Amsterdam has a thriving cafe bar society with thousands of outlets right across the city, many with pleasant outside terraces or pavement tables. In Amsterdam, cafes and bars are virtually indistinguishable. Both sell food, snacks and alcohol as well as coffee, tea and soft drinks. But Amsterdam also has cafes where cannabis and other soft drugs are openly sold and smoked. These are euphemistically called coffee shops.
Amsterdam street cafes
Amsterdam street cafes sell beer, wine and spirits along with coffee, soft drinks and snacks. The coffee is usually espresso or cappuccino and is often served with evaporated milk. There is also a hot milk latte called verkeerd. In tourist hotspots you tend to get instant coffee sold at ground coffee prices.
A relatively recent trend in Amsterdam is the grand cafe, in the tradition of Rome and Paris. Here they lay on the style with ornate decor, large balconies and outdoor terraces.
Brown Cafes
Brown cafes (Bruin Cafe) are traditional pubs. They get their name from the dark, often dimly lit, smoke stained interiors. They open for breakfast and close around 2am. Some, such as the famous 350-year-old Hoppe, on Spuistraat, have a more upmarket clientele but even here one bar has no seats and the floor is strewn daily with fresh sand.
Other noted Brown Cafes are Reijnders in Leidseplein with its elegant high ceilings and those in the Jordaan area, with a young, lively clientele. Each brown cafe has its own character, but all have a friendly atmosphere and a wide range of beers.
Amsterdam beer
Amsterdam is beer drinkers' heaven with many fine beers and ales on sale. The Dutch favourite is white beer or witbier, often served with a lemon slice. You can drink beer or wine from 16 years in Amsterdam and spirits at age 18.
Some cafes are known as proeflokaal or 'tasting places' where there is an enormous range of beers. Many tourists opt for the Heineken Experience, a tour of the original brewery building.
See Amsterdam's Best Bars
Amsterdam snack bars
Typically Dutch are the city snack bars that serve chipped potatoes and mayonnaise, vlaamse frites, or the noted Dutch croquets vleeskroketten.
There is also a wide choice of late-night cafes and takeaways as well as scores of Middle Eastern bars called falafel that serve well past midnight. Visitors are often surprised by the hugely popular FEBO, where self serve snacks of burgers and sandwiches are dished out from coin-operated glass compartments.
Amsterdam coffeeshops
More than 300 Amsterdam coffeeshops are licensed to sell small quantities of cannabis to adults over 18. They are easily distinguished from normal cafes. The names are often suggestive, with words like 'happy' and 'high', and menus display drug prices.
Amsterdam has a long tradition of tolerance towards soft drug users. However, coffeeshop owners cannot advertise, may not stock more than 500 grams of cannabis and cannot sell more than five grams per person.
As well as coffeeshops there are 'Headshops' selling smoking paraphernalia, 'Growshops' that sell cannabis seed and 'Smartshops' selling herbal drugs and hallucinogenic mushrooms although there is now a campaign to have these closed down across Amsterdam.
Stylish dining
Brown cafe
Beer bottles
FEBO snack
Cafe tables
