Amsterdam Report

[valerie]

My husband and I left our kids with my parents and went to Amsterdam from 7/6-7/11. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t so great, but we had a good time anyway and of course thanks to Chowhounds, we had some good food. (This thread in particular was very helpful http://www.chowhound.com/topics/366212

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We stayed at The Toren on Keizersgracht and on our first afternoon out, we ended up at The Pancake Bakery for lunch which was right around the corner from the hotel. We really liked it and ended up eating lunch there several more times during the week. We each generally opted for a savory pancake (bacon & cheese…mmm) but on the last day we just had to split a pancake with vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce and whipped cream. What could be bad?

For dinner that night (Saturday), we didn’t really have a plan so we wandered around and came across Thai Company on Rozengracht. It was surprisingly good.

We had subsequent dinners at:

Paso Doble on Westerstraat (Sunday) – We really enjoyed the tapas and the atmosphere. Tightly packed with people, but now that you can’t smoke in restaurants, it didn’t bother us at all, only added to the vibe of the place.

BoomChicago (Monday) – We went to see the improv show and opted to just eat dinner here beforehand. Adequate, fine, convenient and exactly what we expected. Show was funny, though.

Thai Bird on Zeedijk (Tuesday) – We opted to eat in the restaurant, rather than the snackbar since the snack bar just seemed a bit too cramped. We had to wait a few minutes at the restaurant, which was fine. We enjoyed the meal a lot. We didn’t realize that the portions were going to be so large (in our favorite NYC Thai places, the portions are small so we sort of expected the same), and we ended up ordering 2 appetizers and 2 entrees, which was a LOT of food. But it was very good, particularly the massaman curry.

Bordewijk (Wednesday) – My husband has a friend who lives in Amsterdam (the friend is Dutch and grew up in Haarlem) and we met up with him for dinner on Wednesday. He wanted us to go to Koevoet on Lindenstraat, but when we arrived, there was no table available until much later that evening. So we wandered around the Jordaan a bit and ended up at Bordewijk on Noordermarkt. Had a very nice meal there, albeit an expensive one. I had a cold lobster gazpacho and a seafood risotto, which were both excellent.

Sama Sebo (Thursday) – Certainly a lot of food and a great experience, but I can’t say that it was all great food. I felt that a lot of the dishes tasted the same after a while. The staff was extremely nice and we had an overall good time, but I wouldn’t feel compelled to return if I ever find myself in Amsterdam again.

Breakfasts/Lunches – As I mentioned, we had several meals at The Pancake Bakery. We also ate one day at Bagel and Beans (average), and one day at Letting, which was actually a nice brunch kind of place.

We passed by Puccini Bomboni on Singel, but it was closed at the time and we never made it back. We also had various frites from stands around the city in between meals. We wandered through the Albert Cuypmarket, but didn’t eat anything there, just looked around. Had some tasty gelato at a place on Haarlemstraat (don’t know name). We visited Haarlem one day and had a nice lunch there, but I also cannot remember the name of the place.

Overall, an enjoyable trip….

[tiffeecanoe]

Thanks for this report! Husband and I land in Amsterdam on Thursday morning... really appreciate all the detail!! :-)

[zuriga1]

I'm glad you had such a good time in that great city. It's a shame you didn't try more of the real Dutch food. Some of the restaurants are producing fantastic 'modern Dutch' cuisine. Heck, if I want to have Thai, bagels or tapas, I can eat a lot closer to home.

[thew]

du lac is a not to miss place in my mind

i would also opt for indonesian over thai when in the netherlands (the biggest benefit of colonialism in my mind is the food that becomes part of the culture)

[valerie]

I live in NY, so we didn't exactly go out of our way to find a bagel in Amsterdam. We just happen to be passing by the bagel place early in the morning and not much else right in the area was open at the time.

And with regard to the Dutch places, my husband is not the most adventurous eater. So after doing much research, particularly on CH, I came up with a list of places where he would be comfortable. There were a few places (De Kas comes to mind -- can't remember the others right now) that we would have liked to try, but we couldn't get a reservation since I didn't plan it out early enough.

And although Indonesian food might now be part of the culture in Amsterdam, based on my one experience at Sama Sebo, the thai food was better.

[markemorse]

Sama Sebo is really in one of the most non-Chowhound-oriented neighborhoods in the city...the Museum District thrives on expensive, watered-down food for tourist palates...I'll add my Indonesian tips to the Amsterdam Tip Sheet thread...

[Googs]

I take it by your museum remarks you haven't dined at Pulpo. My tourist palate only likes water in a glass.