9 Great Spots For Brunch In Amsterdam

Amsterdam may be the best city in the world for brunch. And not just on Sunday mornings. This is a city where brunch is available every day of the week, often from dawn until dusk.

Finding brunch options in the Netherlands is the opposite of a challenge. Dating back centuries, Dutch pancakes known as Pannenkoeken have been on Amsterdam menus since Holland’s early days of trading and exploration.

We both ate Pannenkoeken 20 years ago when we separately visited Amsterdam for the first time as independent travelers. Now that we’ve visited the orange city a combined total of seven times, we still enjoy eating Amsterdam food favorites but also look for new things to eat around town.

Discover our Amsterdam food favorites.

Today’s Amsterdam has a bounty of brunch choices both inside and outside the city’s canal ring. The best brunches in Amsterdam range from classic breakfast fare like omelets to more unique dishes like dim sum.

Whether you’re recovering after a night on the town or in need of a break after an early morning museum visit, there’s no reason to skip brunch in the DAM.

Let’s face it – most food travelers burn the candle on both ends when they visit Amsterdam. The city’s nightlife transcends the seedy red light district with a plethora of festive beer gardens and classic cocktail bars.

Some people party hard and frequent the city’s many coffee shops, some of which actually serve coffee. Others run themselves ragged while touring Amsterdam with kids.

It’s all good until it’s time to wake up the next morning for another day of exploring sites like the Rijksmuseum, Nemo Science Center and Van Gogh Museum.

Don’t worry – we have you covered with the best Amsterdam brunches to energize a busy day of touring with or without kids. We’ve taste-tested many of the city’s brunch spots and can attest to Amsterdam’s amazing late morning dining options.

Pro Tip
Expect to spend €15 – €20 for a typical Amsterdam brunch. This estimated cost includes one specialty coffee drink but no alcoholic beverages. If you’re traveling on a budget, you can check online menus for specific and current restaurant prices.

Thanks to our friends Mr. Bacon and Mrs. Syrup, we’ve rarely experienced a brunch we haven’t liked. But some mid-morning meals are better than others.

After eating our way through Amsterdam’s thriving brunch scene, the following bruncheries get our highest recommendations:

Hiding on a quiet alley in the Centrum since 2007, brunch gem Gartine proves that great family-run restaurants still exist in the heart of Amsterdam. Though the cozy restaurant has just 10 tables, Gartine’s menu is filled with numerous tempting dishes, many prepared with fruits and vegetables plucked from the restaurant’s kitchen garden.

Owners Willem and Kirsten Hendriks run Gartine with a hospitable passion that permeates throughout the restaurant. We enjoyed chatting with them almost as much as we enjoyed eating their food. We were even tempted to buy their gorgeous cookbook until we found out that it’s only available in Dutch.

During our meal, we ate scrumptious Sugar Bread French Toast topped with caramel syrup, dairy butter, crunchy bananas and nuts as well as a wonderfully prepared Eggs Benedict with delicate soft boiled organic eggs, a slice of crisp lettuce, baked ham and a tasty bérnaise sauce that wasn’t too thick.

Daryl declared his Amsterdam breakfast plate to be the best Eggs Benedict he’d ever eaten anywhere in the world. Mindi liked her French Toast too.

Beyond brunch, Gartine serves a reasonably priced high tea for those in need of an afternoon pick-me-up. Be sure to plan ahead whether you want to try the brunch or high tea or both – this hidden Amsterdam treasure is only open four days a week.

Pro Tip
Make advance reservations for your meal at this small but mighty Amsterdam brunch spot.

Gartine is located at Taksteeg 7, 1012 PB Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Keeping with the Australian theme, baristas at Little Collins expertly prepare coffee drinks with locally procured beans from White Label. We’re not saying you should get coffee instead of a cocktail. We say order both for a complete Amsterdam brunch experience.

Pro Tip
Don’t worry if you can’t make it to the De Pijp Little Collins for brunch. The popular Amsterdam eatery also serves dinner four nights a week.

Little Collins has two Amsterdam locations. We ate at the De Pijp location at Eerste Sweelinckstraat 19F, 1073 CL Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Dignita lives up to its motto of eat well, do good. Open since 2015, the restaurant creates healthy dishes with seasonal, local products. Taking the motto to a higher lever, Dignita uses its profits to support the Not For Sale social enterprise.

The Hoftuin restaurant’s bucolic setting just behind the city’s Hermitage Museum is both kid-friendly and serene – two features that don’t always go together. Even better, diners choose between great indoor dining in a glasshouse or outdoor dining on a patio adjacent to an on-site garden.

Consider ending your meal with something sweet. We ended ours with a colorful Raspberry & Almond Friand, a pastry more typical in Australia and New Zealand than in the Netherlands.

Pro Tip
Don’t hesitate to order coffee at Dignita. We wholeheartedly approve of their coffee prepared with locally procured beans from Rum Baba.

Dignita has two Amsterdam locations. We ate at the Hoftuin location at Nieuwe Herengracht 18a, 1018 DP Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Combining breakfast and lunch into brunch allegedly started in England and was later perfected in New York City. However, the best brunch places in Amsterdam excel at serving classic mid-morning dishes.

If you’re jonesing for a great omelet or a pile of pancakes after a late Amsterdam night, check out one of the following spots:

Bakers & Roasters’ Veggie Brekkie comes loaded with two free-range eggs, grilled halloumi, avocado, breakfast potatoes, creamy mushrooms, homemade chili jam and hot buttered toast. Beyond egg dishes, brunch options include breakfast bowls, cakes and seasonal specialties.

Pro Tip
Feel free to wander around the trendy neighborhood after you give your phone number to the host or hostess. You’ll get a text as soon as your table is ready.

Bakers & Roasters has two Amsterdam locations. We ate at the De Pijp location at Eerste Jacob van Campenstraat 54, 1072 BH Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Hungry brunchers can eat international-themed breakfasts inspired by Mexico City, London and New York when they dine at The Breakfast Club, though buttermilk pancakes topped with banana slices and fresh berries are more than big enough to share. Keeping to its global theme, the restaurant serves British sugar syrup with its fluffy American-style pancakes.

Pro Tip
Add a colorful smoothie to your brunch at The Breakfast Club. Options include yellow, red and green.

The Breakfast Club has multiple Amsterdam locations. We ate at the Bellamystraat location at Bellamystraat 2-h, 1053 BL Amsterdam, Netherlands.

With an atmosphere that skews more industrial than cozy, Betty Blue offers an all-day brunch experience in the center of Amsterdam. Just a two-minute walk from the Rembrandt House Museum, this a great spot to rejuvenate with comfort food, sweet treats and coffee.

We went big and ordered the Chicken & Waffles Supreme – a crunchy liege waffle loaded with marinated chicken, bacon, cheddar, fried egg and whiskey caramel sauce. Big enough to share, the sweet waffle provided a pleasing contrast to the dish’s savory, thick bacon.

Other brunch options range from pancakes to burgers. Sweets lovers have more than a dozen choices including pasteis de natas, the popular Portuguese pastries. As for coffee fanatics, they’ll be more than satisfied with drinks crafted with beans locally procured from the likes of Boca Coffee Roasters.

Pro Tip
Eat a burger here if you’re looking for an Amsterdam lunch break while touring museums.

Betty Blue is located at Snoekjessteeg 1-3, 1011 HA Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Not surprisingly based on its name, CT Coffee and Coconuts serves a variety of coffee and coconut drinks. Though the house Coconut Coffee artfully blends the two in a highly-caffeinated brew with two espresso shots, coconut milk, agave and ice, we prefer their cappuccinos made with local White Label beans.

Pro Tip
Feel free to kick off your shoes and relax. This cafe welcomes barefoot customers.

CT Coffee and Coconuts is located at Ceintuurbaan 282-284, 1072 GK Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The Avocado Show is a mecca for Instagrammers looking to take adorable shots of fun food served in a charming setting. We typically avoid these places like the plague but were intrigued by the chance to eat a ‘pretty healthy’ menu filled with a ‘good avocado vibe’.

Giving in to our curiosity and sense of FOMO (i.e. fear of missing out), we popped into The Avocado Show to share a mid-morning poke bowl as one does in Amsterdam. Our worst fears came true when we realized that the two diners next to us were solely there to take photos of themselves and their strategically plated food.

However, the quality of the food made up for The Avocado Show’s arguably pretentious atmosphere. Our Salvocado, a colorful, Insta-worthy avocado poke bowl with sushi rice, raw salmon, wakame, edamame, masago eggs and soy sauce was nothing short of avolicious.

Pro Tip
Plan to wait for a table unless you arrive early. The Avocado Show is popular with both Instagrammers and avocado fans.

The Avocado Show has multiple locations in Amsterdam. We ate at the De Pijp location at Daniël Stalpertstraat 61, 1072 XB Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Located near the Amsterdam Centraal Train Station, Sea Palace stands out as the only pagoda ‘floating’ on Lake IJ. Beyond the wow factor of its building, Sea Palace has been impressing diners with its food since it opened in 1984.

True confession: We primarily dined at Sea Palace to experience epic views both inside and outside the three-story restaurant. Before our Sunday brunch, we didn’t have high expectations for the food itself. Based on its location and pagoda-shaped building, Sea Palace looked like it might be a tourist trap.

Our opinion changed as soon as we walked inside and saw hundreds of diners including numerous families of Chinese descent. The menu looked quite promising as well, with pages filled with tempting dim sum choices.

The high ceilinged, Buddhist temple-esque space is one of the grandest Chinese restaurant spaces we’ve ever eaten in and a testament to the international flavor of one of the most picturesque cities in the world. While the red walls and golden dragons may seem cliche, the beautiful sunlit space with a view of Amsterdam’s Lake IJ docks is nothing short of stunning.

But what about the food? We can confidently state that the dim sum at Sea Palace rivals dim sum we’ve previously eaten in Hong Kong.

Since we literally ate at Sea Palace mere hours before we boarded the MS Nieuw Statendam for a week-long cruise to Norway, we were frugal with our ordering. After eating small baskets of Taai Chi Kau (dumplings filled with scallops and eggs), Siu Mai (steamed pork dumplings) and Ha Kau (prawn dumplings), we wished that our stomachs had unlimited space so we could order more. On the upside, our food frugality resulted in a check for under €20.

We loved our meal at Sea Palace so much that we plan on exploring more of the city’s dim sum culture during our next swing through Amsterdam.

Pro Tip
Go with friends and order Peking Duck. Then again, you can’t go wrong with Sea Palace’s Dim Sum if you’re dining solo or crave dumplings.

Sea Palace is located at Oosterdokskade 8, 1011 AE Amsterdam, Netherlands.

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