Guides Amsterdam Locals' guide · Mokum

They don’t Mokum like they used to

Amsterdam was once a major centre of Jewish life. The community was largely destroyed in the Holocaust, and the food culture that survived is now scattered: a little of it is still central, but most has moved to the southern edge of the city and into Amstelveen, beyond Amsterdam proper. We have put the in-town options first and flagged the ones that are a trip out. Last checked June 2026.

Last checked - June 2026

Mokum is what Amsterdam’s Jewish community called the city - from the Hebrew makom, meaning place. At its peak before the Second World War, Amsterdam had a Jewish population of around 80,000. More than three-quarters were murdered. What survived - the food, the shops, the institutions - is fragmentary but real. Only two of the places below are properly central; the kosher delis are out in Buitenveldert and Amstelveen, well beyond the ring, and getting to them is a deliberate trip. We have ranked the in-town options first and marked clearly what is outside the city.

01Museum cafe / Centrum / in Amsterdam

Jewish Museum cafe the central option

Nieuwe Amstelstraat 1, Centrum (inside the Jewish Museum) · €€ · museum hours

The cafe inside the Jewish Historical Museum is the most central Jewish-food option in the city, and the only one you can fold into a normal day out in the centre. It is open during museum hours, so it is a lunch rather than a dinner, but it is the right stop if you are visiting the museum and the surrounding old Jewish Quarter, which also takes in the Portuguese Synagogue, the Hollandsche Schouwburg memorial and the Resistance Museum nearby. The food is simple; the location and context are what bring it to the top of the list.

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02Pickles / Rivierenbuurt / in Amsterdam

De Leeuw Zuurwaren barrel pickles since 1850

Vrijheidslaan 78, Rivierenbuurt · € · usually Thu, Fri & Sun, roughly 09:00-18:00

A working pickle shop on Vrijheidslaan in the Rivierenbuurt, running since 1850 and the last sour shop of Jewish origin left in Amsterdam. Buy the zure bom and the sweet-sour Amsterdamse zuur straight from the barrel. It is a counter, not a place to sit, and it opens only a few days a week - usually Thursday, Friday and Sunday - so check before you go. The Rivierenbuurt is a short tram ride south of the centre and was itself a Jewish neighbourhood before the war, which makes the shop a piece of living history as much as a place to shop.

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03Kosher delis / Buitenveldert / OUTSIDE Amsterdam

Rimon & Mouwes the Kastelenstraat delis · Rimon aka David's Corner

Kastelenstraat 69 & 261, Buitenveldert (outside the city) · €€ · closed Saturday

Two kosher delis a few doors apart on Kastelenstraat in Buitenveldert, the area on the far southern edge where much of the post-war community resettled. Rimon (no. 69) is the bakery-and-deli with the Israeli-Dutch range: challah, rugelach, Israeli salads, fresh bread on a Friday morning before it sells out. Mouwes (no. 261) is the older one and leans Dutch-Ashkenazi: smoked and cured meats, Dutch-Jewish pastries, pantry goods. Do both in one trip, as the street has enough to fill an hour. Be clear that this is well beyond the ring road and a deliberate outing, not a central stop. Both close for Shabbat and are shut on Saturday. Rimon is usually open Mon-Thu 08:30-18:00, Fri 08:30-16:00, Sun 10:00-16:30.

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04Kosher deli / Amstelveen / OUTSIDE Amsterdam

Sal Meijer the broodje pekelvlees

Professor J.H. Bavincklaan 5, Amstelveen (a separate town) · €€ · closed Saturday

A kosher sandwich shop that has been running since 1929, now in its fourth generation. The thing to order is the broodje pekelvlees: Dutch-style salt beef on a soft white roll, with mustard. The halfom is the other option - half salt beef, half liver. Both are the real thing. Be aware that Sal Meijer is in Amstelveen, a town just south of Amsterdam rather than part of the city, so it is the furthest of our picks - around 30 to 40 minutes by tram from the centre. The shop is small, the queue is sometimes out the door on a Sunday, and it keeps limited hours on certain days, so check before you go. The trip is deliberate and worth making.

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05Markets / Oud-West, Oost / in Amsterdam

Ten Katemarkt & Dappermarkt olive and pickle stalls

Ten Katestraat (Oud-West) and Dapperstraat (Oost) · € · Mon-Sat

Not Jewish food as such, but worth knowing for the fuller picture. Both markets have stalls selling Middle Eastern and North African preserved goods - olives, pickles, stuffed peppers, preserved lemons - that overlap with the broader Sephardic and Mizrahi food tradition. They are central and easy to reach, and they show how Middle Eastern and Jewish food cultures sit alongside one another in Amsterdam. A useful add-on to the Ashkenazi options above rather than a destination in their own right.

Common questions

Where can I find Jewish food without leaving central Amsterdam?

Two places stay close to the centre. The cafe inside the Jewish Museum on Nieuwe Amstelstraat 1 serves historic Dutch-Jewish dishes, and De Leeuw Zuurwaren at Vrijheidslaan 78 in the Rivierenbuurt has sold Jewish-origin barrel pickles since 1850. The fuller kosher choice, the delis, means a trip out to Buitenveldert on the southern edge of the city or to Amstelveen, which is a separate town beyond Amsterdam.

What about modern Israeli or Middle Eastern restaurants?

That is a different and much longer list. This page is about the old, surviving Dutch-Jewish food, but for contemporary Israeli and Eastern Mediterranean cooking the city is spoiled for choice. NENI on Stadionplein, in the converted Citroen garage, is the big buzzy one, with Esh, Mezave and plenty more across the centre and De Pijp. Most are not kosher, but they are where the living, modern side of this food turns up. For the hummus end of it, see our best hummus guide.

What is a broodje pekelvlees, and where is the best one?

It is the Dutch-Jewish answer to the New York pastrami sandwich: salt-cured beef, sliced thin, on a soft white roll with mustard. The one to get is at Sal Meijer, the fourth-generation kosher sandwich shop running since 1929. Note that Sal Meijer is in Amstelveen, a town just south of Amsterdam rather than in the city itself, so it is a deliberate trip of around 30 to 40 minutes by tram. Closed Saturday.

Why is there so little Jewish food in a city once called Mokum?

Amsterdam’s Jewish community was almost entirely destroyed in the Holocaust. More than three-quarters of Dutch Jews were murdered, one of the highest proportions in occupied Western Europe. What remains is a surviving fragment, and most of it has moved south: the post-war community resettled in Buitenveldert on the edge of the city and in neighbouring Amstelveen, which is where the kosher delis are today.

What does Mokum mean?

It is the name Amsterdam’s Jewish community gave the city, from the Hebrew makom (place, or the place). Locals still call Amsterdam Mokum, though the origin is no longer universally known. A good deal of old Amsterdam slang, words like gein, bajes and gabber, is Yiddish in origin. It is a way of naming the city that carries the whole history with it.

Were many of Amsterdam’s great figures Jewish?

Many of them, and the city’s nickname Mokum is itself a trace of that history. Samuel Sarphati, the doctor who gave nineteenth-century Amsterdam its bread factory, modern refuse collection and the Amstel Hotel, was voted the greatest Amsterdammer of all time by Parool readers in 2025. Michel de Klerk, the architect behind the Amsterdam School and its sculpted-brick housing such as Het Schip, was born in the old Jewish quarter in 1884. And Abraham Tuschinski built the extravagant 1921 cinema that still carries his name; he was murdered in Auschwitz in 1942, and Stolpersteine, the brass memorial stones, are set in the pavement at its entrance.

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