What to Eat in Amsterdam: Local Dishes and Where to Find Them
Last updated: October 2026
Intro
Eat herring from a cart, bitterballen in a brown cafe, a fresh stroopwafel from a market stall and an Indonesian rijsttafel in the evening. Two things have changed that older lists still miss. Hap-Hmm, the stamppot restaurant near Leidseplein that appeared on every "Dutch food" list, closed for good on 1 June 2026 after 61 years. And in 2024 a shop on Kalverstraat was reported charging €10 to €13 for a single stroopwafel that a market stall sold for €2.50. Prices quoted below were checked on the venues' own websites in October 2026, and anything from a tourist-board listing is labelled.
Between meals, the €7 Amsterdam Essentials walk in the Ciceru app is a self-guided route of 4 km and about 2.5 hours from Dam Square, with a story and a quiz question at each of its 7 stops and a free 500 MB global eSIM. It is on the Ciceru tour page.
⚡ Quick answer
- Eat first: herring at a cart, bitterballen with mustard in a brown cafe, a stroopwafel made in front of you
- Cheapest good lunch: a tosti or uitsmijter in a Jordaan cafe, about €5 for a cheese tosti at Winkel 43
- Evening: a rijsttafel, the Indonesian rice table, or stamppot at Moeders (book online)
- Skip: photo menus on the streets between Centraal and Dam Square, and any stroopwafel priced like a souvenir
- Closed: Hap-Hmm, since 1 June 2026
🚫 What closed: Hap-Hmm and the stamppot problem
Stamppot is mashed potato mixed with a vegetable and served with sausage or meat. It is winter food, and for 61 years Hap-Hmm near Leidseplein was where people ate it. The restaurant's own website now carries a farewell notice: it closed permanently on 1 June 2026. Blogs written before then still send people to the door.
The alternative that still operates is Moeders.
- 📍 Rozengracht 251, Jordaan edge
- 🕐 Open daily from 17:00, kitchen 17:00 to 22:00
- 💶 Stamppot is on the menu, check current prices on its site
- ⚠️ 38 seats, and bookings are online only, so reserve before you turn up. Opened in 1990, with the "Wall of Fame" of mothers' photos
🐟 Herring: not a dare
Visitors treat herring as a dare. Locals treat it as a snack. Hollandse Nieuwe is the new-season catch, which arrives from mid June, and to carry the name the fish must have at least 16% fat (DutchNews, reporting on the 2025 season). In October the carts are still selling herring, but the new-catch label belongs to June, so ask what you are getting.
Raw is safe because it is frozen first. The Voedingscentrum, the national nutrition body, says fish to be eaten raw must be frozen for 24 hours at -20 °C, which kills the herring worm.
Order it with chopped onion and pickles. You can eat it from a paper tray, in pieces, standing at the cart.
- 📍 Haringhandel Frens, Koningsplein, by the Singel and the Flower Market 🕐 11:00 to 17:00 daily. Family business since 1986. Takes cash, Maestro, Mastercard and Visa. Also sells kibbeling (battered cod) and smoked eel sandwiches
- 📍 Stubbe's Haring, Singel 8, near Centraal Station. Listed by the I amsterdam tourist board, hours vary, so check before you go
- 📍 Vishandel Albert Cuyp, Albert Cuypstraat 155, De Pijp, listed by the same board
Prices are not published on the stall websites, so look at the board before ordering.
🍽️ What locals eat at each meal
- 🌅 Breakfast and lunch: an uitsmijter (fried eggs on bread) or a tosti. Winkel 43 lists a cheese tosti at €5, with ham for €1 extra. These are cafe staples, not hotel buffet food
- 🍺 The borrel, early evening drinks: bitterballen, deep-fried balls of meat ragout, eaten with mustard. At Winkel 43 they cost €8 for 7 or €15 for 14, with a vegan version at €8
- 🍲 Dinner: stamppot in winter, rijsttafel year round, or Surinamese roti
- 🍰 Afternoon: apple pie. Winkel 43 charges €5.30, plus €1 for whipped cream
🧇 Stroopwafel, poffertjes and cheese
Stroopwafel is a thin waffle sandwich with caramel syrup. Buy it fresh. In 2024 reports put a fresh one at Rudi's Original Stroopwafels on Albert Cuypstraat at €2.50, against €10 to €13 at Van Wonderen on Kalverstraat. Check the price board before the shop makes the decision for you.
- 📍 Lanskroon, Singel 385 🕐 Monday to Thursday 09:00 to 17:00, Friday and Saturday 09:00 to 17:30, Sunday 10:00 to 17:30. A bakery since 1958 that sells its own stroopwafels in honey and coffee-caramel versions
Poffertjes, small fluffy mini-pancakes, are a market and fair snack. A review lists them at the Albert Cuyp stalls alongside herring and fried cod.
Cheese. The shops are everywhere and not equal. Ask to taste, and read the price per kilo, not per wedge. One that is easy to place is Henri Willig at Singel 484, on the Flower Market, open daily 09:30 to 18:30 with a small cheese museum in the shop. Treat it as a convenient chain, and compare it with the market stalls.
🌶️ Indonesian and Surinamese
Rijsttafel, "rice table", is described by the I amsterdam tourist board as a colonial invention: many small dishes from across the Indonesian archipelago, served like a tasting menu.
- 📍 Sampurna, Singel 498. A canal district classic for over 35 years, with rijsttafels from €27.50, per the tourist board. Check the current price with the restaurant
- 📍 Restaurant Blauw, Amstelveenseweg 158 to 160, rijsttafel around €52.50 per person, per the same listing
Roti is the Surinamese answer, a flatbread eaten with curried meat or vegetables and sambal.
- 📍 Rotishop Gieta, Balboastraat 15hs, De Baarsjes. Listed by the tourist board as open since 2008, with hand-rolled flatbread
- 📍 New Fusion, Albert Cuypstraat 47, De Pijp. Check hours before you go
🛒 Markets and standing counters
- 📍 Albert Cuyp Market, Albert Cuypstraat, De Pijp 🕐 Monday to Saturday, daytime. Sources differ on the exact hours (09:00 or 09:30 to 17:00 or 18:00), so aim for 10:00 to 16:00. About 260 stalls and running since 1905. Herring, stroopwafels, fried fish and poffertjes
- 📍 Noordermarkt, Jordaan 🕐 Saturday 09:00 to 16:00 and Monday 09:00 to 14:00. Saturday is the food day, with a farmers' market and Zeeland oysters opened in front of you, per the tourist board. The market's own site also lists vintage, antiques and books
- 📍 Foodhallen, Hannie Dankbaarpassage 16, in the old tram depot of De Hallen 🕐 12:00 to 23:00 daily per its site, closed only on 25 December, with earlier closing on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. 19 stands, so it works when a group cannot agree
📍 Three neighbourhoods to eat in
De Pijp. The Albert Cuyp market by day, then Surinamese roti and small restaurants round it. Lunch here means standing at a stall.
The Jordaan. Winkel 43 on the Noordermarkt for apple pie and bitterballen, Café 't Papeneiland at Prinsengracht 2 for a brown cafe, and Moeders for stamppot.
Oud-West and De Hallen. Foodhallen for variety, with Indonesian and roti options on the streets around it.
☕ Brown cafes and coffee
A brown cafe (bruin cafe) is the old-style pub, where coffee, beer, bitterballen and sandwiches share the same counter. Two with a clear track record:
- 📍 Café Hoppe, Spui 18 to 20, open since 1670 per its own site 🕐 09:00 to 01:00 Sunday to Thursday, until 02:00 Friday and Saturday. The website text is older, so confirm the hours
- 📍 Café 't Papeneiland, Prinsengracht 2, on the corner since 1642 per its site
Coffee. Ask for a "koffie" and you get filter coffee. A "koffie verkeerd" is milky, the local latte. For a cappuccino, say so.
Coffeeshops are not cafes. A coffeeshop in Amsterdam is a different kind of place, so look for a "cafe" or "koffiehuis" if you want a coffee.
🙅 Tourist menus and what to skip
- Photo menus and menus in many languages, and staff calling people in from the pavement. Walk two canals away
- Cheese priced per wedge in souvenir shops, with no price per kilo in sight
- A stroopwafel at €10 or more. A fresh market one was reported at €2.50 in 2024
- Listings with stale hours. Check the venue's own site, as Hap-Hmm showed
Expect these on the streets between Centraal Station and Dam Square, so compare prices before you sit down.
❓ FAQ
What is the national dish of the Netherlands?
Stamppot, mashed potato with a vegetable and sausage, is the usual answer for a sit-down dinner, and herring and bitterballen are the street and bar classics.
Is raw herring safe to eat?
Yes. The Voedingscentrum says fish eaten raw must first be frozen for 24 hours at -20 °C, which kills the herring worm.
Where can I still get stamppot after Hap-Hmm closed?
Moeders on Rozengracht 251 has stamppot on the menu, open daily from 17:00. Book on its website.
✅ Before you go
Check each venue's own site the week you travel, because restaurants close faster than guides update. For the wider picture, start with Amsterdam Explained, and see Free Things to Do in Amsterdam for markets and ferries that cost nothing. Walking between food stops works well: the Amsterdam Essentials walk in the Ciceru app passes the Flower Market, where the herring cart and the cheese shop sit, and it covers the centre in about 2.5 hours. The broader Amsterdam page has more.
