Best brown cafe food in Amsterdam

[High Dutch Cuisine]

Amsterdam’s a great place to be, what with all the delightful culinary offerings I’ve been discovering. Thanks to fellow foodie Talia who sent some delectable brownies to my door in Barcelona some time ago, I was able to be in the know for some of the sure-fire finds in town.

Fluent in Dutch and blissful with her newfound role as mom, Talia has lived in Mokum (what locals call Amsterdam) for five years now. We met in person for the first time last month in a traditional brown café here in the Jordaan, De Reiger, which Talia chose for the “track record of good food” the couple of times she’s been there.

We both ordered the rack of lamb with fried gnocchis -- done to perfection, paired with a glass of red. So busy were we talking about life in Amsterdam, food, and one’s life passions that we realized that we kept missing the busy servers to place our dessert orders that we finally left without sweetening a tooth.

My second visit to De Reiger was with T cos I know how much he loves lamb. For a change, I ordered the fish of the day. It was a sea bass on a bed of mashed potatoes served with asparagus and this creamy and flavorfully complex sauce that was extremely good. Again, we didn’t get a chance to taste the chocolate mousse cos by the time we finished our main course, it’d already been a hearty-enough meal.

One of the online reviews warned about getting seats because it can get crowded at dinner time. However, my first hand experience was that reservations are not possible, so you’d have to show up either a little earlier or later than the usual dinner crowd. Be prepared though: Dutch customer service, when it comes to food, are notoriously leisurely slow. They’ll take all the time they want and you’d be lucky if your food get served within 30 minutes the moment you are seated. (That's if they take your orders within 15 minutes of you being seated.) This is just how things work. Good luck!

In the know:
De Reiger
Kitchen open from 6 p.m. to 11.30 p.m.
Nw. Leliestraat 34, Amsterdam
Tel: 020-624 74 26