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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.