The French fries or chips are probably the most famous single food items in Amsterdam, and they are likely the easiest to find as well. Famously served and eaten by the locals smothered in a rich mayonnaise, the Vlaamse Frites (Flemish fries) as they are known here, are served nearly everywhere. Of course McDonalds and Burger King serve their notoriously mediocre versions in their few city outlets, but the larger more meal-size ones are served at just about every restaurant in the city.
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The locals definitely …
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Those who are Amsterdam-bound for the first time often wonder what types of food the city is known for and what they should try that isn’t common elsewhere. This isn’t a major foodie destination, but there are still a few things you should definitely seek out. Fortunately most of them are fairly cheap and easy to find, so those looking for places to eat in Amsterdam should have plenty from which to choose without breaking the bank.
What local specialties should I try?
Oddly enough, there are virtually no ‘local Amsterdam’ foods that you’ll find here or that you should go out of your way to get. The closest thing to a local specialty is actually Indonesian food, due to the “close ties” the countries enjoyed for a few centuries.
Here’s a line-up of the new things you should look for:
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Dutch cuisine is not a big draw for visitors to Amsterdam. In fact, it’s hard to even sort out what Dutch cuisine actually is, even for the locals. They have the herring shops all over the country, but those are all over northern Europe as well. There are pancake restaurants, but some variation of pancakes is available all over the world. One thing the Dutch do have that is uniquely their own is a bizarre chain of small shops called FEBO, with 22 locations in Amsterdam alone.
Their bright yellow, red, and green signs stand out in a city that tends to be decorated in muted colors. By the way, the name is pronounced FAY-bo, not FEE-bo, and their hard-to-read slogan on each sign – de lekkerste! – means “the tastiest!” in Dutch, or so I’m told.
The irony of that slogan is that they are anything but the tastiest, but FEBO does provide an important service: They are open later than anything else in a city that tends to close early, or at least the key locations in the main drinking neighborhoods do. FEBOs in the Red Light District (pictured above), Rembrandtplein, and Leidseplein areas all stay open until 3 a.m. on weeknights and 4 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
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I’m going to be honest here. Amsterdam is not a great culinary destination. It’s not Paris or Rome, and even London has a better collection of great restaurants these days. There are tiny restaurants all of Amsterdam, and with the exception of a few pancake places and perhaps FEBO (which I will cover in the future) all these restaurants offer foods from other cultures. There are really no “Dutch” restaurants advertised around town, and that’s probably just as well.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that this city is filled with bad or boring food, it’s just that very little of it is special or unique. The one main exception to that, and the one thing you should go way out of your way to try when deciding what to eat in Amsterdam is the rijsttafel (which is Dutch for rice table). There are Indonesian restaurants all over town and pretty much all of them feature this curious dish that has become the signature meal of Amsterdam.
A quick bit of history: from 1602 until 1945, the Dutch ran Indonesia as a foreign colony. During the occupation, the Dutch invented a way of combining many of the local exotic foods into one buffet-style meal and they called it the rijsttafel (rice table). So the individual items that make up a rijsttafel are mainly Indonesian, but the combination is Dutch and is far more popular in the Netherlands (and South Africa) than it is in Indonesia.
What is a rijsttafel?
It varies, but the one constant is a bowl of (fried or steamed) rice served alongside any number of smaller dishes. No two are identical, and they typically come with anywhere between 10 and 25 (that’s right, 25) individual side dishes that serve like different instruments within a larger orchestra. Every Indonesian restaurant offers a vegetarian combo, but most combinations come with several meat dishes.
So along with your rice you get a group of appetizer-size portions of meats, seafood, vegetables, egg rolls, satays, nuts, and fruits. Most, but not all, come pre-seasoned with flavors including coconut, curry, lemon grass, fruit compote, peanut, chili, hot pepper, and other surprises. Some things are a bit spicy, but only the most sensitive diners might run into problems. The amazing array of sweet, spicy, salty, and sour dishes make for a tantalizing dining experience that each person can customize as they go.
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Most every first-time visitor to Amsterdam is really psyched to be heading here, but with the possible exception of the French fries thing, very few people know what or where they’ll be eating. This isn’t really a big food destination. The good news is that the selection of cuisines is nearly endless, and prices tend to be moderate. You might also want to look into what to eat in Amsterdam, but here we’ll discuss where to find the food.
The general Amsterdam restaurant scene
Depending on what you are used to, Amsterdam’s general dining scene might be normal or really odd to you. Typical of most of continental Europe, you’ll find very few large or chain restaurants here outside of the usual suspects of McDonalds and Burger King etc. Nearly every place where you’ll go to sit down for a decent meal will be a small place that is independently owned. There are a few major restaurant neighborhoods, which are summed up below, but for the most part, no matter where you are in the city center you’ll not be more than a few blocks from at least a few decent restaurants, and probably more than a few.
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I’m not sure how this happened, but one of the few menu items on offer in Amsterdam that is considered “local” is the pancakes. According to Wikipedia, the pancake was invented by someone named “Sideshow Bob” in Shelbyville in the mid 1980s, so it’s unclear how these could be local Dutch fare.
But leaving that aside for now, they do love their pancakes in the Netherlands. You can find something similar all over the world, but here they are called Pannekoek and they come with some surprises. Possibly the most surprising thing is that they are rarely eaten for breakfast by city residents. It’s hard enough to find a restaurant open in the morning in Amsterdam to begin with, and you’d think you’d be in luck if you came across a pancake place, but very often you aren’t.
The most famous pancake place in Amsterdam is called The Pancake Bakery and their English-language name is accompanied by the English-language slogan “The best pancakes in town!” Who are we to argue with a slogan like that? But seriously, this place does have a great reputation and their 17th Century canal house location on Prinsengracht adds to their appeal. Oh, and the Pancake Bakery is open from noon until 9:30 p.m. daily.
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You probably remember the conversation in Pulp Fiction about the French fries in Amsterdam, where they discuss that the most common condiment served with them is mayonnaise. Not only is that true, but French fries are an obsession in the Netherlands and it’s difficult to find a restaurant in Amsterdam that doesn’t serve them. When deciding what to eat in Amsterdam, it’s hard to avoid these things, and you really wouldn’t want to anyway.
As you walk through the city you’ll notice many little take-away shops whose primary decorations are oversized cartoon depictions of a bag of fries. Some of them also serve falafels and other Middle Eastern food, but many of them do their primary business selling these salty high-carb treats. You’ll never have to walk more than a couple of blocks to get your fix, even late at night.
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If you’ve been noticing longer than average queues at the Amsterdam candy counters this summer it hasn’t just been your imagination. A recently released survey by marketing research firm AC Nielsen reveals that during this rainy summer the consumption of sweets in the Netherlands has gone up noticeably.
Sales of chocolate bars are up 14 percent, while smaller chocolate candies are up by 11 percent. Cookie consumption is up 10 percent as licorice is up by 4 percent, so it’s not just the glassy-eyed stoners buying up all the sweets this summer, the locals are joining in.
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