-
A Tavola
Overlooked by most tourists, this authentic Italian restaurant near the Shipping Museum serves a small but well-chosen menu of meats and pastas that cry out for a selection from its excellent wine list. Even if the service can be a little iffy, the quality of the cooking is consistent and strong. Reservations are a must.
-
Abe Veneto
Sometimes you just want a corner place with decent food at honest prices. The pizza menu tops out at around €11 and has 45 choices - the gorgonzola pizza puts this stinky cheese to excellent use. Other options include pastas, salads and meat dishes. In summer, a terrace is set up by the canal.
-
Bordewijk
Other places may have grander reputations, but many locals consider Bordewijk to be the best feed in town. The interior here is so minimal that there's little to do but appreciate the spectacular French/Italian cooking.
-
Café Bern
Indulge in a fondue frenzy at this delightfully well-worn brown cafe. People have been flocking here for nearly 30 years for the gruyère fondue as well as the entrecôte. It's generally closed for a large part of the summer, but do you really want fondue in hot weather anyway? Reservations are advised.
-
Café-restaurant Amsterdam
One of the city's hippest eateries is housed in a former water-processing plant. Expect classic French brasserie cooking (steak bearnaise, mussels, roasted garlic chicken). Note the 30m wooden ceilings (with hanging metal hooks and chains) and the huge floodlights rescued from the former Ajax and Olympic stadiums.
-
Christophe
Lobster dishes, duck-liver terrine and unusual elegance keep Jean-Christophe Royer's Michelin-starred restaurant busy every night. However, the excellent, caring service puts it over the top in our book, making this an extraordinary restaurant by world, and not just Amsterdam, standards.
-
Cinema Paradiso
Action! Cinema Paradiso opened in 2002 in a former movie theatre, and the glitterati have been appearing in the dining room ever since. Direct yourself into a booth or table near the open kitchen, and enjoy pastas, pizzas, lots of antipasti, and stargazing. Sample the cocktails or just drink in the atmosphere.
-
d'Vijff Vlieghen
So what if every tourist and business visitor eats here? Sometimes the herd gets it right. The 'Five Flies' is a classic, spread out over five 17th-century canal houses. Old-wood dining rooms teem with character, Delft tiles and works by Rembrandt and Breitner. Some chairs have brass plates for the celebrities who've sat in them.
-
De 2 Grieken
Craving stewed mountain goat or some juicy lamb chops? This relaxed family-run bistro caters to your carnivorous desires with great grills and gets a big ' opa !' from locals. In nice weather, grab a seat on the flower-lined terrace out back. If you're a fan of Greek wines, this is the place to go.
-
De Blaffende Vis
Meals at the rowdy, corner 'Barking Fish' are better than they need to be for the price (contemporary Dutch - steak, fish, chicken - changing daily). Students and 30-somethings happily bop and swish beer while listening to music with a beat.
-
Advertisement
-
De Prins
Close to the Anne Frank Huis, this pleasant and popular brown café prepares good lunch-time sandwiches, a terrific blue-cheese fondue at night, and international dishes like vegetarian wraps.
-
De Schutter
This large student eetcafé has a brown-café look, a relaxed vibe and inexpensive, tasty dagschotels (dishes of the day). It's open for lunch and dinner, and is a good place to fortify yourself on the cheap before a night on the town.
-
De Struisvogel
This former kitchen to some large canal houses offers a great deal. It's in the basement ( struisvogel means 'ostrich'), and yes they do serve the bird, along with a nightly rotating menu - generous portions of more conventional French-inspired choices. It gets crowded; book ahead.
-
Envy
This hip, sleek restaurant encourages diners to take a five-course menu of seemingly endless, top-notch tasters. The designer globes are there to light up the media stars here most weekends.
-
Grekas
What started as a catering shop has bloomed into one of the city's best-loved Greek restaurants. Low overheads (there's almost no seating) means low prices with high-quality, generous portions of Greek home cooking: moussaka, roasted artichokes, chicken in lemon sauce.
-
Haesje Claes
Haesje Claes' warm surrounds, a tad touristy but with lots of dark wood and antique knick-knacks, is just the place to sample comforting pea soup and endive stamppot . The fish starter has a great sampling of Dutch fish.
-
Hap Hmm
Elsewhere around €6 might buy you a bowl of soup, but at this wood-panelled neighbourhood place it might buy an entire dinner: simple Dutch cooking (meat + veggies + potatoes), served on stainless steel dishes. Beer is cheap too.
-
Hemelse Modder
A little hard to locate, but worth it. Extraordinary care goes into dishes - you might find pot-au-feu with chicken or polenta soufflé - and you may even find a sprig of mint in your carafe of water. Desserts are wonderful, including the namesake hemelse modder (heavenly mud) chocolate mousse. The dining room is spare yet comfy, or snag a table out back on a warm night.
-
Herrie
The name translates as 'uproar' - after all, the chef appeared on a Dutch cooking programme 'Uproar in the Kitchen' - but make no mistake, this skilled team runs like clockwork. Refined creations such as marinated lobster with parmesan cream emerge from the open kitchen with choreographed timing, served in the chic grey-and-black interior. The only drawback is the limited ventilation, irritating if smokers are present.
-
Jean Jean
One of the hottest places in town, this cosy neighbourhood bistro offers honest and affordable Gallic comfort food: soups, meat and fish dishes etc. The setting is understated yet sophisticated, and service is professional.
-
Advertisement
-
Klokspijs
Located in an old bell-maker's workshop, this charming, intimate restaurant with a handful of tables makes for a fine end to a day of poking around De Pijp. The three-course menu of, say, smoked duck breast salad, grilled sea bass and strawberry-rhubarb cake is a class act, and the wine selection is small but superb.
-
La Rive
Two Michelin stars and a formal dining room with graciously spaced tables and views over the Amstel make La Rive the perfect venue for an out-to-impress lunch or dinner. The menu changes frequently, but standbys include turbot and truffle in potato pasta, or, as you'd expect, a starter of caviar.
-
Le Petit Latin
Easy to overlook, with its step-down entrance, the 'Little Latin' drips with culinary authority, and it's not just the curled travel posters from the Côte d'Azur. If you can't read the blackboard scrawl, chef Jacques from Marseille will crouch to give you the day's specials - Aquitaine lamb? Fresh mullet flown in from the Riviera? Who can say non . The wine list is brief but formidable . Reserve or weep.
-
Moeder's Pot Eethuisje
Moeder (mother) is in his 60s (yes, his …he's big and gruff and probably a sweetheart inside), and he's been serving up solid, inexpensive meals for decades. The tiny kitsch-laden shop serves home cookin': beefsteaks, schnitzels and chicken with potatoes and vegetables (some canned) like your own moeder always wanted you to eat. The set menus are a steal.
-
Moeders
Mum's the word at 'Mothers'. When this friendly place opened, staff asked customers to bring their own plates, flatware and photos of their own mums as donations, and the result is still a delightful hodgepodge. So is the food, including stamppot, seafood, Moroccan dishes, a vegetarian frittata and a rijsttafel of traditional Dutch dishes.
