FredsMom

My husband and I are going to Amsterdam for a week in September on a budget. We'll have breakfast at our hotel between Leidseplein and Prinsengracht, and lunch from a street vendor or deli.

I've heard the Prinsengracht area is less expensive and touristy than Leidseplein. Does anyone have any suggestions for restaurants in that area for value and quality? The type doesn't matter - Italian, Argentinian, Indian, Indonisian. Thanks in advance.

scurry

The Carrosel near the Heineken brewery is a great/fun place for dutch pancakes -- both sweet and savory.

RufusTFirefly

We enjoyed meals in some of the brown cafes. Menus are not extensive, but generally have a variety of dishes (one or two beef dishes, a couple of pastas, a fish and a shellfish, etc.), and what we had was done very nicely. Many also have outdoor dining.
One that we enjoyed was Cafe de Prins, Prinsengracht 124.

We had a good Thai meal at Top Thai, Herenstraat 22.

annhig

We stayed on the stadthoudeskade [a bit along from the Heineken Museum] and ate most nights on/around the Vijzelgracht [running at a rightangle to the Prinesngracht]. THere were any number of restaurants of all types, and mostly very reasonable. Also we had sunday lunch at the floating chinese restaurant in the harbour - full of chinese families, and lots of fun. the dim sum were excellent.

scurry

I have also saved a lot of money this week by buying snacks, water and other essintials at the AH supermarket near the Leidsplein.

Logan69

The "Leidesplein and Prinsengracht" reference sounds like you're staying at the Dikker & Thijs, right? If so, I'm interested in these answers, too, because I'm headed there myself. I used to stay at the Ambassade, but the nearly worthless $ has priced it out of my range, so I shopped and found the D&T. It seems like a decent place, and I've been told there are lots of little cafes around. Don't know how good they are.

FredsMom

No, we're staying in a bed & breakfast. I appreciate your suggestions.

mikeyb

Hi F,

Your title is overly "general" as you would receive many more responses if you include the location.

suze

I found great food two times inexpensive in the Leidseplein area. One was a small Italian place that had a few tables but mostly did take-away and sold everything by weight. It was delicious, unfortunately I don't know the name (but it's an idea for you).

The other was a natural foods store where I found a wonderful selection of bread, cheese, tomatoes, to make a meal one evening.

FredsMom

You're right about my title being overly general. I didn't notice. It needs to say something about where. Duh!

Larry

For inexpensive lunches try the falafels at Maoz on Muntplein.

I like the take out Indonesian at Kantjil en de Tijger on Spui. It's not great but we're talking EUR 5 or 6 for a lunch meal.

JandaO

Does anyone know if there are any good budget restaurants in the area of
Nieuwe Achtergracht 87G ?

polly229

Just off the Leidseplein there are numerous small restaurants, including a lot of ethnic ones, - several streets of them - and many are quite reasonable. Try Lange Leidsedwarsstr. and Korte Leidsedwarsstr. and one of the streets connecting them. We had reasonably priced Greek and Nepalese/Tibetan (The Sherpa) a couple of times and found several others that looked good. Closer to Leidseplein the prices seemed higher, the restaurants noisier. Also there is a pancake place that had a vast variety of pancake fillings from curries to stroganoff that were quite filling and good for around 9 Euros. It's on a pointy intersection, I think Weteringshans and something, generally across from the casino and beside a small park with bronze lizards. Called something like The Pancake House but I don't think it was "House", some other similar or common word. Very quiet at night (in early Sept.) with outdoor tables as well as inside.

blackduff

There used to be a restaurant on Leidseplein called "Heineken Hock" (sp?). There was a big copper kiln which is used to brew beer.

It was a larger type of restaurant but the prices were resonable. In season they used to serve mussels by the bowl. If I finished the bowl, they would refill again. The mussels were served with a hot sauce.

I used to buy bowls of chicken soup too. For some reason, I remember this restaurant.

It was closed for a year but it returned later and went back serving the same ware.

Check out the prices and if it's within your budget, it's worth a try.

Blackduff

pavfec

We're also visiting Amsterdam in September and my recent researches for interesting restaurants came up with these two directory sites:

http://www.timeout.com/amsterdam/rest/

http://www.specialbite.nl/en/IndexSearch49-0.aspx

One of the restaurants we found is a South African place that serves zebra, crocodile and springbok, among other things:

http://www.pygma-lion.com/

Doesn't look inexpensive, though it could be an adventure!

jayne1973

Very interesting; also going in September and am pretty much overwhelemed with all the options!

blackduff

http://www.channels.nl/amsterdam/heinhoek.html

This is the site for this restaurant. Here's the proper name.

Grand cafe Heineken hoek

There's a lot of writing in Dutch but this particular is in English.

Have a coffee in the square, if you decide not to buy a meal.

Blackduff

MaureenB

There are many, many nice restaurants in Amsterdam. We were very impressed with how contemporary and classy Amsterdam is. I guess we'd expected it to be funky and hippie-like, but that was not our experience there. We loved the city.

Here's a cut and paste from my trip report of June 2005 re: dining:

"Two cafes on the same block of Nieuwe Doelenstraadt were wonderful (right by the Hotel de l"Europe and the Hotel Doelan): Café Katoen for a university atmosphere, and Café de Jaren, for great table seating on the canal.

Amazing dinners at two restaurants in particular:
“Stout!”, at Haarlemmerstraat 73 (www.restaurantstout.nl). Fabulous ‘foamy asparagus’ soup with shrimp, chateaubriande, fresh fish, dessert course, wine list. Very trendy lighting. Great service. We’d gone to the neighborhood in search of a restaurant called “Lof” which we’d seen written up. We didn’t like its atmosphere, but were lucky that Stout! was just across the street.

Also at “Restaurant Dining Eleven” we had a great dinner. It’s at Reestraat 11. Also trendy and contempory, well-presented and beautifully-served meal.

Another nice dinner at “frenzi”, at Swanenburgwal 232. Very simple and contemporary. We arrived shortly after 10:00p.m., when most restaurants close in Amsterdam, and persuaded the owner to sell us any left-overs they had in the kitchen! They put together a nice Caesar salad with cooked-in-the-shell shrimp and mango. Very nice.

Also a good brunch at a place across the street from frenzi—called “Puccini”. Creative salads and sandwiches. Very nice also."

Have fun. Amsterdam is wonderful.

JandaO

blackduff

the site says < Most of the visitors are tourists or daytrippers. >

It looks like a great place. I wonder why no locals?

blackduff

Here's another view of the restaurant. I'm not sure why they write about mostly visitors. This web site is Dutch says different.

http://www.kroegenweb.nl/kroegpagina...egnummer=10139

They say that the grandmas and grandpas will sit and drink a coffee while they watch the youngers play.

Like the tourists, I didn't see the grammas and grandpas but it was full of young Dutch when I visited. But, overcourse, I was a tourist too.

Blackduff