Amsterdam: the food
 

Folks, the discussion on these forums makes me think that Amsterdam dining, while not bleak and depressing, leaves a bit to be desired. So far, our strategy is going to be:

Breakfast: substantial hotel breakfast (staying at the Ambassade), leading into

Lunch: We'll do herring and french fries one day, but need other suggestions for lunch ideas

Dinner: Rijstaffel at Blauw; Need a couple of other dinner ideas, mixing it up between casual and upscale.

Our many interest is quality, it doesn't matter if we find it at a hole in the wall or a white table cloth place.

Also, vegetarian suggestions appreciated.

The food can best be described as hearty rather than very sophisticated - much like German food.

I don't do herring - but we found tons of places that had decent sandwiches and pancakes (sort of crepey) for lunch.

But there are tons of places with perfectly good food. Ask in your hotel for advice.

Aside from being robbed in our hotel room, we found Amsterdam to be a delightful city in which we dined really well! Two restaurants to recommend: Lucius, Spuistraat 247 - all about fish, fish, and some more fish. Have your hotel make a reservation - it is on the small side and heavily visited.
The other is Fraisch (pronounced Fresh). I didn't take a card so I don't have an address. Both places are pricey, but well worth it.

Croquettes are traditional and delicious. I had a "butter fish" at a restaurant just a few doors east of the Concertgebouw that was very good.

Herring and French fries for lunch?
Herring is a snack, eaten raw with onions, never seen a Dutch person combine them with patats. If you want cooked fish find a kibbeling stand.

Try Hema or La Place for lunches, even simple dinners at La Place. You will find La Place in the V&D store or at the fantastic library (the one I recommend).

If you search you will find good food in Amsterdam. I promise. It may not be conventiently in teh touristy centre but it is there.
If I have good food out in the sticks it must be available in Amsterdam.

Have a look at Iens.nl for reviews and suggestions, with addresses. You can choose what type of cuisine you want - there are lots offering vegetarian food.

http://restaurantfraiche.nl/ is the restaurant carolll is referring to.

I think with a little hunting you can have some very enjoyable meals in Amsterdam. Look for "brown cafes" - we really like De Reiger near the Anne Frank house. There was also a very good Italian restaurant - Hostaria - in the same area, not sure it is still there. I think there many more new "cutting edge" places for the young and hip, if that is your scene. We were very pleased with the culinary slice of the city.

Savini is an absolute favorite for great pizza and chianti. It is located about 2 blocks from the train station area. Can't think of street name, but it is across from Crowne Plaza Hotel, if you can find that location on a google search.

Thanks to all! These are just the finds I am looking for.
Nytraveler, of course I'll ask at the hotel. But here I am looking for fodorite advice.
Carroll, so sorry to hear about your back luck. But thanks to you we will definitely try Lucius! And perhaps fraiche.
Heti, sorry if I offended your sensibilities. I will be sure to separate my visit the the herring stand from my visit to the patat shop.
Savini sounds great, although I am not sure we will be near the train station much.

Great ideas all. Keep those recommendations coming.

We ate twice at Foodism:
http://www.foodism.nl/
Everything we tried was very good.

We found the food in Amsterdam exceedingly lacking and for lunch surprisingly monotonous.

I wish I had specific suggestions. The best meal we had was at De Reiger in the Jordaan and that inconsistent.

My best meals in Amsterdam (I hadn't done any research, just what I happened upon) was one Greek restaurant in Leidseplein, and a fairly spectacular little Italian place that had inside seating but also sold things to-go by weight. Too long ago to give you the particulars, just saying don't think of only what you might consider regional specialties as what might be good or even great.

We ate at Lucius twice and had wonderful fish there. Stayed at Ambassade but ate breakfast in the neighborhood after first day,. Hotel breakfast was quite pricey for what was served.
Make sure you have a rijstaffle. Also we loved the herring and onions sold at streetside stands.

Thanks everyone, Lucius seems luscious.

We ate really well in Amsterdam. Between the Paranakan restaurant, a thai place, the shwarma and gyros, Argentinian steakhouse, and a few cafes with sandwiches, crepes, etc. We had lots of good food.

RIJST TAFEL, people, not

rijstaffel
rijsstaffle
rijstafle

use iens.nl to find a good restaurants. I can assure you that's how the locals end up in those restaurants.

there's no use asking around on forums such as fodors, because most people here are well on the tourist trail, even if they try to get off it.

also a very good resource for amsterdam is

http://www.parool.nl/parool/nl/14631...rk/index.dhtml

well worth the google translate.

point is, don't expect to get exceptional food for average prices.

Here is an interesting article on pop up restaurants in Amsterdam: http://www.theguardian.com/travel/20...pots-amsterdam

Maybe something there appeals.

We enjoyed our dinner at De Kas, located in Frankendael Park. They have their own nursery that they harvest from, and are willing to do vegetarian menus.

http://www.restaurantdekas.nl

We rented an apartment for a week in a decidedly residential neighborhood, north of the Jordaan, and the food there was acceptable but certainly not memorable or worth recommending.

We enjoyed our meal at First Class that we went back a second time. It's in Centraal station accessed from platform 1. It is in the former 1st class waiting room. We had spent a week in Paris and I was craving steak (which I have never found good in France) and the filet mignon was excellent.

We rarely ate lunch that trip because we'd been upgraded free at the Moevenpick and our suite included breakfast daily. Normal cost was 35 euros each! It was stunning with more choices of more things than I've ever seen but if we'd had to pay that would have been over 100 euros a day!

Do buy frites and eat them with mayonnaise as you stroll around.