Guides Amsterdam
Steak is one of those things where the safe bet beats the gamble. The three below are the ones we keep going back to, in roughly the order we reach for them. Top of the list is the one we have sent the most friends to, and every single one of them has come back happy.
- Where
- Handboogstraat 17a (off the Spui); also Ruysdaelkade 149 (Pijp) and Lange Niezel 15-17 (centre)
- Price
- €€
- Order
- the steak, plain and simple; the ribs if you are very hungry
- Busy
- Evenings, especially weekends; the centre branches fill fast
This is our first pick for a reason: it is consistent. We have sent friend after friend here and every one of them came away happy, which is more than we can say for most places in the centre. It is a small local chain, but the kind that holds its standard across branches rather than coasting on the name. The meat is properly cooked, the portions are generous, and the bill at the end never stings the way a tourist-strip steakhouse would. Loud, dark-wood, theatrical rooms, good fun with a group. If you only have one steak dinner in Amsterdam and you want a sure thing, this is it.
Find on Google Maps- Where
- Johannes Vermeerstraat 52, Oud-Zuid (the original; other branches across the city)
- Price
- €€
- Order
- the biefstuk van het huis, rare, with the jus and white bread
- Busy
- Sunny evenings on the terrace; book ahead at weekends
Ask an Amsterdammer where to get a steak and Loetje is the name that comes up first. The original has been on Johannes Vermeerstraat since 1977, a tram-curve away from the Concertgebouw. The thing to order is the biefstuk van het huis: tenderloin served rare in a pool of buttery jus, with white bread to mop it up. It is not subtle and it is not trying to be. Order it rare or you miss the point. There are branches all over the city now, but the Oud-Zuid room with its terrace is the one to sit in.
Find on Google Maps- Where
- Noorderstraat 11, between Rembrandtplein and the Heineken Experience
- Price
- €€
- Order
- the steak with the house gravy and bread; a jenever to start
- Busy
- Evenings; the small rooms mean booking is wise
If Loetje is the institution, Piet de Leeuw is the time capsule. Open since 1949, it looks and feels like a proper brown cafe: wooden floors, jenever jars on the panelling, oil paintings and stained glass, the works. You squeeze in among the regulars and order the steak, which arrives unfussy and done right. Come here when you want the atmosphere as much as the meat, an old-Amsterdam evening that the newer steakhouses cannot fake. Smaller than it looks from the street, so call ahead.
Find on Google Maps