When eating out , Amsterdammers like to do it early. You can expect to see many popular restaurants busy at 7pm so if you haven’t booked a table you’ll be struggling to eat at this time. Alernatively if you can wait till later, 8.30 or even 9.30pm you may find it easier to get a table, but bear in mind that a lot of kitchens close at 10pm. ( the restaurants staying open longer)
Amsterdam like many other cities in the world has its fair share of fast food chains. However, it’s worthwhile trying out the stands selling Vlaams Fites (French Fries) they are served up in a paper cone with mayonnaise or a variety of other sauces.
Cheap Amsterdam’s top food tips
- delicacies such as salted herring or smoked eel, definitely worth a try.
- At Christmas you’ll find many stalls selling Ollibllen and Appelfloppen, which are deep fried pastries, delicious.
- Eetcafes – these are pubs which serve meals many of which to a high standard and representing good value for money.
- Cheese – everyone will be familiar with Edam and Gouda, but look out for different varieties jong (young) variety is mild and creamy, while the oud (old) is mature and has a sharper taste.
- Stroopwafels – this is a delicious sweet rich cookie. Stroopwafels consists of a thin sandwich of two buttery layers of waffles stuck together with sweet syrup.
- Pannekoeken – this is a Dutch pancake, similar to French crepes. Pannekoeken’s are thin and made of a buttery batter which can be served either sweet with ice cream cherries etc or savoury with cheese, bacon or anything which is sitting about in the fridge.