136 Best Restaurants in Netherlands

This airy spot west of the Jordaan is an industrial monument: for a century, it housed a plant that pumped water from coastal dunes. Now, under a sky-high ceiling, it's a popular destination for international cuisine, from rib-eye béarnaise and steak tartare to crowd-pleasing seafood platters piled high with oysters, clams, mussels, and optional crab or lobster. The restaurant usually bustles with families and larger groups. If it's too noisy for you, ask for a table on the peaceful terrace. The sticky toffee cake is an after-dinner winner.

The stunning decor in this expansive space on Artisplein at the ARTIS Amsterdam Royal Zoo is reason enough to visit, but the Mediterranean-influenced food is good, too. Exposed brick walls, birdcage-like chandeliers, and windows overlooking a volière (aviary) are a lovely setting to enjoy dishes such as Basque fish soup, marinated lamb served with rice and mint yogurt, or fava bean-and-ricotta ravioli. A selection of tartines (open-faced sandwiches) is available at lunch. The reasonably priced wine list, which helpfully categorizes wines as light, medium, or full, complements the food perfectly.

Try to nab a spot on the terrace of THT—the theater café of the Tolhuistuin music venue—as its spectacular setting by the Amsterdam-Noord waterfront is a great place to chill out with a snack or a light meal. The rolls and pasta choices on the menu will satisfy traditionalists, while those wanting to venture "off piste" will also find much to like, especially in the form of the many plant-based offerings, such as vegan noodles or dahl (split peas cooked with spices) with naan bread.

With a dizzying array of recently opened restaurants offering so-called New Dutch Cuisine, it's looking like Dutch food has finally been given the makeover it long deserved. This Centraal Station-adjacent establishment gives brasserie classics a Lowlands twist, using seasonal ingredients fresh from a local organic farm.

This elegant two–Michelin star dining room nods to modernity with gleaming metallic design touches, but the French-international food at the "Blue Sky" leans more to the classically extravagant. Any of the three tasting menus (with a choice of two wine pairings) are highly recommended for a celebratory meal. Enjoy beautifully presented dishes—like the signature king crab with Baeri caviar, beurre blanc ice cream, and preserved lemon, or the delicate pink "Dutch shrimp'' perched in a pool of green bean bouillon with a roast cumin crisp and Oscietra caviar and an elevated take on Dutch apple pie for dessert—while taking in the amazing panorama from the 23rd floor of the Hotel Okura Amsterdam.

If you need a rejuvenating break from art viewing, head to this café across from the Rijksmuseum for coffee and cake, or for lunch on one of the terraces, if the weather is accommodating. An adjacent playground makes this café a good choice for families. Menu highlights include homemade apple pie, sandwiches, and Dutch beef croquettes with fries. Or try the Dutch poffertjes: small buckwheat pancakes served with powdered sugar and butter. And make sure to check out the bizarre bathrooms in the basement.

The "Five Flies" is a rambling dining institution that takes up five adjoining Golden Age houses filled with densely evocative decor—complete with bona fide Rembrandt etchings, jenever barrels, crystal and armor collections, and an endless array of old-school bric-a-brac. The menu of Dutch-international cuisine emphasizes fresh (and often organic) ingredients in dishes from herring tartare to slow-cooked pork cheeks; there are also four-, five-, or six-course menus, which change quarterly based on what's in season. The wine list and the selection of flavored jenevers are—like the decor—epic in proportion.

Designed by Hendrick de Keyser, this former weigh house dates to 1609, with wooden beams and the antique weighing equipment still intact. Today, the café serves an inexpensive and tasty array of soups, salads, and well-filled sandwiches during the day, while at dinnertime you can choose from fish specialties or French cuisine.

This mellow organic vegetarian restaurant, with local artists' works hung on the bright orange-and-green walls, serves tasty homemade soups and salads—the salad bar, a mix of cooked items like couscous along with seasonal salads from beans to beets, is especially popular—at lunch as well as its tempting selection of desserts. They increase sophistication (and the prices) at dinner, with noodle dishes and stir-fries. When the weather's nice, there is outdoor seating on the canal across the street.

Smack in the middle of the Red Light District, this Thai establishment juxtaposes the original wood beams and wall panels of the 17th-century warehouse with a rich color scheme, modern furniture, and traditional Thai wall decorations, which give the space a warm atmosphere. The menu balances spicy dishes like stir-fried beef with onion and chile peppers with milder options to please a variety of palates, though ordering a main is compulsory.

Stepping into "The Laughing Javanese," off an old Haarlem street that hasn't changed in centuries, you are hit with a flash of color and pungent smells. You can sit upstairs at one of the window tables and look out over the sober gabled houses while eating kambing saté (skewers of lamb in soy sauce) and kipkarbonade met sambal djeroek (grilled chicken with a fiery Indonesian sauce), or cobble together a meal of 12 or more small dishes if you want.

Crisp-crusted Roman-style artisanal pizza is baked in wood-fired ovens at this neighborhood favorite, where you'll find everything from classic Margherita to chocolate calzone. There are also antipasti, salads, and more. Apparently, Italians prefer drinking beer or prosecco with their pizza, and there are ample to choose from here, along with wine, cocktails, and other Italian staples such as grappa, limoncello, and Amaretto.

There are Film e Pizza nights on Wednesday, with a pizza and film at the nearby Kriterion movie theater for €16.

Since its 2019 renovation, this Dutch brasserie has become a beacon on an otherwise uninspiring road; it's one of the few non–fast-food restaurants around packed Dam Square. The Dutch-international fare includes dishes like Zeeland mussels with fries and Dutch beef stew. It gets busy with passing tourists, but this restaurant is worth a stop if you're shopping at the nearby de Bijenkorf department store and need a pick-me-up.

Despite appearances, this precariously crooked building near the solid Round Lutheran Church is here to stay: it's managed to remain standing since 1614, and it should certainly last through your dinner of contemporary Dutch cuisine prepared by talented young chef Yves van der Hoff, whose father owns the place. Inside "The Silver Mirror," wood beams, Delft tiles, and candlelit tables create a romantic mood in which to enjoy local ingredients like Zeeland mussels and Dutch trout, and expertly prepared meat plates like dry-aged Dutch rib-eye steak with potato foam, shallot marmalade, and "grandma's gravy." To sample a little of everything, opt for one of the four- to eight-course tasting menus.

The split-level interior of the "Friendship" successfully blends dark-brown girders with soft orange lighting and such organic elements as bamboo screens and lobster pots, while out on the terrace in summer you dine with a grand view of the soaring 15th-century Stadhuis. The plump, local mussels are particularly good in season.

In this former marketplace, Nijmegen's main square showpiece and the most Gothic monument in town, weights, pulleys, and scales are suspended from the vaulted ceiling, and there is a bustling outdoor café on the square in front. If your stomach's growling, the spare ribs in a sticky sweet-and-sour sauce are great.

This Delft staple has loyal regulars, drawn by a mean Indonesian satay, served at one of the many terrace tables on a small square overlooking a narrow canal. There's a smart restaurant on the first floor, but the bar and mezzanine have plenty to offer, with lunch snacks, a reasonable menu for dinner with the latest tracks on the speakers, and great fries and salads.

This great-value café-brasserie is housed in a former bank building, while the terrace is in the shadow of the imposing Eusebiuskerk. Both serve up a wide range of affordable and tasty rolls, pasta dishes, salads, or simple patisserie, with a more substantial menu of mains available in the evening.

Dudok—with its vast granite-and-metal interior that looks like a cross between a 1930s railway station and an ultracontemporary factory—is a great place for people-of-every-stripe-watching: politicians debating over a beer, fashionistas toying with their carpaccio salads, and pensioners tucking into an afternoon tea of cream cakes and salmon sandwiches. The menu combines international dishes—steaks, grilled chicken—with traditional Dutch fare such as mustard soup (surprisingly mild and flavorsome) and sausage with cabbage.

This place is on Ledig Erf, one of Utrecht's small squares, which becomes a hive of energy and is filled with huge shade umbrellas when the sun comes out. The café's tables spill over the bridge, so you can sit overlooking canalside gardens as you tuck into basic rolls and salads at lunch or steaks and homemade burgers in the evening.

The ancient brick-and-stone walls of this cavernous former weigh house are adorned with hulking 17th-century balance scales—happily, dishes such as Flemish asparagus with ham and egg, or parelhoen (guinea fowl) in a rich dark broth, are equal to the fabulous setting. Tables on the terrace in front nestle under the town's magnificent, looming clock tower, while a more intimate restaurant area upstairs, open evenings only (closed Sunday), offers a more upmarket menu.

The spacious and high-ceilinged Grand Café Brinkmann offers baguettes, pancakes, and other light snacks. Windows edged with stained glass overlook the Grote Markt and Sint Bavo's church across the square.

In a 1520 monument groaning with pewter tankards, stained glass, rich gold leather paneling, original Delftware and other curiosa, this restaurant's "Old Holland" vibe and matching menu attract lots of tourists. Expect simple, hearty old-fashioned Dutch fare such as pea soup and a selection of stamppotten (potatoes mashed with veggies and often meat). On cold winter nights, opt for the hutspot, a stamppot of mashed potato and carrot supplemented with steamed beef, sausage, and bacon.

Craving coffee with tiny travelers in tow? Head to this stylish coffee house in the Watergraafsmeer area, where there's a play area for the little ones. A small menu offers sandwiches, soups, pancakes, coffee, patisserie, and juices.