To eat well near Dam Square, walk two to ten minutes off the square. Down an alley there’s a fish counter. Nearby, a bakery makes a single cookie, and a frites window has a queue that never leaves. Below are our picks, each with the walking time from the Dam.
The short list
9 places, in the order they appear below.
- 1Rob Wigboldus VishandelA fish roll at lunchOn foot from the Dam: about 3 minCentrum
- 2Van Stapele KoekmakerijA warm cookie mid afternoonOn foot from the Dam: about 2 minCentrum
- 3FuLu MandarijnSichuan food shared with a groupOn foot from the Dam: about 3 minCentrum
- 4LanskroonA warm stroopwafelOn foot from the Dam: about 10 minCentrum
- 5Vleminckx de SausmeesterFrites eaten on the moveOn foot from the Dam: about 10 minCentrum
- 6Pannenkoekenhuis UpstairsPancakes up a steep staircaseOn foot from the Dam: about 7 minCentrum
- 7LuciusA seafood platter for twoOn foot from the Dam: about 6 minCentrum
- 8De Silveren SpiegelA special-occasion dinnerOn foot from the Dam: about 9 minCentrum
- 9A-FusionMany small Asian platesOn foot from the Dam: about 8 minNieuwmarkt
What can you eat within five minutes of Dam Square?
Plenty, as long as you leave the square itself. Two or three minutes on foot gets you to a cookie bakery and a Sichuan restaurant on Rokin, or to a three-table fish shop down an alley just off the Dam. The Chinese kitchen cooks straight through from lunch to dinner, which helps if you eat early or late.
Rob Wigboldus Vishandel has a reputation for the best fish sandwich in the centre. Smoked mackerel and herring rolls are cut and dressed to order, and the mackerel is the one to pick if herring isn’t for you. Come at lunch. There are three tables, so expect to eat standing or on the move.
Rob Wigboldus Vishandel
Hours: Mon–Sun 08:00–17:00
Address: Zoutsteeg 6, 1012 LX Amsterdam, Netherlands
Van Stapele Koekmakerij makes one thing: a dark chocolate cookie with a molten white chocolate centre. It’s sold warm, in batches, until the day’s supply runs out. A fresh batch arrives mid afternoon, along with a short queue down the lane. Buy more than you planned. Once everything sells, the shop closes.
Van Stapele Koekmakerij
Hours: Mon–Sun 10:00–18:00
Address: Rokin 17, 1012 KK Amsterdam, Netherlands
At FuLu Mandarijn the menu is Sichuan food, with its numbing pepper and chilli oil, plus some Cantonese dishes and dim sum. Plates are meant for sharing, so it works best with a group ordering family style. Tell the staff how hot you want it. The kitchen can turn the spice up or down without losing the flavour.
FuLu Mandarijn
Hours: Mon–Thu 11:30–22:00 · Fri–Sat 11:30–22:30 · Sun 11:30–22:00
Address: Rokin 26, 1012 KS Amsterdam, Netherlands
Where to get stroopwafels, frites and pancakes near Dam Square?
All three are about ten minutes’ walk or less. For warm stroopwafels, head to a family bakery on a quiet stretch of the Singel. The frites, thick and double-fried, come from a window near the Spui, and pancakes are made in a one-person kitchen up in a small room on the Grimburgwal.
Lanskroon, a family bakery, is known for the best fresh stroopwafel in town, served warm while the syrup is still soft. Ask for one straight off the iron, not a packaged one, and go for the fig or honey filling if they have it.
Lanskroon
Hours: Mon–Thu 09:00–17:00 · Fri–Sat 09:00–17:30 · Sun 10:00–17:30
Address: Singel 385, 1012 WL Amsterdam, Netherlands
Vleminckx de Sausmeester fries thick Belgian-style chips twice, then buries them under whichever sauce you choose from a long wall of them. For the local classic, order them with oorlog: peanut sauce, mayonnaise and onion together. The queue never really goes away, so aim for off-peak hours. There’s no seating. You eat from a paper cone as you walk.
Vleminckx de Sausmeester
Hours: Mon–Wed 11:00–19:00 · Thu 11:00–20:00 · Fri–Sun 11:00–19:00
Address: Voetboogstraat 33, 1012 XK Amsterdam, Netherlands
Pannenkoekenhuis Upstairs is a tiny room hung with teapots, at the top of a staircase about as steep as any in the city. With only a handful of tables, calling ahead is essential. Go slowly on the stairs coming down.
Pannenkoekenhuis Upstairs
Hours: Mon–Sat 12:00–18:00 · Sun 12:00–17:00
Address: Grimburgwal 2, 1012 GA Amsterdam, Netherlands
Where to have dinner near Dam Square?
For a sit-down dinner, look six to nine minutes from the Dam. We’ve picked a long-running seafood restaurant on Spuistraat and a fine dining room in two old gabled houses on the Kattengat. The third is a long room on the Zeedijk in Nieuwmarkt, with small plates from several Asian kitchens. Each is serious about dinner, in a very different way.
Lucius is plain and unfussy, and it’s all about seafood: oysters, whole grilled fish, a generous cold platter. The seafood platter for two is the signature order. As for the fish of the day, that depends on what looked best at the market. Locals keep coming back because the cooking has been reliable for years.
Lucius
Hours: Mon–Sun 17:00–22:30
Address: Spuistraat 247, 1012 VP Amsterdam, Netherlands
De Silveren Spiegel fills two leaning 17th-century gabled houses, all crooked beams and Delft tile. The seasonal menu is refined and draws on the Dutch coast and countryside. Ask for a table upstairs, under the old beams. For wine, let the sommelier pair by the glass: the cellar goes much deeper than the printed list.
De Silveren Spiegel
Hours: Mon closed · Tue–Thu 18:00–23:00 · Fri 12:30–23:00 · Sat 12:30–22:00 · Sun closed
Address: Kattengat 4, 1012 SZ Amsterdam, Netherlands
At A-Fusion, sushi is cut at the front counter, while the dim sum, wok and barbecue kitchens sit further back. The cooking borrows from Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Korean food and comes as small plates, so a table can cover a lot of the menu. Order in rounds, not all at once. Ask whether the chef’s surprise menu is on that night, since that’s when the kitchen shows more of its range.
A-Fusion
Hours: Mon–Thu 16:00–22:45 · Fri–Sat 12:00–23:30 · Sun 12:00–22:45
Address: Zeedijk 130, 1012 BC Amsterdam, Netherlands
Which place near Dam Square suits your plan?
It comes down to how much time you have and whether you want to sit. The table below lists each place with its neighbourhood, how long the walk from the Dam takes and what it does best, from a two-minute cookie stop to a nine-minute dinner.
Since everything here is within ten minutes of the Dam, two or three stops fit easily into one walk: a fish roll for lunch, a cookie or stroopwafel in the afternoon, dinner later. Book the pancake house ahead, where it’s essential, and the dinner rooms too on busy nights. Hours are on each card, so check them before you set out.
