So Amsterdam was awesome! Except the wet weather, we had a great time when we visited just over a week ago. A week filled with museums, galleries, site seeing and shopping, the one constant throughout our time there was – FOOD! We ate so much.. too much in fact.. but honestly how can you not when you go somewhere with so much choice. I thought I would compile my now new knowledge on all things edible in Amsterdam and put together a little guide for those planning trips there soon. So here we go…

THE BUTCHER // Albert Cuypstraat 129, Amsterdam // This burger place was hidden away down a busy street-market road, so was surprisingly quiet inside for how good it was. The interior had and open kitchen to the dining area, so you could watch your burger fry while you waited. We both went for The Butcher Burger, which had cheese and bacon inside a brioche bun – and good god it was tasty! The burger was a bit underdone for my normal taste, but I actually was loving how juicy it was, and teamed with giant fluffy fries, this was definitely our favourite burger place of the trip. The meal wasn’t expensive (around maybe €7-10), and we kept going on about how popular this place would be in London! 

FOODHALLEN // Bellamyplein 51, 1053AT Amsterdam // This indoor food market was a dream come true one hungry lunch time, with tons of individual stalls selling a mixture of sweet treats and a variety of food such as Vietnamese Pork rolls (above), pizza (above), cheeses, fancy hot dogs, traditional dutch food and loads more. They even had a fancy gin bar inside, but we decided it was far too early in the day for that! 

PAPER PLANES // Rokin 81, 1012 KL Amsterdam // We had been recommended Paper Planes before hand, so we were excited to go and see what the fuss was about. On the day we visited, it was pouring with rain, so we really did need something tasty to cheer us up! It is an Instagrammers dream inside, with bare-brick walls, beautiful flowers and old leather couches, and when the food arrived I couldn’t help but snap a few photos. We both went for the ‘American Pancakes’ , which were served with strawberries, maple syrup and a dollop of mascarpone.. they were fricken’ delicious! I easily could have gobbled another plate full (but thought I better not). If we had been in the city for longer I think we would have liked to gone back to Paper Planes and tried some other bits on the menu as apparently the chilli scrambled egg is good too.

STACH FOOD // Van Woustraat 154, 1073 LW Amsterdam // Sticking on the theme of beautiful food photos, we popped into STACH to grab a coffee one morning, after spotting the window doodles from afar. Inside we realised we were in branding heaven, with the STACH look and feel being a minimalist one, with simple labels and signs, which I really loved! They had a great range of teas, coffees and pastries to go (as there was no seating inside), and I would recommend popping in to check out the cool Dutch brand. 

DE EBELING CAFE // Overtoom 52, 1054 HK Amsterdam // We actually ended up at De Ebeling on our last night by accident as we wanted to go to some ‘pizza and prosecco’ restaurant but when we got there it turned out their pizza stove had broken and they were closing for the evening! Boo. But on the walk back towards our hotel, we spotted this place across the road that looked kind of cool, so we wondered over to investigate. While waiting outside looking for online reviews on the place (we like to plan before we commit!), a whole load of ‘young hipster Dutch people'(oh dear) walked in, and that confirmed it for us. The actual inside of the restaurant is soo nicely decorated, with copper pipes and bare lightbulbs hanging down from the ceiling.. an idea we loved and will definitely use when we have our own house. Everyone was just so friendly and helpful and were able to answer our questions about the food and drink. We didn’t hold back on ordering, and I’m glad, as everything was so delicious. I had a steak, fries and salad, and B had this pizza type contraption which wasn’t actually a pizza?! Cocktails were great, and we had a pudding each too. Naughty I know, but it was our last night after all. We were SO pleased we stumbled upon on this place, and it was definitely my favourite meal of the whole trip.

Walking around, there is food everywhere you look, and we tried our fair share of street food while walking the streets of Amsterdam.. 
One food concept I found bizarre was that of the Dutch fast food chain ‘FEBO’ (first pic) where the fast food was cooked and then placed in it’s own compartment, behind these little glass doors. There was then a slot you could place your money in, and retrieve your chosen food!
We also had to try a chocolate waffle at some point, and found a food truck selling particularly gorge looking ones near the Van Gogh museum ( middle pic, near the “I Amsterdam” sign). The waffle was covered in chocolate and cream, and was obviously delicious, but left me with regret after my last mouthful. I waddled around for the rest of the day after that.
When B had been to Amsterdam before, he had tried this ‘Oorlog sauce’, which the Dutch apparently love to put on their chips. It’s basically a peanut satay-style sauce with mayonnaise, and sprinkled with chopped up onions. It sounded gross to me, but after wondering the Red Light District (that’s another story) and feeling peckish, B persuaded me to try it for myself. The sauce did taste good, but I don’t see how anyone could eat a whole load of it.. it was far too sickly! 

COFFEE CONCEPTS // Jacob Obrechtstraat 5, Amsterdam Old South // We visited a lot of coffee shops on our trip (no, not those kind), and Coffee Concepts was definitely the prettiest, with the interior resembling something you’d see on Pinterest! It’s based close to Vondelpark, which is a really nice area further out from Amsterdam Central, which seems to be less touristy and more of the ‘real’ Amsterdam.  Other coffee places we really liked were ‘Koffee Academie’ (Overtoom 95, 1054 Amsterdam) and ‘Berry’ (Bilderdijkkade 27, 1053 VH Amsterdam).

I really hope this little guide helps, and if anyone has any Amsterdam related questions, feel free to hit me up over on twitter – @plleigh.