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Café De Kroon
Popular with visiting celebrities, this slick place is contemporary in style despite a nod to its heritage (it opened in 1898 but was closed for 50 years. Its high ceilings, chandeliers, velvet sofas and wall-mounted butterfly collection create the perfect environment for lingering over cocktails.
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Café De Pels
The action at this appealingly shabby traditional brown café - attracting a mix of students, academics and creative types - is focused on drinking. It's also a Sunday morning breakfast fave.
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Café De Vergulde Gaper
Decorated with old chemists' bottles and vintage posters, this former pharmacy - popular with locals, and translated as the 'Golden Gaper', for the open-mouthed bust of a Moor traditionally posted at Dutch apothecaries - has amiable staff and a terrace with afternoon sun. It gets busy with 20- and 30-something media types meeting for after-work drinks.
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Café Het Schuim
Schuim means 'foam' (on beer) and this grungy, arty bar is extraordinarily popular with beer-swilling locals - and it gets packed any time of day or night. While the people-watching can be distracting, it's wise to keep one eye on your belongings.
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Café Koosje
If the three catch-words for real estate are location, location and location, then Koosje's got a lock on the market, between the Artis Zoo and the Hollandsche Schouwburg. There are lots of windows to watch the action outside, a great corner vibe, and small plates and sandwiches, most under around €6 .
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Café Lef
Make use of a robust wooden bar for slumped conversation and a bottomless pit of Belgian and Dutch brews. Nicholas, the congenial bartender, knows a great cure for the hiccups, and it's completely legal.
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Café Nol
Hipsters may cringe, but Café Nol epitomises the old-style Jordaan cafe with a must-see kitsch interior. It's the sort of place where the original Jordanese (before students, artists and professionals moved in) still sing oompah ballads with drunken abandon; nowadays, everyone from athletic types to drag queens might join in. Here comes the neighbourhood.
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Café Sugar
Not just for lesbians, the Sugar throws great parties and has a conscience for the goings-on of the buurt (neighbourhood). Come on in, blow up a balloon and hit the dance floor.
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Cafe Thijssen
The glowing umber, Art Deco-inspired interior with stained-glass windows and big tables is a crowd-puller. It's busy on weekends with groups of neo-Jordanese yuppies meeting up for a late brunch and staying on until dinner.
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Café Van Zuylen
Although the sun terrace is one of the prettiest spots for a drink on the Singel, the interior - with its cosy rooms featuring lots of wood and old leather banquettes - is just as appealing in the cooler months.
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Café Zilt
This classy little dive is where the corpus delictus shudders to a halt after a night of glorious excess. There's a great selection of seasonal beers (why go easy at this stage?) and bar snacks such as gehaktbal (spicy hamburger balls) to buoy the blood sugar.
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Café-Restaurant Dantzig
Located in the Stopera building, Dantzig doesn't have the history of some of the other cafés in town, but that doesn't make it any less appealing. The great Amstel-side terrace is always busy in summer, with excellent views over the water and lots of sunlight.
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Chocolate
Chocolate is a standout lounge bar. It's nestled among a clutch of other bars on a great little pedestrian street, all of which attract a lively local crowd, especially on summer evenings. And while Chocolate's terrace is the most popular, we really love the vibe inside.
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Cockring
This popular club has a disco downstairs playing techno and trance, while upstairs is a hot cruising area; leather boys are particularly welcome. Look for live strip shows and 'shoes only' parties.
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Comedy Café Amsterdam
If Boom Chicago is the home of improv comedy, then Comedy Café is the place to see established and big-name Dutch and international stand-up comedians. Sundays are regularly reserved for English-speaking acts, but you might be able to catch English speakers other nights as well, if you keep an eye on the upcoming attractions.
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Cuckoo's Nest
A small, busy bar said to have the largest 'playroom' in Europe. You could spend a whole night exploring the labyrinth of cubicles and glory holes.
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Dampkring
You saw it in Ocean's Twelve , now see it up close. Consistently a winner of the Cannabis Cup, Dampkring is dark-ish, young-ish and decorated rather hobbit-ish. Its sinister-sounding name is a reference to the ring of the Earth's atmosphere - the part where smaller items combust.
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Dansen Bij Jansen
For over a generation, this rambling space has been Amsterdam's most famous student nightclub, and it still thumps nightly on two sweaty floors. The secret? Cheap drinks, a fun selection of classic disco and house, and a relaxed dress code. Valid student cards are required.
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De Admiraal
The grandest and largest of Amsterdam's tasting houses, De Admiraal is also a restaurant and party venue. Although some grumble that they pour only their own house brands (16 jenevers and 60 liqueurs made by Van Wees, an Amsterdam distiller), it's hard to quibble over the lovely setting and pleasant staff.
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De Blauwe Parade
The building, now the Hotel Die Poort van Cleve, was the site of the original Heineken brewery, so it seems an appropriate place for tastings (of jenevers though, not beers). While there, feast your eyes on the Delft-blue tile mural (1870s), a parade of children bearing gifts to an emperor.
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De Brakke Grond
Part of the Flemish Cultural Centre, this café overlooking a quiet square does an honest trade in Flemish beer (try a magnum bottle from a Belgian abbey) and homestyle food (think steak au poivre or salmon with Ardennes ham).
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De Buurvrouw
This grungy late-night bar is where you inevitably end up when there's nowhere else to go. Take it easy because someone's watching: above the entrance is a bust of de Buurvrouw (the woman next door). And yes, everyone is probably as drunk as you. Febo anyone?
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De Doffer
Writers, students and artists congregate at this popular café (with adjoining bar) for affordable food and good conversation. The dining room, with its old Heineken posters, large wooden tables and, occasionally, fresh flowers, is particularly ambient at night.
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De Drie Fleschjes
Behind the Nieuwe Kerk, the distiller Bootz's tasting room dates from 1650. It is dominated by 52 vats that are rented out to businesses who entertain clients here. It specialises in liqueurs (although you can also get genevers). Also, take a peek at the collection of kalkoentjes , small bottles with hand-painted portraits of former mayors.
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De Engel Van Amsterdam
The new 'Angel' draws a cruisey terrace crowd who toast the evening's promise with a flute of blended juice or champagne. DJ Mayday spins her favourites on Wednesday, and the TGIF drink night is starting to gel.
