Where to buy the things Albert Heijn does not stock: proper pickles, aged Dutch cheese, Asian pantry staples, and olive stalls worth stopping at. Last checked - June 2026.
Last checked - June 2026
Amsterdam has excellent specialty food shopping if you know where to look. The canal-district streets hide some very good spots; the markets fill in the rest. Below is the shortlist by category.
Pickles & preserved goods
01Dutch pickles / Rivierenbuurt
De Leeuw Zuurwaren house-made Dutch pickles
Vrijheidslaan 78, Rivierenbuurt · € · Thu, Fri and Sun only
A small pickling operation in the Rivierenbuurt that makes Dutch-style zuurkool (sauerkraut), augurken (gherkins), and a rotating selection of other fermented vegetables in the traditional way - no vinegar, proper lacto-fermentation. Open very limited hours: Thursday, Friday and Sunday only. The zuurkool is the main reason to come - you can taste the difference from the supermarket version immediately. Worth planning around if you are cooking Dutch food at home.
A Turkish grocery in Oost that sells properly fermented tursu - mixed vegetables (peppers, cabbage, cucumbers, carrots) in brine, made on site and sold from a barrel. Bring your own container or buy a bag. The tursu is the real thing: lacto-fermented, not vinegar-preserved, with the complexity that comes from time. The kind of thing you pick up every time you are in the area once you know about it.
Ten Katemarkt & Dappermarkt olive and pickle stalls
Ten Katestraat (Oud-West) and Dapperstraat (Oost) · € · Mon-Sat
Both markets have Turkish and Moroccan stalls selling olives, stuffed peppers, preserved lemons, and pickled vegetables from tubs - the kind of selection that shifts by visit. The Ten Katemarkt stalls are slightly larger and more varied; the Dappermarkt in Oost is more neighbourhood-feeling. Either is worth combining with the surrounding market shopping. The olive selection at the larger stalls covers fifteen-plus varieties.
Cheese
04Dutch cheese / Nine Streets
De Kaaskamer the Nine Streets cheese shop
Runstraat 7, Nine Streets · €€ · daily
The cheese shop in the Nine Streets that has been the reference point for aged Dutch cheese in Amsterdam for years. You can try before you buy, and the staff are knowledgeable about what is well-aged, what is young and fresh, and what pairs with what. The selection runs from young Gouda through extra-old (48 months plus) to farmhouse varieties and a range of non-Dutch European cheeses. A reliable stop on a Nine Streets walk. For old Dutch Gouda specifically, this is the place.
Stormsteeg 9, Centrum · € · Mon-Fri 09:00-19:00, Sat 09:00-18:00, Sun 12:00-18:00
A large Chinese and Southeast Asian supermarket just off the Zeedijk in Chinatown - the place Amsterdammers with an interest in Asian cooking have been going for decades. The range covers Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and other Asian pantry staples: good miso, proper fish sauce, fresh tofu, Asian vegetables, and a large frozen section with dim sum and dumplings. The dim sum counter is a reason to come in its own right. Not a tourist shop - a genuine grocery used by the Asian community and the people who cook that food at home.
One of Amsterdam's longest-running tocos - over 40 years in the city. An international food store that stocks the kind of ingredients you cannot find in a regular supermarket: Indonesian pantry staples, Surinamese specialties, tropical produce, and goods from across Southeast Asia and beyond. The kind of place that becomes a fixture once you know it.