Daphne’s personal recommendations for Amsterdam!
These are my personal tips -based on experience and research- for a great experience in Amsterdam! This resulted in a good list of tips! You can click on the bold text to get to the Google Maps location of the establishment.
All of you good luck in Amsterdam!
And don’t forget to write me a review here of course 😉
Food / Restaurants
Food / Breakfast / Lunch
Dutch Snacks
Food Markets
Bars
Nightlife
Theaters
Shopping
Coffeeshops (no coffee, weed!)
Museums
Parks
Things to do
More Free Tours in Amsterdam
Food / Restaurants
Extremely nice and fancy, like almost Michelin star or Michelin star fancy:
Mos no words can describe the sensation of that place. Expensive.
Website
Ron Gastrobar is surprisingly affordable for the quality, this chef, liked to throw away his
Michelin stars and only cook what he liked, pure bravery. Now he got one again anyway…
Website
No Michelin star, but still very fancy:
Hemelse Modder is a really nice Dutch/French organic restaurant. Around €35 for a menu or €20 main dish.
Website
De Witte Zwaan is a nice, similar, establishment in the center of Amsterdam.
Website
T´huis aan de amstel beautiful location at the amstel River in a Herenhuis with a very
seasonal kitchen.
Website
Authentic Dutch cuisine:
If you want authentic Dutch food you need to visit Moeders. The walls of the restaurant are filled with pictures of costumers’ mothers!
Website
Hollands Glorie, for your authentic Dutch stamppot
Café restaurant Amsterdam french kitchen used to be a water tower.
Choux no-nonsense restaurant you chose fish/veggie/meat and you get served
Fa. Pekelhaaring their cheesecake is the best!
In case you find yourself around the Baarsjes at dinnertime:
Radijs located at a not so famous canal
Bar Baarsch nice retro interior and caféstyle food
Barceloneta amazing tapas with a culinary twist
Edel used to be a jewelry workplace, industrial and shared dining
Vegetarian and vegan-friendly:
Yerba a vegetable-forward restaurant, aimed at the vegan diet, but also opportunities for
omnivore or vegetarian.
A great vegetarian restaurant is de Waaghals. Around €35 a menu or €20 for the main dish.
Website
Another good restaurant with vegetarian options is de Kas, located in a greenhouse where they grow all their own vegetables.
Website
Indonesian food:
Great Indonesian food at Blauw or Tempo doeloe. Go for a”rijsttafel” (rice table) to experience the traditional Indonesian cuisine.
Website Blauw
Website Tempo Doeloe
A nice cheap nearby Thai place is Ocha. Around 10 for a dish.
Great cheese fondue and Entrecôte at Cafe Bern on the Nieuwmarkt square. Around 20.
Website
If you want a great salad, go to one of the SLA restaurants. Around 10 for huge meal filling salads.
Website
Cafe Kadijk is a simpler Indonesian restaurant where a meal will cost you around €15.
Website
The Jordaan area is also really nice to check for restaurants.
As well as the more bohemian area “de pijp” around the daily food and clothes market the Albert Cuyp. A nice market in a neighborhood definitely worth visiting!
Chinatown around the zeedijk (cross the nieuwmarkt square) is hit or miss with Asian restaurants. Sechuan (Chinese) or Bird (thai) are alright though, around 10 to 15 for a dish.
Breakfast/lunch
For great sandwiches and breakfast go to the Broodbar.
Website
Scheltema is the largest bookshop of Amsterdam, with a good lunch bar on the second floor and a free toilet on the top floor.
Café de jaren spacious slightly industrial, bistro-inspired food, a lot of homemade food
De laatste kruimel amazing take-out sandwiches and coffee
Bakkerswinkel cozy tearoom and lunchroom
Another place for nice sandwiches is Betty Blue.
Website
Caldi e feddi (near dam square) has 101 different sandwiches for a good price!
Great juices with amazing açaï bowls are The juice brothers establishments.
Website
Trust at the Albert Cuyp is a great vegan place where you pay by a tip.
Website
Dutch snacks
For amazing haring and kibbling (typical Dutch fish treats) visit the stand on the Nieuw Markt square (It’s not there every day though).
Have a “broodje kroket” with mustard (white bun with a croquette filled with ragout) at Van Dobben, the dutchess snack there is.
The kroket also comes in a small balls called “bitterballen” you can buy these at almost every bar or cafe.
Best French fries at Vleminckx Sausmeesters, make sure to get them with mayonnaise or peanut sauce for the most authentic taste. You can also get a ”patatje oorlog” for a combination of mayonnaise and peanut sauce with chopped onion.
Food markets
There are 2 great biological food markets on Saturday (best for your cheese shopping) on the nieuwmarkt square and the noordermarkt square (famous apple pie at Cafe Winkel here as well)
There is a big food market on Albert Cuyp every day except Sunday.
Bars
Great for special beers is Brouwerij ‘t Ij (it’s in a windmill) or de Prael.
A great 17th-century Dutch liqueur distillery is Wynand Fockink, you can make a reservation for a tasting hour for €17,50 including 6 drinks and a tour!
Website
For more alternative places you can go to Pllek or de Ceuvel, better with nice weather though.
The Bloemenbar at Spuiplein is open until late, the Poolbar around the same area is aslo a very nice spot.
Nightlife
Go to the areas of Leidseplein or Rembrandtplein, I prefer the former. Paradiso is a beautiful old venue at Leidseplein for concerts as well as dancing.
A great Berlin-style EDM venue is de School (usually only in weekends, so check what’s on).
Website
I also like to go to Alto, a jazz club that almost functions as a time machine.
For more alternative places go to Pacific or Skatecafe, always check what’s on though.
Website Pacific Parc
Website Skatecafe
The (legendary) gay areas can be found around the Reguliersdwarsstraat and the Zeedijk. I espacially like The Exit.
Theaters
Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam or ITA does multiple shows with English subtitles
Website
Frascati has more performative and not language based shows
Website
Shopping
For nice boutique shops go to the 9 streets or the Haarlemmerstraat in the Jordaan area.
For the expensive big brand fashion shops go to the Pieter Cornelis hooft straat between the Vondelpark and the museum square.
For great secondhand clothes go to the Waterloo square clothes market (Monday through Saturday).
All the ‘standard’ shops (like H&M or Nike/Adidas) can be found at the Kalverstraat and the Nieuwendijk.
Coffeeshops (no coffee; weed)
Great Coffeeshops are the Bluebird, the Grey Area, the Dampkring or De Graal (really nice to hang out, play chess and board games, they even have a 5 euro an hour recording studio out back for customers!). If you are with a big group you should visit Prix D’Amie.
Also Boerejongens has two locations with exceptional concepts, in the utrechtsestraat they
dressed one a s a gentleman’s den and another at the baarsjesweg as a pharmacy
Museums
For the most popular museums (Anne Frank, Van Gogh, Rijksmuseum) order your tickets online beforehand to skip the hour long lines.
Website Anne Frank
Website Van Gogh
Website Rijksmusem
If you did not get into the Anne Frank museum Het verzetsmuseum is just as good whether
or not better.
If you want to ‘fact check me” and learn more about the history and culture of Amsterdam go to the Amsterdam museum.
Website
Some nice alternative museums are Stedelijk museum (modern art) and Eye (cinema and video art, its a movie theater as well, with a bar with a wonderful view of Amsterdam).
Also have a peak inside Tuchinski, the oldest movie theater in Amsterdam build in an Art Deco style with a crazy interior.
Eye is a more modern cinema, but the filmmuseum is now also situated there or the
Filmhallen is a beautiful cinema
Parks
The Vondelpark. It’s next to museumplein.
Sarphatipark: in the Pijp parallel to the Albert Cuyp market.
Amsterdamse bos is a huge man made woods (if you want to spend some time away from the city).
Fun activities in Amsterdam
Complete your visit to Amsterdam, by exploring the city on its beautiful canals. For a quality tour with excellent service, I highly recommend
Flag Ship
Mystery city puzzle tour, discover the city and its history by solving a puzzle. Challenge yourself and try it!
Mystery city escape game Amsterdam
Join our themed tours!
Did you enjoy our Classic Tour? Dive deeper into the Dutch culture with our Free Alternative Tour or Free Food Tour:
