Where to eat and drink in Amsterdam

So, since I've found myself re-writing the same recommendations to several Amsterdam visitors, I'm now trying to gather all of my personal favorites here on the blog. I'll start off with my recommendations for eating and drinking -  because, if I were visiting another city, thats the first thing I'd want to know.

Sadly, going out for food is quite expensive here. I'm really missing the student pubs we had back home, where you could get a cheap meal for under 5€, whereas here even a simple portion of Spaghetti with Pesto will easily cost you 15€.
Fortunately, there are at least *some* exceptions, that will at least give you a good value for money and I've sacrificed a lot of my personal time to research the best places for going out here :) Will try to update this post from time to time, as I discover new places.


Los Pilones
Mexican food in 3 locations in Amsterdam (I recommend the Jordaan branch), best Margaritas, good food although portions could be slightly bigger.

Pazzi Pizza
Best. Pizza. Ever. 14€ per pizza, which seems to be the usual price for Amsterdam, seems very steep, but here it's definitely worth it. If I had to live on their Pizza Boscaiola for the rest of my life, I really wouldn't mind. Mostly takeout, with some small tables in the back, where you can have Antipasti or Tiramisu with your pizza. I've never been to the second location in Oud-West though, which is more of a restaurant.

De Twee Grieken
Small greek restaurant with reasonable prices. I don't think I've ever had any better calamari rings. 13-20€.

Sumo Sushi
All-you-can-eat Sushi chain with several locations in Amsterdam (I prefer the one on Leidseplein). Good selection, slightly limited for lunch. 20-30€ for all you can eat, depending on the day and time.

Pho91
Small vietnamese eatery with soups and snacks, prices around 10-12€.

Le Fou Fouw Ramen Bar
Same thing in japanese: Noodle soups and gyoza, 10-15€ per bowl of soup that will get you very full.

Kantijl & De Tijger
Indonesian food, slightly touristy, but quite okay.

De Engelbewaarder
Literary café with some games, jazz on sundays and canal-side terrace in summer. Seasonal menu with really good food, reasonably priced.

Foodhallen
Here someone took the now so hip concept of food truck roundups, put it into a former tram depot and created Amsterdam's first indoor food market with everything ranging from indian barbecue, oysters, Pizza, Quinoa Sushi, up to Bitterballen. I like the concept of being able to sample a lot of different food in one night, but when I was there in the evenings I always found it a little annoying how crowded it was: Once everybody had decided what they wanted to eat, you had to queue at the different stalls, then somehow find a place to sit and in the end one of us would always be finished eating before the others had even gotten their food. Nevertheless, the place is rather unusual and deserves a recommendation. And if you go during the day, it's not that crowded either.


Tripel
Belgian beer cafe, with a very wide selection of beers and 2-for-1 meals on Mondays and Tuesdays. The food is mostly classic bar food, e.g. meat & something fried, some pasta, but quite good. Also, one of the few places here that serve Club Mate!

Beer Temple
Large selection of mostly american craft beers, if you're into that sort of stuff.

Proeflokaal Wijnand Fockinck
Distillery with a tiny bar where you can sample all of their liquors and jenevers, only open between 15.00h-21.00h. In a small side street of Dam Square.

Meat & Burgers:

Burger Bar
Small snack bar with the best burgers in Amsterdam - you get to choose between irish beef, black angus or kobe. 8-13€

Ellis Gourmet Burgers
Burger restaurant with excellent burgers on decent bread (I really don't like the typical mushy burger buns). Also serve salmon and veggie burgers. 10-15€

Cannibale Royale
Steaks, Ribs & Burger restaurant with an eerie decor. Good value for money.

Small local breweries:

De Bekeerde Suster
Good for large groups, good changing menu, try the homemade Nachos.

Brouwerij Troost
2 Locations in Westerpark & dePijp, also serves Flammkuchen&Burgers.

Brouwerij De Prael

Brouwerij t'IJ
Their brewery tour is definitely a more unique option than touring the Heineken brewery, that's so popular with tourists. Sadly I haven't been there yet myself, but all my friends are raving about it. And the beer, which you can sample in the Proeflokaal next to the brewery (next to a windmill, so it really is hard to miss), is really good!

Alternative Bars:

Café 't Schuim
Ranges somewhere between café, bar and nightclub with and very varying crowd

Vrankrijk
Bar in one of the squats (probably even the only one that's left?) on Spuistraat. Cheap drinks, *very* alternative crowd, often bands are playing or art performances are happening. Punk nights, queer nights, and vegan nights. Better check the agenda before you go, or be adventurous and drop in spontaneously (I could tell you stories...)

Soundgarden
Rock/Metal bar with a pool table, pinball machine and a nice canalside garden. Occasional live bands.

De Nieuwe Anita
Former squat bar, excellent cocktails. Sometimes live bands, theme nights or movie nights. Cozy interior and very diverse crowd.

The Cave
Small metal bar with concerts on fridays.

Mostly for warm weather:

Waterkant
The Waterkant is hidden unterneath a parking garage next to the Elandsgracht bus station. It does not have that many tables but you can always just grab a beer at the bar and sit down somewhere on the pier (or bring your own drinks - nobody really minds as the quay technically isn't part of the bar). It usually has sun until rather late in the evening, so it's also crowded during the week and many people arrive in boats to refill on booze there or to pick up their friends. Food is surinamese and asian inspired. 8-15€.

Pllek
Built from old shipping containers, with the most comfortable bean bags and canvas chairs on its little beach overlooking the IJ river. Child-friendly, yoga lessons on the weekend and mostly organic food.

Café Noorderlicht
Some 100 meters away from Pllek in Noord as well, located in an old greenhouse with a green garden and many comfortable seating options around.

Roest
City beach with a volleyball court and a children's playground. When it's warm, swing into the canal on a rope or get open-air bbq. On the weekend evening-events such as nightmarkets in the neighboring factory building.

Hanneke's Boom
Beer garden surrounded by water, with a nice view over the Oosterdok.

Brunch & Breakfast:

Dragon's Delight
British-influenced Brunch, Lunch and High Tea. I love their cupcakes and fresh scones! Very friendly service, sadly it's a bit off my usual routes, otherwise I would be there more often. Very reasonable prices!

Bagels & Beans
As the name indicated: popular chain for coffee and bagels. I quite like their bagel tapas, good for breakfast.

Splurging

Mata Hari
Located in a former casino in the red light district, very beautiful interior.

Balthazar's Keuken
Ever since we moved into our appartment, I've wanted to go to this little restaurant around the corner, 1.5 years later we finally made it there. And I was not disappointed: delicious food, impeccable service and a very relaxed atmosphere. Every week a different menu is offered, starters and dessert are fixed, for the main course there's usually a choice between meat and fish. 32,50€ for 3 courses. Reservation recommended.

Bar Oldenhof
Luxurious cocktail place with the interior of a british gentlemen's club (except that women are allowed as well :)). You can't just come in, but have to ring the door bell, to make sure that the bar never gets too crowded. Extremely friendly staff, delicious champagne cocktails and a large selection of Single Malts and basically all other liquors you might fancy.

Rokjesdag!

I learned a new word this week: Rokjesdag, the first day in spring when all the girls wear a skirt with bare legs underneath for the first time (although I can assure that the picture on the matching Wikipedia article is not at all representative for that...).
So, this first really warm day of spring weather was last friday and we immediately took our workgroup meeting outside onto the campus square and complemented it with ice cream and a bottle of Rosé from the campus supermarket. Super-tough student life!

Yesterday we had again around 20°C, no lectures and no imminent assignments due, best conditions to start my day with a piece of the supposedly best Appeltaart of Amsterdam at Winkel. I must say, I've gotten really fond of Appeltaart by now - although it does not contain any chocolate and often even has raisins in it. But with a nice crunchy crust, cinnamon filling and a big portion of slagroom, it's really hard to resist! And the one at Winkel yesterday was still warm inside, mmh!

Afterwards I did the best thing I could imagine: I went to the beach with friends! Admittedly, it was still a little cold with all the wind... but it did feel like a small mid-week vacation!

No beach trip without fresh seafood!

De Taart Van M'n Tante - having cake with Pippi Longstocking

As we were told on our first day at university in the Welcome Lecture by a speaker from the alumni association: Amsterdam is a city with many temptations.
While most people will now probably think of cannabis and prostitution, my favourite temptations here are of a less frowned-upon nature and usually contain a significant amount of chocolate, sugar or fat. And so every day I find myself trying to resist the countless chocolatiers, artisan bakers, patisseurs, pancake stalls, burger bars and sushi places whose windows I have to pass...

But, as Oscar Wilde put it so nicely: The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it, which is why I used a visiting friend as an excuse to finally pay a visit to De Taart Van M'n Tante, a cake shop and café around the corner from our temporary sublet in De Pijp.

The place is especially known for it's over-the-top novelty cakes and lots of these fancy designer cakes (or rather plastic models of them) are on display in the windows. On the inside, the café might as well have been designed by Pippy Longstocking: no two chairs or plates match, everything is
decorated with kitschy plastic flowers and even more cake models and it generally looks as if a candy factory had exploded inside a dolls house.

Please note especially the Super Mario cake on the left!

I decided to order a rather light wild berry cream tart, while my friend Isa went for the "chocolate slut" - dark chocolate, cranberries, pecan nuts and chocolate chunks. Yum!

Above the café is also a bed&breakfast and apparently you can also get married inside the café, as it is registered as municipal marriage office - at least you won't have to worry about the cake!

Konditorei De taart van m'n tante

Ferdinand Bolstraat 10

1072 LJ Amsterdam

Tram 16/24 "Stadhouderskade"

http://www.detaart.com/

Grocery shopping!

Probably my favourite experience when going to another country (or even, region!) is going grocery shopping - being a foodie, trying new food is one of my main motivations for travelling and what better place to get an impression of what locals are eating than in a local supermarket or on the market?

The most common supermarket here is the dutch chain Albert Heijn - nearly everywhere in Amsterdam there's an AH within short walking distance (but then again nearly everything in AMS is within walking distance..). Lidl, Aldi, and some other chains exist as well, but apparently they don't stand a chance against AH ;)

In the welcome session at VU I was already introduced to Hagelslag: basically, Hagelslag consists of chocolate sprinkles that are commonly eaten on buttered bread. Hagelslag is typically made of chocolate, ranging from white or milky until dark chocolate, but comes in all sorts of other flavors and colours as well: fruity and colourful! I haven't tried it yet myself: surprisingly enough, as fond as I am of chocolate in all forms, I can't bring myself to combine chocolate with savory food like bread. However, it might be a good present for all those Nutella-junkies back home.

Huge shelf in the small Coop next door

Something else that dutch people seem to love: Licorice! Now, this is something that I can relate to! I knew that scandinavians tend to love licorice, but didn't know that this applies to dutchies as well.
Just for comparison: I had a hard time locating Pasta in the supermarket, which occupied only about a third of the space that was given to licorice or hagelslag.

Another huge shelf!

Ok, and then of course there's cheese. You can find cheese stores all over the city (although I think some of them are mostly for tourists, you can usually tell from the prices..) and they seem to have nearly everything in cheese you've ever heard of. I don't think I've seen Blue Stilton anywhere in Germany, and they had several loafs of it in the store! My taste in cheese is not as exotic though, so I just bought some young Gouda with cumin in it, yum!

What probably surprised me most, however, was the huge choice of ready-made meals available here. Back home in Germany, frozen pizza, cup noodles and maybe some ready-made salads are all you can find, but here microwave meals contain lots of fresh veggies, come in all shapes and sizes (family-sized!) and cover most popular cuisines (dutch, italian, indian, asian,...).

Ubiquitous Maggi...

Logical consequence: microwaves in the supermarket

In order to provide only the best entertainment to my dearest readers I have selflessly made myself available as a test subject and purchased, analysed, prepared and eaten two of these instant meals:

Candidate 1:
A luxury version of cup noodles, peanut noodle soup. Price: around 3€. Fresh vegetables, chicken, noodles, peanut sauce. Just add boiling water and stir thoroughly. Fast, uncomplicated, delicious, good value for money. Will buy again!

Candidate 2:
Tandoori chicken with veggies and rice. Price: around 5€. Unlike the microwave meals I've had so far, there's no need to prick the package with a fork, it had a built-in valve. 6 minutes in the microwave and I had a steaming pseudo-indian meal that was quite okay in taste, but still tasted like microwave food and could have used some more spices. But then again you don't get proper takeout here for 5€ and for not having to do anything it was quite okay I guess.