Food and drink

Odette Rigterink has had a clear vision ever since she started cooking food and selling it at a market in 1994: good meals made with good products, to be savoured and enjoyed. These days Buffet van Odette is an Amsterdam institution famous for its truffle-cheese omelette, Frank’s Smokehouse smoked salmon and sticky-toffee cake. Its French-bistro style makes it perfect for a long, relaxed lunch accompanied by natural wine but you can also pop in for breakfast or call ahead to try the seasonal harissa mussels at dinner.

Despite beginning life as a pop-up, Bak has become a much-celebrated mainstay. Its menu centres around top-quality regional produce and the chefs only use meat and fish caught in the wild. At least 500 natural wines are available here, including the increasingly popular orange variety. Situated in a former warehouse, the whitewashed room enables diners to enjoy the view across the old harbour and the IJ river in an elegant setting.

You won’t eat fresher fare than the food grown in a restaurant’s own garden. Located in the stately Frankendael Park, De Kas and its nursery occupy old municipal greenhouses renovated by Dutch designer Piet Boon (restaurants in greenhouses are somewhat of a trend in the city, perhaps in an attempt to maximise light during the moody winter months).  The uncomplicated, vegetable-oriented menu changes daily depending on what’s harvested, and includes meat, fish and dairy products.

Lot Sixty One roasts on-site, which means that the air here is always heavy with the scent of coffee: rich and earthy with a hint of chocolate. The menu focuses on beans from small farms such as Finca Toño in Costa Rica’s West Valley and it changes seasonally according to the harvest. This is a great place to grab a velvety-black espresso when en route to the nearby shops at De Hallen. But it’s also equally suited to hunkering down with a cappuccino, a pastry and a book for an hour or two.

Kanarie Club sits at the end of the Foodhallen inside the city’s former tram depot. By day it’s a relaxed café but at night the space comes into its own. Join the sharp Oud-West crowd for an expertly mixed cocktail and sit in a cosy cubbyhole on industrial bar stools by the old tram tracks, or up in the raised swimming-pool area. No swimsuits are required: the empty pool is a relic from the building’s past when squatters used it to gather rainwater.