Amsterdam is a small city with a big appetite, and most visitors eat badly here purely by accident. They land on a terrace on Damrak, pay €26 for a mediocre burger, and leave thinking Dutch food is a myth. It isn’t. You just have to know which door to open. 🚲🧀🥞
This is the list our guides actually hand to guests when a tour ends and someone asks “so where do we eat tonight?” All 66 of them were checked one by one.
The short answer
In a hurry? These are the picks we give most often.
- Best fries: Vleminckx for the classic, Heertje Friet for a crunchier version and a shorter queue.
- Best stroopwafel: Hans Egstorf, a bakery that has been at it for two centuries.
- Best herring: the Jonk family stall on Spui. Go easy on the onions.
- Best rijsttafel: Restaurant MAX in the Jordaan. Book ahead.
- Best cheap dinner: Warung Spang Makandra, Surinamese-Javanese, under €20.
- Best market: Albert Cuyp for the classics, Dappermarkt if you want to be the only tourist there.
- Best drink with a story: a kopstoot (small beer, small jenever) at Wynand Fockink.
Three things that will save you money and disappointment: skip any terrace on Damrak, Dam Square or Leidseplein with photos on the menu; the Dutch eat dinner early, so 18:00 to 19:30 is peak and 20:30 is calm; and almost nothing good takes walk-ins on a Friday, so book. 💪
Want dinner handled on your first evening? Our evening food tour leaves at 16:00, 17:00 and 18:00 and counts as dinner.
Dutch food in Amsterdam: what to eat and where
Otto has been running tours in Amsterdam since 2015. The fries order below is his.
There is a longer write-up of the Dutch classics on our Dutch cuisine in Amsterdam page.
Vleminckx
The fries everyone means when they say “the fries”. A hole in the wall off Spui with a queue out the door most afternoons. Order the standard sauce and don’t overthink it. 🍟
📍 Voetboogstraat 33 · 4.5 on Google
Heertje Friet
Crunchier than Vleminckx and rarely a queue. Otto’s own order is oorlog sauce: peanut sauce, mayonnaise and raw onion, which sounds wrong and is not. Ask for speciaal if you want mayo, curry and onion instead. 🍟
📍 Herengracht 169 · €1-10 · 4.6 on Google
Hans Egstorf
A bakery that has been making stroopwafels for over two hundred years. Buy them warm, eat them within the hour, and understand why the supermarket version is a different food entirely. 🍪
📍 Spuistraat 274 · 4.8 on Google
Herring Stall Jonk
Cured herring at a family stall on Spui square, the way it should be eaten: head back, tail down, or in a broodje with pickles if that feels like a lot. Best between May and July, when the new catch lands. 🐟
📍 Spui 7a · €1-10 · 4.6 on Google
Wynand Fockink
A tasting room behind Dam Square that has poured jenever since 1679. Ask for a kopstoot: a small beer with a jenever chaser, filled to the brim so you have to bow to the glass for the first sip. 🍸
📍 Pijlsteeg 31 · 4.7 on Google
Proeflokaal ‘t Kelkje
A tiny jenever bar on the edge of the Red Light District, and one of the highest-rated small bars in the centre. Room for about fifteen people if everyone is friendly. 🍸
📍 Oudezijds Achterburgwal 164A · €10-20 · 4.8 on Google
Moeders
“Mothers” in Dutch, and a Jordaan institution where the walls are covered in photographs of customers’ mums and the menu is Dutch home cooking, stamppot included. Reserve, always. 🏠
📍 Rozengracht 251 · €20-30 · 4.5 on Google
Café Sonneveld
A proper Jordaan café on the Egelantiersgracht doing Dutch classics without irony. Good for a stamppot on a grey day. 🍲
📍 Egelantiersgracht 72-74 · €20-30 · 4.6 on Google
de Silveren Spiegel
Dutch cooking at the top end, in a leaning merchant house from 1614 near Centraal. This is the one for an anniversary. 🥂
📍 Kattengat 4 · €100+ · 4.8 on Google
Gastrovino
A deli where you can taste your way through ten Dutch cheeses and then take the winner home vacuum-sealed. Better value than the tourist cheese shops on the main streets. 🧀
📍 Spuistraat 330 · €1-20 · 4.7 on Google
Foodhallen
An indoor food market in a converted tram depot in West, with around twenty stalls covering Dutch, Asian, Spanish and everything between. The move when your group cannot agree on anything. 🍣🌮
📍 Hannie Dankbaarpassage 16 · €10-20 · 4.4 on Google
The Seafood Bar
Bright, busy and consistently good, with a two-person shellfish platter that arrives looking like a small reef. Several locations; Spui is the handiest. 🦞
📍 Spui 15 · €30-90 · 4.7 on Google
The Butcher
Burgers in De Pijp, with a hidden bar behind the restaurant that only opens to people who booked it. 🍔🔑
📍 Albert Cuypstraat 129 · €10-20 · 4.2 on Google
OCHA Thai Restaurant
A small Thai place near the harbour with no alcohol, brisk service and a bill that will surprise you in the right direction. Cash-flat, no-frills, very good. 🍛
📍 Binnen Bantammerstraat 1 · €10-20 · 4.6 on Google
The Lebanese Sajeria
Wraps made on a saj griddle in the Nine Streets, ideal when you want something excellent in ten minutes. 🌯
📍 Wijde Heisteeg 1 · €10-20 · 4.6 on Google
d&a hummus bistro
Hummus as a main event rather than a side, in the Jordaan. Come hungry; the bread keeps arriving. 🍴
📍 Westerstraat 136 · €20-30 · 4.6 on Google
Indonesian and Surinamese food in Amsterdam
Three hundred years of Dutch colonial history sit on these menus, and it is the single best reason to eat in Amsterdam. A rijsttafel is a rice table: a dozen or more small dishes served at once, meant to be shared and worked through slowly. Surinamese food came later, by way of the Caribbean, and it is where the city eats cheaply and well.
Longer write-ups of the rijsttafel houses live on our Indonesian and Surinamese picks page.
Picked with Dennis. His wife is Indonesian, so this is the food he eats at home, and he leads our Haarlem tour where he books the Indonesian stop himself.
Restaurant MAX
The rijsttafel to book in the Jordaan. Small room, big reputation, and the most consistent recent reviews of any rice table in the city. Reserve, the tables go fast. 🍛🍚
📍 Herenstraat 14H · €40-60 · 4.6 on Google
Koeah
Skip the rice table here and order soup. The soto is what people come back for, and it is the only place in the centre where the soup, not the rijsttafel, is the headline. A handful of tables, no reservations. 🍜
📍 Spuistraat 106 · €10-20 · 4.7 on Google
Tujuh Maret
A family-run rice table on the canal belt. Generous portions, cosy room, and walk-ins are often possible when everywhere else is full. 🍽️
📍 Utrechtsestraat 73 · €30-40 · 4.3 on Google
Teran Boelan
Takeaway only, run by a couple in the Jordaan, and rated higher than every sit-down Indonesian restaurant in the centre. Get a nasi rames and eat it on a bench by the Noorderkerk. 🥡
📍 Tweede Lindendwarsstraat 3 · €10-20 · 4.8 on Google
Cafe Kadijk
Indonesian cooking with a Dutch café accent, on a quiet square east of the centre. Smaller plates, less ceremony. 🌏
📍 Kadijksplein · €20-30 · 4.4 on Google
Restaurant Blauw
The polished end of the rijsttafel, out towards the Vondelpark. Good for a group that wants the full spread with wine. 🍲🍷
📍 Amstelveenseweg 158-160 · €40-60 · 4.4 on Google
Sama Sebo
One of the oldest Indonesian restaurants in the city, on the museum-quarter shopping street. Old-school room, old-school rijsttafel. 🍚
📍 Pieter Cornelisz Hooftstraat 27 · €20-40 · 4.2 on Google
Dèsa
Entirely plant-based Indonesian in De Pijp. The vegan rendang is the reason to come, and it converts sceptics. 🍛
📍 Ceintuurbaan 103H · €20-30 · 4.4 on Google
Warung Spang Makandra
Surinamese-Javanese, cheap, fast and beloved. The best cheap dinner in De Pijp and the answer when someone asks where locals eat on a Tuesday. 🥘
📍 Gerard Doustraat 33 · €10-20 · 4.2 on Google
Rotishop Gieta
Roti done properly, in a small takeaway in West. One of the highest-rated Surinamese spots in the city and worth the tram ride. 🌯
📍 Balboastraat 15hs · €10-20 · 4.7 on Google
Tjin’s Toko
Half grocery, half kitchen. Surinamese broodjes, snacks and ready meals to take away, in the middle of De Pijp. 🥪
📍 Eerste van der Helststraat 64 · 4.5 on Google
If this is the food you came for, our Amsterdam food tour spends real time on the colonial history behind it, and there is a longer read on how Dutch colonial history shaped the city’s cooking.
Vegetarian and vegan restaurants in Amsterdam
Amsterdam is an easy city to eat plant-based in, and not in a sad-salad way.
Ira runs Adam & Eve with Otto and keeps this list.
SOIL Vegan Café
Modern cooking that happens to be fully plant-based, in West. 🥗
📍 Bilderdijkstraat 141 · €20-30 · 4.6 on Google
Golden Temple
Vegetarian in Amsterdam for over thirty years, leaning Indian. It was here long before it was fashionable. 🥘
📍 Utrechtsestraat 126 · €20-30 · 4.5 on Google
TerraZen Centre
A tiny family-run café doing vegan Caribbean-Japanese fusion, which is a sentence that should not work and does. Communal tables, low prices. 🍛🍣
📍 Sint Jacobsstraat 19HS · €10-20 · 4.5 on Google
SLA
Salads, bowls and soups done well and quickly, with branches all over the city. The reliable option when you have twenty minutes. 🥗
📍 Utrechtsestraat 10A · €10-20 · 4.4 on Google
The Dutch Weed Burger
Plant-based burgers built on seaweed, now up in Noord. Odd on paper, genuinely good in the hand. 🍔
📍 Korte Papaverweg 2M · 3.9 on Google
Café de Ceuvel
A café built on a cleaned-up former shipyard in Noord, running on its own sustainable systems. Come for the setting as much as the food. 🥬
📍 Korte Papaverweg 4 · €10-20 · 4.5 on Google
More options in Ira’s vegetarian and vegan hotspots and our longer plant-based guide to Amsterdam.
Amsterdam’s food markets
Albert Cuyp Markt
The big one, running the length of De Pijp six days a week. Fresh stroopwafels off the griddle, herring, cheese, and a silly hat for the photograph. 🍪🐟🧀
📍 Albert Cuypstraat 101 · 4.5 on Google
Dappermarkt
The market locals use and visitors mostly miss, out in East. Best kebab in the city, and prices that have not been adjusted for tourism. 🥙
📍 Dapperplein · 4.3 on Google
Waterloopleinmarkt
Less about food, more about second-hand everything. Good for a souvenir with some history attached. ⏰
📍 Waterlooplein · 3.9 on Google
Brown cafés, breweries and jenever
A bruin café is Amsterdam’s living room: dark wood, older regulars, sand on the floor in the oldest ones, and beer that arrives with a proper head on it.
Café De Dokter
The smallest bar in Amsterdam, in business since 1798, run by the same family for most of it. Candlelight, dusty bottles, room for about a dozen people. 👫
📍 Rozenboomsteeg 4 · €10-20 · 4.8 on Google
Brouwerij ‘t IJ
Craft beer under a windmill on the east side, which is as Dutch as a photograph gets. Closes around 20:00, so go in daylight. 📸
📍 Funenkade 7 · 4.6 on Google
Brouwerij De Prael
A brewery a minute from the Red Light District that employs people the regular job market gave up on, and makes very good beer while doing it. Open late. 🍺
📍 Oudezijds Armsteeg 26 · €10-30 · 4.4 on Google
Bierfabriek
Four house beers, roasted chicken, and free peanuts you are expected to shell onto the floor. Loud, cheerful, good for a group. 🍺🍗
📍 Nes 67 · €20-30 · 4.1 on Google
Brouwerij Troost
Brewery and kitchen in the old Westergas complex, with a terrace that fills the moment the sun appears. 🍻
📍 Pazzanistraat 27 · €10-30 · 4.4 on Google
Brewed by Women
Craft beer brewed by women, poured in a small bar in West. Ask for the Bloesem Blond or the Misty Mango. 🍺
📍 Jan Pieter Heijestraat 119D · €10-20 · 4.7 on Google
Kopstootbar
A jenever-and-beer bar on the Zeedijk, named after the drink it exists to serve. Opens late. 🕺
More in our guide to the brown cafés of the Jordaan, and a few more off-radar spots in Peter’s hidden gems and Todd’s food guide to Amsterdam.
Bars, live music and late nights
Hannekes Boom
A waterside bar built out of salvage, east of Centraal. Simple food, good beer, and the best terrace in the city when the weather cooperates. 📸
📍 Dijksgracht 4 · €20-30 · 4.3 on Google
The Pool Bar
Pool tables in the middle of the centre, open late, no pretension. 🎱
📍 Voetboogstraat 3-B · 4.5 on Google
Maloe Melo
Amsterdam’s blues bar, small and sweaty, live music most nights. 🎶
📍 Lijnbaansgracht 163 · €10-20 · 4.5 on Google
The Waterhole
Live bands seven nights a week just off Leidseplein. Not subtle, always busy. 🎤
📍 Korte Leidsedwarsstraat 49 · 4.5 on Google
Paradiso
A converted church that is now one of Europe’s great music venues. Check what’s on before you plan an evening around it. 🕺
📍 Weteringschans 6-8 · 4.6 on Google
Melkweg
The other great one, a former dairy behind Leidseplein. Concerts, club nights and a cinema in the same building. 🥳
📍 Lijnbaansgracht 234A · 4.5 on Google
Chin Chin Club
A club on the Rozengracht for a night that is meant to go long. 👯
📍 Rozengracht 133 · 3.8 on Google
Gashouder, Westergasfabriek
An enormous former gas holder in West that hosts the city’s biggest dance events. Nothing else in Amsterdam sounds like it. 🎧
📍 Klönneplein 1 · 4.6 on Google
RADION
Techno on the western edge, in an old dental school, frequently running until well after sunrise. 🌅
📍 Louwesweg 1 · 4.4 on Google
Warehouse Elementenstraat
A warehouse in the west harbour that does exactly what the name promises. Late, loud, proper sound. 🔊
📍 Elementenstraat 25 · €20-70 · 4.3 on Google
Amsterdam Noord and the local side of the city
Take the free ferry from behind Centraal. The NDSM one is the long ride and the good one, and the city changes character completely.
More of this side of town in hipster, art and local hangouts and our bonus spots.
Robin was born and raised in Amsterdam, and this is the half of it visitors usually miss.
NDSM Werf
A derelict shipyard turned art district: murals the size of buildings, studios built into shipping containers, and an Anne Frank portrait you can spot from the ferry. ⛴️🎨
📍 NDSM-Plein 90C · 4.5 on Google
Pllek
A beach bar made of shipping containers on the north bank, with sand, a wood stove in winter and the best sunset view of the skyline. 🍻
📍 T.T. Neveritaweg 59 · 4.4 on Google
Noorderlicht Café
A greenhouse on the waterfront with a scrappy garden and a menu that leans green. Feels like someone’s very good idea that got out of hand. 🥗
📍 NDSM-Plein 102 · €20-30 · 4.3 on Google
Café De Jaren
Back in the centre, but the same spirit: a huge two-level café with a terrace hanging over the Amstel. Best cheap seat on the water in the city. 🥗
📍 Nieuwe Doelenstraat 20-22 · €10-20 · 4.2 on Google
Dignita Hoftuin
Brunch in a walled garden behind the Hermitage, run as a social enterprise. Reserve at weekends or don’t bother turning up. 🥙
📍 Nieuwe Herengracht 18a · €20-30 · 4.4 on Google
Staring at Jacob
Brunch in West with a menu that changes with the season and a room that knows it looks good. 🍴
📍 Jacob van Lennepkade 215 · €20-30 · 4.5 on Google
De Kas
A restaurant inside a 1926 municipal greenhouse, cooking what it grew that morning. One menu, no choices, and worth it. 🥬
📍 Kamerlingh Onneslaan 3 · €100+ · 4.7 on Google
Katsu
A De Pijp institution and one of the best-known coffeeshops in the city, which in Amsterdam means something specific. ☕
📍 Eerste van der Helststraat 70 · 4.6 on Google
Museums worth the time
Rijksmuseum
So large that a serious visit is a full day. Go straight to the Gallery of Honour first, then wander. 🌍
📍 Museumstraat 1 · 4.7 on Google
Van Gogh Museum
Weekdays only if you can help it. Watching Loving Vincent the night before makes the whole thing land harder. 🖼️
📍 Museumplein 6 · 4.6 on Google
Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder
A complete 17th-century Catholic church hidden in the attic of a canal house, built when Catholic worship was banned. The most surprising building in the centre. 🕍
📍 Oudezijds Voorburgwal 38-40 · 4.7 on Google
Amsterdam Museum
The city’s own history, told well. ⚠️ The Kalverstraat building is temporarily closed, check the website before you plan around it. 🎞️
📍 Kalverstraat 92 · 4.3 on Google
Electric Ladyland
The world’s first museum of fluorescent art, in a Jordaan basement, run by the artist himself. ⚠️ Temporarily closed at the time of writing, check before you travel. 🌈
📍 Tweede Leliedwarsstraat 5 · 3.9 on Google
What eating in Amsterdam actually costs
| You want | Budget | Where in this guide |
|---|---|---|
| Street food, one thing | €3-8 | Fries, herring, stroopwafel |
| Cheap proper dinner | €12-20 | Warung Spang Makandra, Koeah, Teran Boelan, Rotishop Gieta |
| Normal dinner out | €25-40 | Moeders, Café Sonneveld, Cafe Kadijk, Dèsa |
| Full rijsttafel with drinks | €40-60 | Restaurant MAX, Restaurant Blauw |
| The big night | €100+ | De Kas, de Silveren Spiegel |
A beer runs €4-6 in a brown café and more on a square. Tap water is free and normal to ask for. Tipping is not expected, rounding up is plenty, and there is more detail in our tipping guide.
After the tour: get on the water
Our food tour ends near the water, and the obvious next move is to stay on it. Flagship runs the highest rated boat tour in the world, and we send guests to two of them. 🍷⛵
Cheese and wine boat tour
Float past the historic canals with Dutch cheese in one hand and a local wine in the other. The civilised version of an Amsterdam afternoon. 🧀🍷
Canal cruise
Beer, wine and bubbly are not included but all available on board, which tends to sort itself out. Good company, good route, no rush. 🚤
If you would rather we handled the whole thing, we run our own water trips too: a wine and cheese tour, a food tour and canal cruise combo, and private boat tours for groups.
How this guide is checked
Every venue on this page was checked against Google Maps on 25 August 2026. Thirteen places that used to be listed here had closed permanently and were removed in that pass. Six more had moved, and their addresses are corrected above. We re-check the whole list every quarter, because a guide full of shut restaurants is worse than no guide at all.
Re-checked on 5 September 2026: one more permanent closure, replaced above.
What we don’t do: we take no payment for a listing, and nothing appears here that one of our guides has not been to. Where a place has changed hands recently we say so rather than guessing.
Found something out of date? Tell us at contact@adamandevetours.com and we’ll check it.
Amsterdam food questions, answered
What food is Amsterdam actually known for?
Fries with thick sauce, cured herring, stroopwafels, bitterballen, cheese, and (thanks to three centuries of colonial history) some of the best Indonesian food in Europe. Dutch cooking itself is simple and seasonal: stamppot, pea soup, pancakes.
What is a rijsttafel?
An Indonesian rice table: a dozen or more small dishes brought at once and shared. It was invented in the colonial Dutch East Indies as a way to show off the range of Indonesian cooking, and Amsterdam is the best city in Europe to eat one. Budget €40-60 a head and book ahead.
Where do locals eat in Amsterdam?
Locals eat away from Damrak, Dam Square and Leidseplein. De Pijp, the Jordaan, East around the Dappermarkt, and increasingly Noord. Warung Spang Makandra, Koeah and Dappermarkt are three places where you will be outnumbered by Amsterdammers.
Is Amsterdam expensive to eat in?
Amsterdam doesn’t have to be expensive to eat in. Street food is €3-8, a very good cheap dinner is €12-20, and a normal restaurant meal is €25-40. The expensive mistake is eating on a tourist square. We wrote a longer breakdown on eating in Amsterdam on any budget.
What time do the Dutch eat dinner?
Dinner is an early affair in the Netherlands. Kitchens fill from 18:00 and many stop serving around 21:30. If you want a quiet table, book for 20:00; if you want to walk in somewhere, avoid 18:30 to 19:30 on a Friday or Saturday.
Do I need to book restaurants in Amsterdam?
In Amsterdam, book ahead for any popular restaurant from Thursday to Saturday. Moeders, Restaurant MAX, De Kas and Dignita Hoftuin all fill days ahead. Takeaway places and the markets never need it.
Is it worth doing a food tour in Amsterdam?
If you have two or three days, a tour front-loads everything on this page into one afternoon and adds the history behind it. Ours runs daily and is on this list of things we would do ourselves, see the Amsterdam food tour, or compare the options if you want to shop around first.
Want a guide instead of a list?
This page is the do-it-yourself version of what we do for a living. If you would rather have someone walk you through it, our Amsterdam food tour covers 10+ tastings across three hours, and there are private tours if you want the route built around your group.
Book direct and the code ADAM takes 8% off. Lowest price guaranteed, and it keeps the booking out of the resellers’ hands. 🎁
Want the tour version on paper first? Download our tasting menu to see what we eat and where we go. And if you are still working out what kind of eater you are, the Amsterdam foodie quiz takes 60 seconds and ends with a free guide to 45+ spots.