Eating and Drinking, Amsterdam

Well known and very popular with locals and tourists and eveyone in between!!! This place is heaving in the evenings!!! It is great fun and on a Thursday night's there's live Irish music.

Dress Code: Wear what you like!

Yes, 350 different kinds of beer; and what's more amazing is that they are all Dutch beers!
What's so special? you might ask, since there are hundreds of German and Belgian beers known worldwide for their quality?
Exactly! The beers that you find at 't Arendsnest are rare, and if you like beer as much as I do you will enjoy the novelty.

Their own-brewed Amber Ale (Herengracht 90) is a must!

Dress Code: Dress casually, people bring their pet dogs here :)

Just round the corner from our hotel we found De Saloon Bar. A very small, wedge-shaped pub frequented mostly by locals watching the footy (Juventus vs Feyenoord). Here it seems beer and chips are the order of the day - but the friendly chef/barman will be happy to oblige with whatever ingredients he happens to have - he makes a great bowl of vegetable noodles - as long as you remember compliment him on his hat making skills :)) Oh and the cheese and pineapple toasties aren't bad either.

Dress Code: Anything.

Zotte is one of the many 'brown' bars in Amsterdam (=pubs with wooden interior and furnitures) located just West of Leidseplein. It is very popular with locals, which I like a lot since it enables me to make new friends.

The best feature about this bar is for its wide selection of Belgian beers, a country which arguably has the best ales in the world :)

It gets busy during the weekend so be prepared to share your table, but then again it's a great way to meet new people.

The Nederlands Biercafé 't Arendsnest serves a variety of special Dutch beers. It is housed in a small canal house with a relax atmosphere. At the canal is a small terras overlooking the Herengracht canal.

Just tell the waiter your beer preference and he will match your taste.

Bar food is a "kleine kaart", some great appetizers like "gehaktballetjes" and more.

Business hours:
Mo-Th: 4PM-Midnight
Fr-Su: 4PM-2AM next day

Dress Code: Come as you are.

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Housed in a former Port Authority building slightly out of the city center, Panama consists of a restaurant and a hip nightclub/theater at night. The restaurant itself is roomy, with large windows, high ceilings and subdued stylish decoration.

The Leidseplein area is packed with great restaurants and British style pubs, most serving the typical Heineken, Grolsch or Amstel brews. But if you can, find a brown cafe, which is a Dutch beer hall where you can sample some more creative brews.

My favorite area to wander at night was Spui, where you'll find great bars and restaurants to hang out.

Although you might find it a bit overdone and fake, there's no denying that Café Cuba has done a great deal to evoke the sultry spirit of Hemingway's Havana. The music is lively, as is the crowd. It's all very friendly and the mojito's are reasonably priced. Alcohol in general is quite cheap here, which is a great plus!

Dress Code: It's popular with the late-twenty and thirtysomething working crowd, so you get the picture.

Grand Café De Kroon has been going strong for years on end. It's still an amazingly beautiful colonial-style bar, but it has also been jazzed up to the 3rd millennium! Flat-screen monitors show soothing images and another section has been redecorated to a modern-yet-antique dining section. The middle part is still old-style with high ceilings and the part overlooking the square is more intimate.

Still, this café upstairs from the Rembrandtplein is still best when sitting on the leather sofas and sipping a cup of coffee or a cocktail after a long day of shopping (or before a long night of clubbing)!

Dress Code: Dress up, you won't regret it!

Not too far south of Dam Square, off a side road is the Cafee t'Gasthuys. It overlooks one of Amsterdams canals and is a pleasant place to sit for a few beers, or some food.

The crowd were almost all Dutch, with a one table of English visitors when we were there (and us Welsh, of course). The bar serves hot food and snacks till around 10pm. There are at least too very friendly black cats that live inside the pub!

It was an interesting place to sit outside and people-watch, or observe the many night boats that passed along the canal. Some were luxury craft, candle-lit with wealthy passengers drinking wine. Others were loud, pumping music into the night, filled with young revellers having fun.

Watch out for the occasional passing car or motorbike - the lane is narrow and if you are sitting near the road you will get a mouth full of petrol fumes!!