Tokio Café
Spui 15
1012 WX Amsterdam
Tel: 020 4897918

*Map*

Open daily from 11:00 till 23:00

Burgermeester has 3 locations:

Pijp:
Albert Cuypstraat 48
1072 CV Amsterdam
tel: 020 6709339
*Map*

Jordaan:
Elandsgracht 130
1016 VB Amsterdam
tel: 020 4236225
*Map*

Near Artis:
Plantage Kerklaan 37
1018 CV Amsterdam
tel: 020 4280211
*Map*

Open daily from 12:00 to 23:00
email: mail@burgermeester.eu

xxx Esther

Bazar Amsterdam
Albert Cuypstraat 182
1073 BL Amsterdam
Telephone 020-675 05 44

*Map*

Open seven days a week, check website for exact hours.

If you happen to be in Amsterdam and have a few hours to spare for some coffee and shopping, Utrechtsestraat is a good place to go.
The Koffiesalon, a lovely coffee-shop (in the true meaning of the word), has good seating, great espresso, yummy cakes and sandwiches and you can help yourself to as much water as you like. I brought my daughter here for some mummy and daughter time before and we both greatly enjoyed it. It’s also a good place to meet friends or even have an informal meeting.
Not far up the road, at number 74, you’ll find one of my favourite shops in Amsterdam, Jan. The shop owner, Janna, who obviously has great taste, has gathered a fantastic selection of products. Lamps, cushions, dinnerware and cutlery are amongst the stock, but the shop also features fashion accessories such as bags, belts, jewelery and watches, and some lovely toys and kiddie books. If you need a present or want to treat your own family (= yourself), don’t miss it.
Next door you’ll find Bellerose (they have good kids’ clothes). Funky ladies fashion can be found at Jan Lensen, beautiful French and Italian ceramics at Kom, great interior pieces at Mobilia, and there are many, many more great shops and restaurants. Maybe you’ll need more than a few hours!

Utrechtsestraat
Amsterdam

*map*

I’m sure I’m telling the food-concious Amsterdam inhabitant nothing new when I say the word ‘Marqt‘. Because Marqt came and conquered, and we didn’t look back!
The concept behind Marqt (not a supermarket but a ‘fresh market’) is fresh food, mostly organic, coming from local farms in the neighbourhood of Amsterdam and of very high quality. Everything is presented in a sublime and spacious interior (think wood, brick and stainless steel).
For people living in NY or London, where fancy food experiences (we don’t call them supermarkets any more) such as Whole Foods are around your corner, this concept might be nothing new. But to us here in provincial Amsterdam, organic shopping used to be limited to a couple of over-prized, sexless bio-shops where the shop assistants were as slow and un-enthusiastic as the food they were selling. But with Marqt in town, Amsterdam is back on the organic map!

P.S. When you go shopping at Marqt (BTW the bread is divine), you can leave your cash at home, because they only accept cards.

The Dutch are pretty famous for their cheeses. The ‘normal’ Gouda cheese is well known internationally, and also the plain Edam cheese is pretty much available in better cheese shops all over the world.
A cheese I have never found abroad though is ‘komijnekaas’ (‘cumin cheese’) — basically a Gouda or Edam cheese with cumin seeds in it, and a cheese we love in the Netherlands (at least I do)!
The cumin seeds give the cheese a mild, nutty flavour and it is very good on a slice of fresh bread or just as is on a cheese platter.
If in Amsterdam, make sure to step in to one of the many cheese shops (don’t worry — although they are certainly ‘cheesy’, they are not at all ‘just for tourists’)! They will gladly let you taste cumin cheese – and any other cheese you would like to try (and there are many)!

These days we just love meeting friends for breakfast or brunch on a weekend morning. Breakfast is probably my favourite meal of the day to start with, but besides that, early in the day my kids are still well rested and thus more enjoyable (as opposed to overall crankiness at dinner time)! Also, like every other parent with little children, we’re awake early anyways, so we might as well start our social schedule before noon! (Of course the friends we are meeting have kids too – the friends without kids would be crazy to leave their beds before noon on a weekend morning! In fact, it should be forbidden – what a waste!)

My favourite breakfast place is ‘De Bakkerswinkel’ (The Bakers’ Shop). Not only can you buy yummy breads, cakes and scones at the counter of ‘The Bakkerswinkel’, they also serve a wonderful (Dutch style) breakfast, lunch or tea in the restaurant area, which always has a very cozy and homey feel to it! Think jars of honey and home-made jams on the table, big cups of cappuccinos (small cups of babyccinos for the little ones of course), baskets filled with delicious breads, scones, etc. The menu is big enough to have something yummy for everyone’s taste!

My favourite ‘Bakkerswinkel’ in Amsterdam (there are three of them) is the one in the Warmoesstraat (near Amsterdam’s Central Station). They have a cute little setup in the back for children (some toys, books and crayons on a cute little table), and my children always end up making friends up there (and leave us grown-ups alone for a bit)! They also have a couple of highchairs handy for smaller kids. And the staff is always very friendly!

What a great way to start a weekend day!

xxx Esther

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De Bakkerswinkel
Warmoesstraat 69
1012 HX Amsterdam
Tel 020-489 8000
*Map*

Opening hours
For breakfast: Tue-fri 8.00 -12.00, Sat 8.00 – 12.00, Sun 10.00 – 12.00
Lunch: Tue – Sun 12.00 – 16.00
High tea: Tue – Sun 14.00 – 16.00
(Closed on Mondays)

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Le Fournil is the first original French bakery in the Netherlands, and it is immensely popular. Getting fresh bread on a weekend morning means standing in line here, but it is worth it! The most delicious baguettes, croissants, brioches, madeleines… Yum!
Sébastien, the owner, comes from a family of many generations of bakers located in the Vendée (France). Together with his Dutch wife he owned a bakery in France for over 10 years, but when they were visiting family in the Netherlands the idea of starting a French bakery in Amsterdam slowly took form. An excellent idea, if you ask me! One of our neighbourhood treasures…

Last week we finally had a nice and warm, summery day in the Netherlands, so a girlfriend and I took our children to one of the hip & cool city beaches here in Amsterdam: Strand Zuid (South Beach).
Behind the (big & ugly) congress centre, ‘Amsterdam Rai’, and on the border of the Beatrix Park pond, a lovely treasure is hidden: a beach in the middle of Amsterdam!
There are 2,000 square meters of sand, chill-out areas, bars & terraces with good food, sun-loungers, a beach volleyball field and showers. It’s great to bring your children here on a warm summer day; they can enjoy themselves in the sand and play with all the other kids, while you can relax a bit with a rosé and pretend to be in the Mediterranean…

It’s also not a bad place to come without children – for a stylish dinner on a nice summer evening… It’s open until midnight on weekends.

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STRANDZUID
Between Amsterdam RAI and Beatrixpark
Europaplein 22
1078 GZ AMSTERDAM
*Map*
Open daily 10.00-23.00, in weekends untill midnight
Only in summer!

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I must say, I was certainly not disappointed! I tried the blue 72% cacao variety and it was beautifully brittle and tasty. By now I was getting curious – what’s the story behind these different-looking chocolate bars with their weird name?
A visit to Tony Chocolonely’s website explained it all, and made me laugh and cry at the same time…

In 2002 Teun (Tony) van de Keuken, a Dutch TV journalist, came across information suggesting that child slaves were being used on cacao plantations in Ivory Coast. These slaves (mostly boys/young men, sold into slavery from the neighbouring countries of Togo, Benin and Mali) are treated very badly for little food and no money, and unable to leave the plantations. He also discovered that most of the chocolate sold by our own local supermarkets contains cocoa from Ivory Coast.

Because slavery is a crime, and buying something while knowing that a crime was committed in the process of obtaining this good is illegal, Tony, a chocolate lover as many of us, considered himself guilty of buying the products of slavery. After eating 9 bars of chocolate in a single day he decided to surrender himself to the police…

How all this of this ends with Tony producing his own slave-free chocolate bars I’ll let you read for yourself. Make sure you watch the little video too.

If you visit the Netherlands, you should definitely try Tony’s slave-free chocolate!!! It’s for a good cause!

xxx Esther

The men behind ‘De Taart van m’n Tante’, Siemon and Noam, strive to make everybody (young and old, conservative and hip, Sikhs and nuns) at home in their cake parlour, and in my opinion they have succeeded. I especially love the grandma-style sofa and coffee-table in the back!
The cakes are yummy (my daughter was very happy to find out that they serve a super sweet strawberry cake entirely covered in pink marzipan – exactly to her taste!) and the owners really easygoing. They didn’t seam to mind at all that my little boy was screaming for cookies – in fact, they just gave him a plate full of them!

If you want to order a cool cake for a birthday, baptism or Bar Mitzvah, they will happily custom design any sort of cake (I mean ANY sort). But make sure you order well in advance! (Cakes from their regular assortment can be ordered 24 hours beforehand).

xxx Esther

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De Taart van mijn Tante
Ferdinand Bolstraat 10
1072 LJ Amsterdam
+31 (0) 20 776 4600
*Map*
open daily from 10.00 to 18.00

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Last night at Issa we tried a new dish: Okonomiyaki, or Japanese Pancake. A true discovery! Initially, the dish almost looked alive — it’s presented on a hot plate and because of the heat, the bonito flakes on top were moving around like wiggly worms! Intriguing! The taste of it was wonderful, and the kids loved it!

We chose the variety with sliced pork belly, but it also comes with seafood, which we are definitely going to try next time as this dish proved to be an instant hit. I will also maybe try to make it myself sometime. This seems like a good recipe…

xxx Esther

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Issa
Stadionkade 249
1076 NX Amsterdam
+31 (0) 20 6628224
*Map*
Closed on Mondays

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Praq is located along the Amstel river in the beautiful little village of Oudekerk aan de Amstel — not very far from Amsterdam at all (I would say about a 40 minute, very scenic bike-ride). We love this restaurant so much because not only do they serve great food, they also have a complete section reserved just for kids (and their parents). All this is done in a really tasteful way – no Donald Duck in sight! Parents, children, even business people feel comfortable here!

Cool features include: a puzzle wall, car-tables, a drawing-table, a DVD station, toy-kitchens and plenty of toys in general — even for babies. And it goes without saying that kids’ menus, high chairs and changing stations are readily available!

When you’re in town and toying with the idea of paying a visit, make sure you make a reservation first. Because we are not the only ones in love with this place…

xxx Esther

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Praq
Amstelzijde 37
1184 TX Ouderkerk aan de Amstel
+31 (0)20 496 1570
*Map*
Opened daily from 12.00 to 22.00

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The ‘Vondeltuin‘ is a lovely café/restaurant with a huge terrace AND playground in the most northwestern tip of the beautiful Vondelpark, a perfect place to bring children on a summery day. High chairs are available.
Bigger kids (and parents) can rent skates here — only 15 euros for a full day! Or 5 euros for the first hour and 2,50 for each next hour, if you’re less fanatic…
Don’t worry if you think you’re a disaster on skates – this is no excuse: a workshop can be booked at the Vondeltuin and before you know it, you’ll be an expert!
You will even be able to skate-carry that picnic around you picked up at the Vondeltuin (only by reservation)!

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Vondeltuin
Vondelpark 7
1075 VR Amsterdam
+31 (0)6 2756 5576
*Map*

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On the edge of the Vondelpark in Amsterdam there is a wonderful place to bring your kids: the Kinderkookcafé (Childrens’ Cooking Café). The fact that it is a café is good news for the parents – they can meet up and have a cup of coffee and a simple snack like a sandwich, soup or apple-pie. The good news for the kids is that while their parents are catching up and drinking coffees, they can ‘cook’! They have a choice of:

• Making pizza
• Decorate cookies / cup cakes
• Making sausage animals
• Making sandwich faces
• Making carrot or cucumber puzzles

There are also plenty of toys and books around, and a lovely outdoor area to sit and play. For all ages. Mini chairs, high chairs, kiddies toilets and baby changing facilities are available.

xxx Esther

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Kinderkookcafé
Vondelpark 6b (look for the ‘Kattenlaan’ at Overtoom 325)
1071 AA Amsterdam
+31 (0)20 625 3257
*Map*
Open daily from 10.00 to 17.00

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