center of the city for nearly as long. Today, nearly everything is made with house-milled, Dutch-grown, whole wheat flour, including the oliebollen (Dutch New Year’s doughnuts), some of the best in town thanks to the whole wheat’s depth, a flawlessly crunchy exterior, and a coating of powdered sugar. While the oliebollen are only available in the winter, summer brings other treats, like speculaas ice cream sandwiches rolled in roasted hazelnuts, candied ginger, and rosemary, or crumbled sportbeschuit, a type of whole wheat cookie that the bakery’s been making for about a hundred years.

Best for: A little snack to keep you going while on a long bike ride around the city.

Shelves loaded with loaves of bread.
Stacked shelves at Hartog’s Volkoren.
Hartog’s Volkoren

Eethuis Sinbad

Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $

The kapsalon (“hair salon”) is emblematic of the diversity of the modern Netherlands: A Cape Verdean hairdresser dreamed up the dish while visiting his local Turkish shawarma place. It consists of a pile of fries covered in döner meat, a slice of Dutch cheese, some miscellaneous vegetables, and doses of garlic sauce and sambal. Though the original hails from Rotterdam, you’ll find the nicest one in Amsterdam at Sinbad. Veal döner is the classic, but there’s also a highly regarded chicken version, as well as lamb. Watch a broad cross section of Amsterdam society churning in and out while you wait for your meal, and don’t forget to load yours up from the self-service sauces.

Know before you go: Get a soda, even if you don’t think you want one, to counter all that salt.

Fries topped with meat and fixings in a metal takeout container.
The kapsalon at Eethuis Sinbad.
Katharine Khamhaengwong

Euro Pizza Restaurant

Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $$$

Once a fine dining restaurant, today Euro Pizza might serve a dish of clams, lamb sausage, and fig leaf oil before laying down a crisp sourdough miso margarita or jambon beurre pie. The staff, well-trained and unusually friendly by Amsterdam standards, are quick to tell you the restaurant isn’t a pizzeria, but a “pizza-driven wine bar.” This would be annoying in any setting that didn’t come with such great food, accompanied by low-intervention wines and cocktails perfumed with basil. Alas, as is the case with most places with good food, good drinks, and good service, you should make a reservation. 

If you take the train: If you time it right, you can enjoy sunset from the free ferry across the IJ to Amsterdam Noord before or after your dinner.

Two toasts topped with huge sardines and chopped chives.
Sardine toast.
Anna de Vogel

Brouwerij 't IJ

Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $$

Despite the ubiquity of Heineken and affiliated products, the Netherlands does produce craft beer. Brouwerij ‘t IJ’s scenic brewery and taproom, located in a bathhouse next to a mill, is an idyllic place to try some for yourself. The place has something for everyone, including a Belgian-style Zatte Tripel, an IPA, and a wheat beer, Ijwit. The taproom also offers seasonal specials, a couple non-alcoholic beers, and an array of toasties, sausages, and fried things to snack on. During the weekend, you can tour the brewery, and the rest of the time, you can escape the stag parties and general madness that sometimes engulf the city center.

Best for: Finding a table big enough for a large group.

Chairs at a long bar, alongside shelves full of various beer bottles.
Inside Brouwerij ‘t IJ.
Brouwerij ‘t IJ

De Kas

Open for: Lunch, dinner

Price range: $$$$

The Netherlands is famous for its greenhouses, which have helped make the tiny country one of the world’s largest food exporters. However, as energy prices have gone up, the greenhouse sector has declined, leaving empty glass shells in its wake. De Kas (“The Greenhouse”) took up residence in one, originally built in the 1920s. A pioneer of Dutch farm-to-table dining, the restaurant follows a simple philosophy when it comes to ingredients — “harvested in the morning, on your plate in the afternoon” — and the team grows some of its produce right in the restaurant. Offerings are inventive and vegetable-centered, featuring components like bergamot vinaigrette, fennel ice cream, and mushroom butter. Despite the restaurant’s Michelin star and the green Michelin star, the lunch menus remain surprisingly affordable.

Know before you go: While De Kas is fully booked a month or two in advance, regular cancellations often free up next-day reservations.

Guests sit and servers circulate around tables inside a bright greenhouse, with fall foliage visible outside beyond.
The airy dining room at De Kas.
Rinze Vegelien

Paon Bali

Open for: Dinner

Price range: $$

Following almost 150 years of Dutch colonization of Indonesia, the Netherlands is dotted with Indonesian takeaways, many serving recipes sweetened and de-spiced for cautious taste buds. Mixed in among some fairly uninspiring places, there are gems like Paon Bali, which serves up affordable (though inflexible) set meals. There’s only one plate on offer each day, consisting of a big scoop of rice surrounded by eight to 10 little portions of various meat and vegetable dishes and sambals. Bali is a historically Hindu island, so the cuisine includes more pork than elsewhere in Indonesia; the babi guling (traditional roast pork) here is excellent, as is the babi kecap (pork in sweet Indonesian soy sauce).

Know before you go: The restaurant only takes walk-ins for dining in, and there is often a vegetarian option available (though check the week’s on the website).

Lila Bara

Open for: Lunch

Price range: $

There are at least five places to buy Hindustani Surinamese baras, savory fried breads or doughnuts, at or around the Ganzenhoef Bijlmer Saturday market in Amsterdam-Zuidoost, but Lila Bara’s chicken-filled version, topped with mango achar, is the best. The friendly staff expertly shape flying saucers of mung bean-flour dough, flavored with elephant ear leaves and spices, before frying, slicing, and filling them (or simply topping them with a layer of potato achar as a snack). Be sure to stop by one of the other stalls beforehand to pick up some dawet, a pink coconut drink, or orgeade, a sweet almond beverage, to counter the spice. Lila is relatively unmarked, but you’ll find it by the handwritten wooden menu and the line of people waiting for lunch.

Know before you go: Lila is relatively unmarked, but you’ll find it by the handwritten wooden menu and the line of people waiting for lunch.

A fried bara stuffed with fillings and surrounded by tin foil, with a server and more baras visible beyond.
The stuffed bara at Lila.
Katharine Khamhaengwong

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