Cafes and Coffee Shops

Cafes in Amsterdam are really the pleasurable one. Café Chris at Bloemstraat, Café Karpershoek opposite to central station, Café Hoppe at Spui and Café Papeneiland are some of the oldest cafes in Amsterdam. Many of the café allows people to enjoy the fair weather while sitting on the café terrace. The famous Dutch coffee and traditional Jenever could be found at almost all cafés. Most of these cafes have outdoor seating arrangement.

Eetcafes (Eating Cafes) of Amsterdam are the sophisticated food focused cafés. One can find a casual and friendly atmosphere here. The older eetcafes still offers traditional and simple menus whereas the new ones are moving towards the innovative cookery. Delicious cup of famous Dutch coffee is served with any Amsterdam café. Beside this regional beer and a large catalog of wine are also available.

Another is the Brown Cafes or Bruine Kroegs that are located at various sites. These cafes give a different look and can easily be recognized due to the dark wooden fixtures and dark wooden stained walls used in it. There lies the carpet of old style on the table to clear up the scatter beer. These cafes are just like pubs and existed in Holland for hundreds of years. This is one of the best places for the visitors looking for drink, light snacks or friendly conversation. The light snacks includes small salad , sandwiches or hapjes of cheese, olive, nuts etc and fried craquettes of meat and potato which are well known as Bitterballen. It is also a fascination of this beautiful city due to the different impression.

It is better to carry cash in such cafes as some of the cafes don’t accept credit cards. You will have to be patient to wait for your turn for a table as the cafes are not much large.

Coffee Shops are generally the licensed shops. It generally offer light snacks with full menu and desserts. Soft drugs like marijuana and hash up to 5 grams is allowed to acquire from licensed coffee shops but the age of the person must be 18 years or above with an age proof. Hard drugs are strictly prohibited. Coffee shops in Amsterdam are basically of three types-