We got in and it was quite full. Luckily there was a place free in the window. The sun was shining today, although it was cold. But sitting inside in the sun behind the window was nice and warm, which I was grateful for. The chocolates in the sugar not though, cause they were melted from the heat. Not a pretty sight.

Bagels & Beans has a variety of bagels with different toppings on the menu. From basic cream cheese to the old dutch cheese with mustard and pickles. They also have fresh juices, sweets and coffees. The girl came fairly quickly to ask for our order even though the place was full. I ordered a large carrot and orange juice and a bagel with parma ham. My friend ordered a no stress juice, that’s a mix of juices with ginger and royal jelly. Also large. When the girl came with the drinks though they were both normal size. So she took them back and a little later the large versions appeared. But make sure to emphasize that you want the XL version, cause it is something that often goes wrong.

The bagel arrived a little later and by then my friend also got hungry so he ordered a bagel with cream cheese with walnuts and honey. When his bagel arrived we dug in. The combination of parma ham and rocket salad was quite nice on my bagel. I read the other day in the Mens Health that you shouldn’t eat bagels if you want to get a six pack, so I ordered a brownie and a coffee to alleviate my guilt Unfortunately they didn’t have the chai tea today.

The brownie here is very nice! Now they have added some kind of chocolate sprinkles on top making it even better. My friend wanted to order a muffin, but the kind he wanted still needed to be baked, so he chose another one otherwise it would take at least six minutes said the girl. But my friend still had to wait a long time before getting the muffin, so that was a bit strange, cause then he could have taken the muffin he wanted anyway.

Bagels & Beans is the best place to come to have a bagel lunch with a fresh juice or some sweets with a coffee.

 Bagels & Beans - Kinkerstraat
Kinkerstraat 110
020 6184046
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The menu is quite large and they have different kind of dishes. There are the starters (which can also arrive at any time) which include dumplings, fried shrimp, small salad etc. The main courses are separated in different groups, the noodle soups, the fried rice, the ramen, etc. For drinking they have japanese beers, sake and fresh juices next to the normal drinks.

I decided to take a raw juice, a mix of fruit and vegetable juices, some fried rice with tofu and a miso soup that comes with some pickles. When you order with the waiter he taps it into his little pda thing that sends the order straight to the kitchen (I think they were one of the first in Amsterdam to use this system) and writes down the number of your dish on your placemat. As promised the things arrived when they were ready. One word of warning, the standard utensils here are chopsticks. They do give normal utensils with some dishes, but if you can’t eat with chopsticks be sure to ask for it.

The food here tastes good and the portion are quite generous. I couldn’t finish mine, also because I wanted to safe some space for the dessert. Wagamama introduced a dessert menu a while ago. In the beginning I wasn’t that crazy about their desserts, but they seemed to have improved. I took a chocolate cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and my friends had the cheese cake. Both tasted quite good, although the desserts are a bit on the expensive side.

Wagamama is a place to come to grab a quick asian style meal without too much intimacy.

 Wagamama
Max Euweplein 10
020 5287778
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As soon as we had sat down and picked up the menu there was already a waitress asking us for our order. We told her we still had to look at the menu. While looking a second girl came to ask and then a third. No complaints about slow service here. The menu had several sub sandwiches and bagels on it with different fillings or normal sandwiches with the filling of your choice. They also had cakes for dessert. So I decided to start with a large orange juice and a catalan sandwich, which is a small sub with garlic, tomato and serrano ham. When I pronounced it in the spanish way to the waiter though he didn’t understand me

Soon after the waiter had taken our order, our drinks arrived and the chocolate cake for my friend. I decided to take one later for dessert too. The sandwich took a bit longer and the presentation was not so nice. Just a basket (not even a plate) with some napkins to catch the dripping oil and tomato and the bread in it. It tasted great though! After I finished it and the waitress came to clear the table (they were also very quick with taking the dirty dishes away) I ordered a cafe latte and a chocolate cake.

It took a bit longer for my cake to arrive than that of my friend. And I have to say it was not very special. The chocolate cake didn’t taste very chocolatey so I was a bit disappointed with it, but I chowed it down anyway The coffee was quite good though. At this point the sun was starting to disappear behind the buildings, so we payed and left, because in the shade it was still very chilly.

‘t Loosje is a good place to come and grab a quick lunch while enjoying the view of the Nieuwmarkt from their terrace.

 Loosje
Nieuwmarkt 32-34
020 6272635
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The whole alternative atmosphere is carried over into the tea house. Not only in the food, which is mostly organic and prepared on the spot. But also the people! There were some strange characters running the place. The girl behind the counter reminded me of a stepford wife, smiling all the time. There was one older man hanging around the place doing nothing. Maybe he was the security guy or something, but nothing showed that he was. And when a customer came in who had brought his own orange tablecloth and put it on a table (I guess he was a regular), I decided I had been transported to the Twilight Zone.

Anyway on the menu they have different kinds of Yogi tea, juices and smoothies (not all fresh though) and for eating they have bagels, toasted sandwiches, salads and a soup and sweet things. I decided to take a bagel with feta cheese spread and a blueberry smoothie. The smoothie came in a bottle, but tasted okay and was completely organic. The bagel though had to be flown in from the Himalayas. I think there were three or four girls behind the counter and at one moment two of them sat down for a break and some food, but by then my bagel still hadn’t arrived. I think we had already been waiting for fifteen minutes then, so I found it a bit strange. On the menu it said that it could take a while, because they make everything fresh. But then another girl asked if the stepford girl needed some help and she said “No, I only have one order for a toasted sandwich”. I think the look on our faces said it all, because then she came to our table to apologize and said she would make the bagel straight away. We got a free tea for the delay.

When the bagel finally arrived, I was famished, so I dug in. The feta spread tasted very good and was quite sharp. The salad that came with the bagel was a bit sad though, more like a garnish than a salad as promised on the menu. After the bagel, we decided to a have a little dessert with our teas, so we ordered a piece of chocolate cake and a piece of banana cream pie. The chocolate cake was quite nice, but the banana cream pie was quite bland for my taste, although my friend seemed to like it. So I finished most of the chocolate cake and he the banana pie. We then paid up, where the girl asked us what we had had (another occasion for lying and saving some money but we didn’t cause we are honest people). And then we left the Himalaya Twilight Zone through the other door.

Himalaya Tea House is an okay place to grab some bagel lunch. I think it is more appealing when you are more into the New Age scene and looking for an organic meal and don’t mind the floaty people too much.

 Himalaya Tea House
Warmoesstraat 56
020 6260899
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The menu is mostly focused on coffee. They have four different mixes of coffee beans you can choose from, each which their distinct flavor. You can of course add other flavors like vanilla, etc. They also have special Ethiopian teas and fruit juices. On the food side they have sweet things, like muffins, brownies and cakes. If you fancy something more savory you can have a grilled cheese sandwich.

After we sat down and had studied the menu, a very friendly guy came to our table for our order. Since I hadn’t had a big breakfast I took a fruit shake and a toasted sandwich. My friend took a fresh orange juice. The order arrived in due time considering that the guy was working alone and he had to wait for the sandwich to finish. The fruit shake tasted very nice and the grilled sandwich came with some ketchup and filled the hole in my stomach. As a dessert we took some coffee and apple pie. The coffee was of very good quality. Also it is good to know that this coffee supports the farmers. The apple pie was not home made, but tasted good none the less.

When I ordered dessert at the counter (I think the guy was bit shy to ask us if we wanted anything else at the table), there was a mum and her baby in the place as well. And in that moment the baby knocked over his hot chocolate. And instead of paying attention to it, the boy just kept running around the place looking at the pictures while the waiter cleaned up the mess. In the end I don’t think the baby noticed anything. But neither did the mum say anything to the baby! It seems more and more these days that children are being raised like little princes and princesses.

Anyway, Buna Bet is a good place to come to have a coffee when you are in the neighborhood. Not only are you supporting three good causes, you get good coffee and friendly service to boot.

 Buna Bet
Van Woustraat 74
020 6739449
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A little later another waiter arrived to take our order. He didn’t write it down, so it went wrong of course. First he came back to ask again which pizzas we had ordered. And when the starters arrived, brought by the first waiter, mine was missing. I told him that and a few minutes later my starter arrived with an apology. The food was simple, but quite tasty, although the lettuce was quite dry.

The service has Italian speed, because it took quite some time after the starters for the main course to arrive. One of my friends had ordered the fresh fish which was taken of the bone for you at the table. Unfortunately I think the poor waiter was not very experienced with it, because my friend still found a lot of bones in his fish. The pizzas were great though. Made with real mozzarella cheese! It was too much, because when I was half way through the pizza I was already quite full. The portion here are quite generous, so I think with sharing a starter and a pizza between two, you might still have room for dessert.

I was too full though to have a dessert, so I ordered a cappuccino, hoping for a real italian one. One of my friends did order dessert. It was ice cream mixed with prosecco wine and wodka. I think the waiter was a bit disappointed that only one of us ordered, because he had to open a bottle of prosecco just for my friend. The mixing of the ice cream and the booze was done at the table as well, in a big bowl and a whisk. When he was finished though, the other waiter had stil not arrived with a glass for it, so he had to go and get it himself. The cappuccinos were also adapted to the dutch taste, meaning a lot of milk foam on top of it. I guess you can only get a real cappuccino in Italy

Sa Seada is a typical italian restaurant with theatrical waiters and not too fast service, but the food is, although simple, very tasty!

 Sa Seada
Eerste Oosterparkstraat 3-5
020 6633276
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The menu was quite funny, but hard to read. It were several plastified sheets held together by a ring and the ring had a small pair of wooden shoes attached to it, which they got from a souvenir store at Schiphol I guess. It was a funny idea, but it made the menu hard to read. The menu had some nice things on it though. Several different kinds of sandwiches (served on bread from het Vlaamsch Broodhuys) and salads. Special kinds of tea and pastries. The waitress had already come when I had just sat down, so she came back a little later after I had had some time to figure out the menu. I ordered a pear & apple juice and a sandwich with chicken and bacon. My friend order the same but without bacon.

The waitress was very friendly and talkative and told us about the place and that she was not Stientje, but that Stientje is the grandma of the owner, and that they had a new electronic system for the orders. She punched in the orders on a PDA kind of thing and then they went straight to the people making it. It works very well, because our drink arrived almost immediately. But when the sandwiches arrived we also discovered the drawback of the system, because my friends sandwich had bacon on it. The waitress explained that she forgot to tell it to the kichen and that she couldn’t punch it in on the PDA thingy. The mistake was quickly rectified though.

The sandwich tasted good although some parts of the bread were rather hard and crispy. After finishing our sandwiches we decided to have a coffee and share something sweet. All the cakes and things were displayed on the counter. They had several kinds of cakes and pies and some strange kind of fudge things we decided to try. The coffees and fudge arrived in due order. The coffee was of good quality, but we didn’t like the fudge overly much. It was very sweet and sticky. But we managed to conquer it in the end by taking small bites. In hind sight maybe a piece of apple pie would have been better.

Stientje’s is a nice addition to the Oud-West area of Amsterdam, which lacked a place like this. The service is quick and friendly and the food tastes good.

 Stientje
Bilderdijkstraat 140
020 6185151
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When we entered and took a table we were greeted by a friendly girl, who turned out to be German. My friend celebrated New Years in Berlin and had a good time there, so he was very excited about meeting another German and started a chat with her. After a little bit she explained what all the pastries were that they had in the display case. There were several kinds of cakes, but what took my fancy was the chocolate covered pear. So I ordered that with a milk coffee. My friend also took the pear, but he took it with the white chocolate.

A little later the girl brought us the pears and our coffees. The coffee was excellent and not so hot that I had to wait long before I could drink it. The pear with the chocolate was delicious. There was also some kind of cake on the bottom and I even think there was some kind of alcohol in it. I also tasted the pear with the white chocolate. The white chocolate made it a little too sweet though, so it was better with the dark chocolate.

Later we got a second round of coffee on the house. I think my friend chatting to the girl helped With the coffee came some kind of chocolate truffle, which was tasty too. You can taste everything is home made here.

All in all Quattro Gatti is a nice place to have a coffee and a home made pastry.

 Quattro Gatti
Hartenstraat 3
020 4214585
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When we got from the train to Schiphol Plaza we saw the first location of Starbucks that has been opened before customs. It’s a small take away bar with some tall tables to have your coffee standing. But of course we wanted to sit down, so we proceeded to the second location located at Departures 4. Departures 4 is a new area in the Schiphol Plaza that boasts some typical Dutch stores like the AH and the Hema. After a small walk from the central plaza we finally reached the back of Departures 4 and a huge Starbucks! There are a lot of tables and chairs here and of course the Starbucks signature lounge chairs. We proceeded to the back where there was a whole corner full of comfy chairs and took a place there. It’s was a bit funny though, cause in the back there was a revolving door taking you outside. Also funny is that no matter which Starbucks you go to there are always young people pretending to study or American girls who think they are Paris Hilton and use ‘like’ every other word.

Anyway then came the moment for ordering and my friend got Starbucks block. I always order the same most of the time, a Chai Tea Latte, but my friend didn’t know what to order. I sent him to look at the menu boards and the display and then he said he couldn’t find them. So then I went to have a look and of course everything was there like in all the other Starbucks in the world. I went back to my friend and told him to look at the red board behind the counter to make a choice A little later my friend came back with his order, so then it was my turn to order (we didn’t want to leave our bags alone with an exit door so close by).

When I got to the counter I had a nasty surprise. Suddenly there was a long queue where a few minutes before had been no one. Well I gave me some time to look over the assortment. They had the holiday special menu up, with gingerbread latte etc. I missed some things from Spain though, like the iced Chai Tea Latte and the fresh Tazo teas in the display and also the salads. By then it was my turn to order. I had to order with one girl who shouted my order to the guy behind the coffee machine and put my muffin next to the girl handling the cash register. When I got to her I asked her why they didn’t use the other cash register that was there. She replied that it didn’t have any money in it and that someone was getting it, but it was coming from far away. Strange, I would think you would fill both in the morning before opening. Anyway I had to tell her what I ordered and pay for it. I was thinking about telling her something cheaper, but I am a honest person, so I didn’t

My Chai Tea Latte (in a mug, not a paper cup) was already waiting for me when I got to the pick up point! That was fast service. I think there was an experienced person from the UK there, because all the orders where shouted in English. I guess that helped to get things rolling. Now I could enjoy my Chai Tea and double chocolate muffin from Starbucks on Dutch soil. And it tasted good
I hope they get to Amsterdam soon though, because going to Schiphol just for some Starbucks is a bit out of the way.

My second Starbucks experience was much better than my first, where everything was a mess. Everything went fast here, the people were friendly and the latte delicious!

 Starbucks Departures 4
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The Village Bagels is your typical bagel sandwich shop with bagels with all kinds of toppings, sweets things like muffins and brownies and a variety of drinks and juices and coffees. After looking at the menu board, there are no loose menus on the tables, we both decided to try the weekly special bagel with chicken, sun dried tomatoes and dill mayonnaise. For drinking we decided to take the fruit smoothies with berries and tropical fruit, the two kinds they have. Because it’s a small place they don’t have table service, you have to order and pay at the counter. They do bring it to your table though when your order is finished.

It was quite busy when we were there and there were 2 people before me in the queue ordering, but our order arrived surprisingly fast. After getting our bagels a group that was occupying the seats in the window left and we quickly moved to their seats. It’s a really nice place to seat and look at people. You can watch all the people coming by that come from the trams on the Weteringcircuit or the tourists that come from the Heineken Experience. The bagels and the juice tasted okay, but the bagels were not so special

The mix of people that come here is quite funny. Being close to de Pijp, there were a lot of artsy and student people here. There was one student guy especially funny speaking so loud on his cell phone that even the neighbors could hear it I guess also a lot of people come to the Village Bagels from the offices that are around this area.

Village Bagels on the Vijzelstraat is a good place to come if you are into bagels. They don’t have as much variety as Bagels & Beans though, but their toppings are a bit different. Be sure to grab a window seat though. And in summer you can even sit outside on the Prinsengracht

 Village Bagels - Vijzelstraat
Vijzelstraat 137
020 4272213
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