What to Eat in Amsterdam: 15 Local Dishes You Must Try
Stroopwafels and herring are just the start. From stamppot to rijsttafel, these are the dishes that turn a visit into something real.
You're eating haring—raw herring with onion, the real thing, from a fish stall on the Singel or Albert Cuyp—and suddenly the city clicks into place. It's not haute. It's not carefully plated. It's a thing people who live here actually eat, which is the point entirely.
The list below covers Amsterdam's essential dishes ranked by how fundamental they are to understanding how the city actually eats. Start with the street food and fish stalls—these are breakfast, lunch, and the thing you grab at five in the afternoon. Then move into the brown cafés and restaurant tables where the heavier work happens: the stamppot, the rijsttafel, the appeltaart with coffee. Some are sweet. Some are fried. All of them exist because someone figured out long ago how to make something worth eating from what was close at hand.
Haring
Fish stalls throughout the city · Raw herring with onions and pickles · €3–5 per portion
Raw herring with onions and pickles is the truest test of whether you're ready for Amsterdam. There's no preparation, no hide, no way to make it into something it isn't. The Albert Cuyp Market in De Pijp is the single best spot — stalls cover stroopwafels, herring, cheese, kibbeling and more in one stretch. Buy it from a busy stall (the queue is your quality control), lift it by the tail if that's how they hand it to you, and eat it standing up. Hollandse Nieuwe in June-August is the freshest; year-round preserved version is saltier.
Stroopwafel
Lanskroon, Singel 385 · Caramel waffle, hot from the iron · €2–3, Mon-Fri 8am–5:30pm, Sat 9am–5:30pm, Sun 10am–5:30pm
Stroopwafels consist of two thin waffle-like wafers with a sticky, sweet stroop, a molasses-y syrup, spread in the middle. Lanskroon, a historic canalside bakery and tearoom celebrated for its big, crispy stroopwafels, which are made fresh downstairs throughout the day. It usually offers them with three different fillings: Linden honey, coffee caramel, and fig. The honey version is traditional; the coffee caramel is worth trying. Watch it being pressed in front of you, and eat it while it's still warm enough to burn your fingers.
Kibbeling
Albert Cuyp Market or Dappermarkt · Battered fried fish with remoulade · €5–8
Kibbeling consists of bite-sized chunks of battered and deep-fried white fish, usually cod or whiting. The batter should be light and crispy, the fish inside flaky and moist. Albert Cuyp Market and the Dappermarkt are both great places to grab a portion. Prices range from €5-8 depending on the portion size. It's sold hot in a paper cone with creamy sauce on the side. This is what you eat when you want something warm and fried without overthinking it.
Poffertjes
Pat's Poffertjes, Jordaan neighbourhood · Mini puffed pancakes with toppings · €6–10
Poffertjes are mini cloud-like puffed pancakes made in a cast-iron pan that are served warm with butter and a drift of icing sugar. Pat's Poffertjes is a charming spot located in the heart of the Jordaan, offering a luxurious and traditional experience with their beloved mini pancakes. Visitors are greeted by the delightful aroma of freshly baked poffertjes upon entering. The poffertjes are described as perfectly cooked, fluffy, and just sweet enough to be heavenly. They're breakfast, they're a snack, they're what you eat at three in the afternoon while standing in a doorway.
Bitterballen
Holtkamp, Vijzelgracht · Crispy meatballs with mustard · €5–10
Delicious, deep-fried crispy balls traditionally served with mustard for dipping – they're the ultimate in Dutch pub snacks and can be found on the menu at most Amsterdam drinking establishments. Holtkamp, a renowned patisserie on Vijzelgracht, celebrated for its gourmet bitterballen and croquettes made with the finest ingredients. They arrive molten in the centre, which is the whole point. Order six or twelve, dip them into the mustard, and bite down carefully or risk burning your mouth entirely. Brown cafés serve them. So do bars. So do the vending walls at 1am.
Kroket
Street stalls and brown cafés · Meat croquette in a soft roll · €3–5
Kroketten are the bigger cousins of bitterballen — the same ragout in a log shape, eaten in a soft bun (a broodje kroket) or pulled straight from the wall at FEBO. The ragout inside is beef, finely spiced, almost sweet. Order it at a fish stall or grab it from one of the automated food walls scattered across the city late at night. It's not fancy. It doesn't need to be.
Stamppot
Moeders, Rozengracht 251 · Mashed potatoes with vegetables and smoked sausage · €18–25
Stamppot is the ultimate Dutch comfort food: mashed potatoes mixed with vegetables like sauerkraut, kale, or endive, topped with a juicy rookworst (smoked sausage) or gehaktbal (meatball) and served with rich gravy. Restaurant Moeders in the Jordaan specializes in traditional Dutch home cooking and serves an excellent stamppot. The dish has no pretense. The sausage sits on top. The gravy pools around it. The potato is still warm, slightly broken-up by the vegetables. Eat it in winter, when you're cold and tired and done with everything else.
Hutspot
Traditional Dutch restaurants · Mashed potatoes with carrots and onions · €14–20
Hutspot is mashed potatoes with carrots and onions, one of the variants of stamppot and the one most likely to appear in its own right at a proper Dutch table. Moeders serves Dutch home cooking including stamppot, hutspot, snert for €18–€25. The orange of the carrot bleeds through the potatoes. It's sweeter than the kale version, milder. This is what your Dutch grandmother would serve if she wanted you fed and happy without a lot of fuss.
Erwtensoep
Brown cafés and Dutch restaurants · Split pea soup with smoked sausage · €6–10
Erwtensoep is a lovely thick split pea soup with smoked sausage ('rookworst'), often eaten with rye bread. The soup is so thick you can stand a spoon in it. The sausage sits at the bottom, salty and smoky, waiting for you to find it. It's served in winter, always. Every brown café in Amsterdam has it from October to March. Order it at lunch, in a white bowl, with dark bread on the side.
Pannenkoeken
Pancakes Amsterdam, Berenstraat 38 · Dutch thin pancake with toppings · €10–14
Pancakes Amsterdam serves some of the best pannenkoeken in the city, and while you will see plenty of tourists, locals do treat themselves to the occasional pancake there too. You can order the regular toppings (ham and cheese, apple and syrup, and so on), but you'll also find some more adventurous combinations. One of the house specials is camembert, ham, chicory and raspberry sauce. The pancake is a single thin layer, cooked on a flat griddle, folded or rolled. It's both breakfast and dinner, depending on what you put on it.
Appeltaart
Winkel 43, Noordermarkt, Jordaan · Apple pie with cinnamon and whipped cream · €7–9 per slice
Dutch apple pie has a crust that is more like a buttery shortcrust pastry, and the filling is thick with chunky apple pieces spiced with cinnamon, sometimes cardamom, and occasionally raisins. It is served in thick, generous wedges, often with a dollop of whipped cream (slagroom). Winkel 43 in the Jordaan is widely considered the gold standard, serving hundreds of slices daily from their charming corner location on the Noordermarkt. Arrive early as there is almost always a queue. This is what you eat when you want something sweet and warm with your coffee, nothing more complicated.
Rijsttafel
Blauw, Amstelveenseweg · Indonesian rice table with a dozen small dishes · €25–40 per person
The dish that most defines dining out in Amsterdam is the rijsttafel — an Indonesian "rice table" of a dozen or more small spiced dishes shared around the table, a legacy of the Dutch East Indies and a genuine Amsterdam institution. Blauw on Amstelveenseweg is consistently rated Amsterdam's best Indonesian restaurant. Kantjil & de Tijger near Spui is more centrally located and slightly more affordable. The meal is meant to be shared, with each small dish offering different flavors, textures, and spice levels. A full rijsttafel typically costs €25-40 per person and is substantial enough to skip other meals that day.
Roti
Surinamese restaurants and takeaway spots · Curried chicken or meat in flatbread · €10–15
Roti is soft flatbread served with curried chicken, potatoes, veggies, and sometimes salted meat. It's hearty, spicy, and totally different from traditional Dutch food, which makes it such a fun (and delicious) surprise when you're eating your way around the city. Suriname was once a Dutch colony, and today Amsterdam has a big Surinamese community that has brought their incredible flavors with them. Eat it rolled up, standing up, with napkins because the filling is loose and the bread is warm. This is what the city actually eats when it wants something real to fill the space.
Dutch Cheese
Markets and cheese shops throughout Amsterdam · Gouda or Edam, young or aged · €8–15 per 200g
Add young and aged Dutch cheese to the essentials. Amsterdam sells it everywhere—at the Albert Cuyp, at street markets, at dedicated cheese shops where they'll cut you a wedge and explain the difference between a cheese that's three years old and one that's six. The young stuff is milder and creamier. The aged is sharper, nuttier. Buy a wedge, eat it with bread, and understand why the Dutch stopped worrying about variety centuries ago when they had this figured out.
Cheese Croquette
The Pantry, Leidsekruisstraat 21 · Breaded fried cheese · €12–18 per plate
The Pantry serves goat cheese croquettes, and a baked dish with beef, cauliflower, Old Amsterdam cheese, onion and mashed potatoes. The Pantry is proper Dutch comfort food; the bitterballen are exceptional. The croquette arrives golden and hot, the cheese inside molten. It's the Dutch way of taking something simple and making it fried. It works. Order it alongside something green if you need to pretend you've thought about balance, but you're really just here for the cheese and the crunch.
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