Hi, We’ll be spending close to a week in Amsterdam. Does anyone have any recommendations for good places to eat? Thanks in advance.
There’s any number of good places to eat… are you interested in any particular cuisine or area in the city?
Natascha, how nice to hear from you. I was going to ask you for recommendations for Berlin, but my cousin there is busy these days, so we’re going to Amsterdam instead.
We’ll be staying on Herengracht and spending most of our time in museums. So anything not too far away is good. Not looking for steak and potatoes. I love Chinese and Korean cuisine and seafood.
Herengracht is long 
I’m a big fan of Nam Kee on Zeedijk – their steamed oysters are really good. Most of the Chinese restos you’ll find are Cantonese. I am also a big fan of Bird Thaise Snackbar (better than the restaurant of the same name across the street, also on Zeedijk): really good Thai food.
If seafood includes herring, you’ll def have to get a matjes / herring roll with raw onions. So, so good. I’ll just throw out some recs that are fairly centrally located and/or easy to reach by tram or hoofin’ it.
There’s also a fish restaurant on the Spui… but I can’t remember its name now.
Singel 404 is a great place for lunch - fabulous open-faced sandwiches. Small World Catering in the Jordaan is also great for lunch.
Great coffee everywhere (and apple pie), and lovely beer at de Beiaard.
Thanks, I’ve made notes of all those places. The fish restaurant on the Spui is The Seafood Bar. It’s a place I learned about on Tripadvisor. How shall I put this? Tripadvisor is not high in my estimation when looking for reliable gourmet experiences. I’ll let you know which of your recommendations we got to and what we thought.
I’ll follow this with interest. It’s far too many years since we last visited the Netherlands together (although Mrs H was a regular business visitor) and we must rectify that soon.
TripAdvisor isnt reliable but it isnt always wrong and, sometimes, it’s the best there is (even for America). I say that, with some trepidation, as if I look at the city at the heart of my metro area, I don’t recognise names until I get near to #20 on the list - and then wouldnt rate that place that highly, although it’s nice enough.
Any Indonesian reccs, Natascha?
Natascha, I noticed that Nam Kee has two other locations, which do accept reservations, while the Zeedijk location does not. Would you happen to know if the food is as good at the other two locations? Vieln Dank.
Nope, that’s not the place I was thinking of… It’s called Lucius or Marius or something… def ends on -ius, tho. Great help, huh? '-D
I’ve not been to the other Nam Kee locations, so I can’t say how good they are.
I stumbled upon an Indonesian place in the Jordaan, Sukabumi, years ago with a couple of Irish mates… it was cute & small and very tasty. I know there are the usual suspects that always get recommended - Blauw and Tempoe Doloe, but here’s a list you might find helpful.
I am also very fond of de Struisvogel, a nice restaurant on Keizersgracht with a great 3-course deal. Super-friendly service (tho that is the case almost everywhere you go) and great food.
Is it this one? http://lucius.nl/en/
I see the prices on their menu…
OP, with nearly a week you could eat well and “cheaply” if you could rent a flat with a functional kitchen.
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Thanks for finding Lucius. As for renting a flat, when we’re on vacation we like to let someone else do the cooking, and especially the cleaning up.
Thanks for the link, lingua. Tempoe Doloe was where we went years back
A red-faced thanks! I read the Times practically every day, but I missed that piece.
Here’s another promising list:
Hi Natascha,
Thanks for all your input. The last message came at the end of our trip, and all the open slots had already been reserved.
The places we really liked were Lucius and Singel 404. We had reserved at Lucius, so when we went in, they seated us right next to their marvelous aquarium. Some zoos would kill to have an aquarium like that (please allow for a bit of hyperbole). After dinner we had a long talk about the aquarium, the fish, the care, and the like with the waitress. Or should I say wait-person? She knew a lot about it, and was pleased to share her knowledge.
The food was excellent, oysters, scampi, turbot. They served accompaniments of their own choice, which turned out to be a salad and French fries with aioli. While I make no pretense to any expertise regarding French fries, these were definitely the best I have ever eaten. I believe that I started to understand the excitement about Belgian fries.
Singel 404 has an excellent selection of sandwiches and a nice, small assortment of beers. Since sandwiches are my wife’s favorite food, you hit the bullseye here.
Of course we went to Nam Kee for the oysters and a few other dishes. But since we didn’t spend a lot of time in this part of the city, we skipped Theise Snackbar.
The one place that I really wanted to go to, De Struisvogel, we missed out on, because some idiot got the restaurant’s opening times wrong. Oh, by the way, that idiot was me. I thought we’d be able to drop in for lunch, but they only serve in the evenings. Quel dommage. Or else, maybe that means that a return trip is in order.
Struisvogel, Singel 404, Lucius and Sichuan Food were within a few steps of our hotel (Ambassade), which was certainly convenient.
We went to a few other places that we enjoyed very much, places that I read about on Tripadvisor. Yes, Tripadvisor! So shoot me! But I also found them written up on Chowhound and someone’s BBQ blog, so I was confident in choosing them, and we weren’t disappointed. I already mentioned Sichuan Food, Amsterdam’s Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant. We had the Peking duck, and loved it. I also had some steamed oysters, which were even better (though more expensive) than those at Nam Kee.
We had great BBQ at Pendergast Smokehouse. It’s a bit out of the center, but easily reached with the tram. Be advised that the place is small with hard surfaces, so it can be very noisy. Later in the evening when it starts to clear out, the noise level drops. We also had a nice meal at Brasserie van Baerle. It was good, and we did enjoy it, but I would not necessarily run back.
Our final meal was at Visaandeschelde, another place that takes some getting to. We had excellent oysters and foie gras salad, and lobster. The couple sitting at the next table also had a lobster course, so we all laughed at the lobster bibs (cloth, not plastic!) and we started talking. They told us that Visaandeschelde is Amsterdam’s best fish restaurant, and wanted to know how we found it. They were also very positive about our choice of Sichuan Food. We all had a great time, and talked until almost midnight. This is a place to go back to.
So thanks again for all your help. I’m looking forward to picking your brain about Berlin, when we get a chance to go.
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So glad you had a great trip 
Blauw in Amsterdam seems to get top billing these days, John, for a rijstaffel meal. It’s not where we ate a few years ago, and I can’t remember the name of the wonderful place we visited. I’ll try to find it.
The couple we met at Visaandeschelde also recommended Blauw for Indonesian food and rijstaffel.
We had rijstaffel at Sama Sebo. I finally tracked down the name. It’s a little more expensive than some of the other Indonesian places, but I loved the service and the food was wonderful. You’ve helped me out with the name Visaandescheide. We ate there, too, as my husband was in charge of an exhibition at the nearby expo place. We enjoyed that a lot, too.
