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Bubbles & Wines Champagne Bar
Ignore the silly name, this stylish wine bar is a first for Amsterdam: 54 quality wines by the glass, tasting flights (several different wines to try) and the city's most scrumptious bar food: caviar blinis, cheese plates and our favourite, 'bee stings' - parmesan drizzled with white truffle-infused honey.
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Bulldog
Amsterdam's most famous coffeeshop chain has evolved into its own empire, with multiple locations (some double as cafés), a hotel, bike rental, even its own brand of energy drink. This flagship location on the Leidseplein is in a former police station. How times have changed.
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Café 'T Monumentje
this slightly scruffy café is always full of barflies, backgammon players and locals. It's a good spot for a beer and a snack after shopping at the Westermarkt.
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Café 'T Smalle
Take your boat and dock right on 'T Smalle's pretty terrace - there's hardly a more convivial setting in the daytime or a more romantic one at night. It's equally charming inside - dating back to 1786 as a jenever distillery and tasting house, and restored during the 1970s with antique porcelain beer pumps and lead-framed windows. It's so gorgeous, so authentic, and so Dutch gezellig, that there's a reproduction of it in Japan.
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Cafe Americain
Opened in 1902, Cafe Americain is the oldest and by far the most stylish grand cafe in Amsterdam. With its Art Deco interior, vaulted roof and glorious stained-glass windows, it's a must-see. Sit yourself down at the antique reading table or get a table on the outside terrace and indulge in a spot of people-watching.
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Café Bardewijn
This very friendly beer bar draws a mixture of local gay regulars and tourists, and has killer views of the canal out back and Zeedijk in front, making it a must on Queen's Day.
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Café Cuba
If a brown café was beamed to the tropical Atlantic, it would probably have Café Cuba's air of faded elegance. Slouch into a table with names etched into it, and quaff blender drinks like mai-tais, planter's punch and the legendary mojito. It may remind you of Hemingway or the Buena Vista Social Club, although we can't help wondering whether Café Cuba's attractive 20- and 30-something crowd has even heard of them.
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Café Dante
This big, Art Deco-style space is peaceful during the day, but after on weeknights it is transformed into a lively bar full of stockbrokers and suits. Plus, you get your choice of outside views: the busy Spui out the front or the lovely Singel in the back. Upstairs is the Herman Brood Galerie.
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Café De Doelen
On a busy canalside crossroads between the Amstel and Red Light District, this cafe/bar dates back to 1895 and looks it: carved wooden goat's head, stained leaded glass lamps, sand on the floor. Still, it's far from stuffy, there's a fun, youthful atmosphere here, and during fine weather the tables spill across the street for picture-perfect canal views.
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Café de Jaren
Watch the Amstel flow by from the balcony and waterside terraces of this soaring, bright and very grand café, one of our favourites. Find a foreign publication at the great reading table and settle down for Sunday brunch (try the smoked-salmon rolls) or an afternoon snack like banana-cream pie.
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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 Schiller
Most cafés would pay a fortune to have Schiller's fabulous Deco interior, but this is original. Walls are lined with portraits of Dutch actors and cabaret artists from the 1920s and '30s. Bar stools and booths are often occupied by tippling journalists and artists, and folks tucking into pre- and post-theatre menus.
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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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Café-Restaurant Kapitein Zeppo's
This site, off Grimburgwal, has assumed many guises over the centuries: a cloister during the 15th, a horse-carriage storehouse in the 17th and a cigar factory in the 19th. These days it's festive, attractive and almost romantic, with a beautiful garden and Belgian beers. There's live music Sunday from (cover groups and big bands).
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Casa Rosso
In a quarter full of lurid logos, the pink elephant wearing a green tie doesn't quite capture the essence of this one. So we're going to tell you: live sex on stage, or, as we once heard a Casa Rosso barker put it, 'Quality sleaze and filth!'
