15 of the best places to eat in Amsterdam

Amsterdam’s diverse food scene is a reflection of the city’s history, identity and ambition. For centuries, it was a major trading port where merchants unloaded exotic ingredients, like spices. These remain a staple of local specialities that also draw on the country’s natural larder and knack for innovation.

Today, the Dutch capital is home to more than 180 nationalities, bringing together culinary influences from around the globe, and its commitment to creating a circular economy by 2050 prioritizes sustainability with an eco-conscious, minimal-waste ethos, and a multitude of vegetarian and vegan options.

From traditional snacks to original multicourse menus, and some extraordinary, one-of-a-kind settings, these are the best places to eat in Amsterdam right now.

1. Amsterdam Jewel Cruises

Best for canal cruising

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Amsterdam’s most romantic dining room is aboard an antique teak and mahogany saloon boat. Built in 1900, the Henry Schmitz is an enchanting and intimate space with a copper-lined bar and seating for just 20 diners (over 16s only) at white-clothed tables. Gliding past landmarks like the Westerkerk, Reguliersgracht’s “seven bridges” and the Amstel’s Magere Brug (“Skinny Bridge”), you’re served a daily changing, seasonal three-course menu freshly prepared at canalside fine-dining kitchens and collected en route.

Planning tip: Departing from the Singel near Dam square, sailings take 2¾ hours. Book several weeks ahead.

2. De Kas

Best for greenhouse dining

In a bucolic setting at Park Frankendael, a former country estate in Amsterdam’s Oost (East), De Kas pioneered “plant to plate” dining when it opened in 2001, and it now holds both red and green Michelin stars. The greenhouse and open-air gardens here and polder field close by produce around 300 different kinds of vegetables, herbs and fruit that shine in seasonal three- to five-course lunch menus and five- and six-course dinner menus inspired by the day’s harvest.

Planning tip: Meat and seafood feature but above all this is a celebration of plants.

3. Roest

Best for all-day dining

Radically transformed, Oostenburg, in Amsterdam’s Oostelijke Eilanden (Eastern Islands), was drained in the 17th century and bought by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) for shipyards and spice warehouses. Its industrial character hung on until 2020’s gleaming residential developments arrived.

A relic of its past life, derelict dockyards that housed an alternative arts collective–bar-restaurant, Roest ( “rust”) was completely reimagined in 2025 as a gargantuan raw-concrete dining space with soaring steel girders, an open kitchen, 25m-long (82-ft) travertine bar and massive waterside terrace. It’s a day/night hangout for coffee, pastries and sandwiches, bar snacks spanning kimchi croquettes to Zeeland oysters, and Mediterranean-meets-Asian mains (wolffish with tom yum; corn-fed chicken with piccalilli), with wines from its extensive cellar.

4. Winkel 43

Best for apple pie

Appeltaart (apple pie) is a Dutch classic, and this corner café in the Jordaan neighborhood, named simply for its winkel (“shop”) number on the Noordermarkt, makes the best in town. Towering slices still warm out of the oven with a thick, golden, buttery crust and fresh, cinnamon-spiced apples are accompanied by cloudlike slagroom (whipped cream). Its cozy interior and sunny terrace are inviting for breakfast through to evening drinks.

Planning tip: It doesn’t take reservations, so expect to stand in line on Mondays, when there’s a great secondhand and antiques market, and on Saturdays, when the organic boerenmarkt (farmers market) sets up on the square.

5. Pampus Paviljoen

Best for island dining

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On the fortress island of Pampus in the former Zuiderzee, now the IJmeer lake, the summer-opening Pampus Paviljoen is entirely off-grid, powered by solar and wind, with ingredients grown on-site in vegetable and herb gardens, or sailed here from small local producers. During the day, dine on soups, sandwiches, salads, freshly grilled seafood and local cheeses inside the airy structure, out on the lakeside terrace, or take a picnic to explore the island (reusable cutlery is provided); it also organizes candlelit dinners.

Planning tip: Ferries run here from IJburg, in Amsterdam’s east, or the pretty fishing village of Muiden during the pavilion’s April to October season.

6. Helling 7

Best for open-flame cooking

Across the IJ river in Amsterdam Noord, Helling 7 has an industrial setting that’s especially stunning at sunset. Built over a slipway at the Damen ship-repair yard from recycled and reclaimed materials, including steel-hull plating and boat-deck timber floors, its white-clothed tables in the cavernous, glass-paned interior or vast wharf-side terrace with a retractable roof look over cranes and container ships. Virtually everything, including its ribeye and catch of the day, is cooked in the open kitchen over the flaming wood-fired grill.

7. Vleminckx

Best for fries

Medieval center hole-in-the-wall Vleminckx is an essential stop for deliciously crispy, fluffy fries. This Dutch staple, known around the Netherlands as Vlaamse frites (“Flemish fries”), friet, frieten or patat (potatoes), are served in a paper cone with a small fork. Choose from more than two dozen different sauces – from standard-order mayonnaise to crowd-pleasers like joppie (mayo, ketchup and spices) or oorlog (peanut sauce, mayo and raw chopped onions) – while you stand in the inevitable line (the wait is worth it).

8. Volendammer Vishandel

Best for herring

Red-white-and-blue Dutch flags fly from this little vishandel (fish shop) around the corner from De Pijp’s Albert Cuypmarkt. With its own fleet at the nearby port of Volendam, Volendammer Vishandel has been going strong since 1930. Ready-to-eat bites include kibbeling (deep-fried whitefish), zalm taartjes (salmon fishcakes), gebakken mosselen (fried mussels), and winter-warming kreeften soep (lobster soup).

In summer, the speciality is Hollandse Nieuwe: raw, brine-cured haring (herring) eaten dangled above your head or using a toothpick for finely chopped pieces with uitjes (diced onions) and zuur (sweet pickles), or a white-roll broodje haring (herring sandwich). There’s no seating; stand outside at the upturned barrels or head to the lawns of the nearby Sarphatipark.

9. Soil

Best for vegan dining

Fermentation, curing and smoking techniques, and seasonal local organic produce come together at Soil. All-vegan fusion dishes such as mushroom bitterballen (croquettes), jackfruit tacos, miso-marinated tempeh burgers and “Snickers slice” made from Fair Trade chocolate, date purée and candied peanuts pair brilliantly with Dutch-brewed artisanal beers and natural wines.

Planning tip: Soil’s original location is on Bilderdijkstraat north of the Vondelpark in the Oud-West neighborhood, with a second on Javastraat in Amsterdam’s up-and-coming Oost.

10. Foodhallen

Best for street food

Redbrick tram sheds built in 1902 and repurposed into cultural center De Hallen showcase the city’s multicultural flavors at Foodhallen. A changing line-up of 21 food and drink stands surrounding an airy communal dining space range from Indian, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Mexican and Spanish tapas to sushi, pizza, pita and patisserie, as well as burgers by Amsterdam icon the Butcher and beloved Dutch bar snack bitterballen.

Planning tip: Outside, browse street-market stalls at Ten Katemarkt daily except Sundays.

11. Café Restaurant Amsterdam

Best for seafood

Once the engine room of an 1853 former pumphouse that pumped fresh water from the nearby dune system until 1996, and still retaining an engine and pump, the vast whitewashed space beneath a striking timber ceiling is now home to Café Restaurant Amsterdam (aka “Cradam”). Brasserie-style dining here excels in seafood dishes like North Sea crab with lemon mayonnaise, smoked Dutch herring with samphire, and shellfish platters piled with delicacies like Frisian Islands razor clams and Waddenzee oysters. It’s just south of the canal bordering Westerpark and adjacent former gasworks-turned-cultural center Westergas.

12. Wilde Zwijnen

Best for contemporary Dutch cuisine

Wild game and poultry, line-caught fish, hand-harvested shellfish and foraged mushrooms, berries and seaweed are at the heart of three- to five-course menus (meat, fish or vegetarian) at Wilde Zwijnen (“Wild Boar”). Tables made from recycled timber overlook the open kitchen in the pared-back interior with painted beams and polished-concrete floors, with more out on the pavement terrace on Oost’s vibrant Javastraat.

13. REM

Best for views

For an out-of-the-box setting, REM is hard to top: an ex-North Sea pirate broadcasting station, this 22m (72ft) red-metal rig rises above the IJ in Nieuwe Houthaven just west of the center. Chef Bobby Rust’s team wows diners with five- and seven-course chef's menus and inspired bar snacks (such as tofu tacos and duck bao buns), along with signature cocktails like sparkling strawberry margaritas. Incredible 360-degree panoramas extend from the rig’s three platforms, including the former helipad rooftop.

14. Hap Hmm

Best for traditional Dutch cuisine

Sinking into a velveteen chair and looking up at the family photos makes Hap Hmm feel like a warm hug. Dating back to 1935, this home-style treasure just north of the Vondelpark serves comfort food like chicken cooked in Amsterdam beer, grandmother's-recipe meatballs and local award-winning schnitzel, with sides such as stewed rhubarb or pear, and Dutch-favorite pancakes (with whipped cream and ice cream) for dessert.

15. Restaurant Blauw

Best for Indonesian cuisine

An unmissable Amsterdam dining experience, given the Netherlands' historical links to the islands, is a rijsttafel ("rice table" aka Indonesian banquet), made up of tiny, aromatic sharing dishes in a rainbow of colors and spice levels, served with white rice. Stylish Restaurant Blauw does the ultimate meat, seafood and vegan versions, as well as street-food dishes and its own seven-spice gin.