Amsterdam Master Thread

[davidmal]

famous Genever bar in Amsterdam

De Drie Fleshjes


Bol’s

[Ellen]

Has anyone stayed at the WA lately? Is it very dated? Finally found availability for nights I wanted, but am having second thoughts...

[PlatinumGuy]

Has anyone stayed at the WA lately? Is it very dated? Finally found availability for nights I wanted, but am having second thoughts...

It is in no way dated

[Ellen]

It is in no way dated

Ok thank you

[ad120]

I have an hour on a Sunday morning on near Amsterdam Sloterdijk.
Any reccomendations on what to see?

[PlatinumGuy]

Canal ring

[ad120]

Canal ring

Anything specific?

[PlatinumGuy]

Just walk around and soak it in

[erlich]

Not clear from the posts ,can anyone reccomend a good meat restaurant,like the best? Thanks

[Miller96]

Planning a trip for august. Anyone have any experience recently with COVID laws in Amsterdam? Also any good food worth reporting that's still open?

[Ellen]

IIUC, Netherlands is now open for all US citizens.

Is HBaron still open? Website is still offering menu, etc.; per google maps it is permanently closed. Not sure what to make of that. Tried emailing, got no reply.
Chabad restaurant seems to be closed as well, since corona. Will try contacting to confirm.
Pizza & Co looks like still open.
Any other kosher options still exist?

[Spoon]

IIUC, Netherlands is now open for all US citizens.

Is HBaron still open? Website is still offering menu, etc.; per google maps it is permanently closed. Not sure what to make of that. Tried emailing, got no reply.
Chabad restaurant seems to be closed as well, since corona. Will try contacting to confirm.
Pizza & Co looks like still open.
Any other kosher options still exist?

Hacarmel, Golan and Meat me are all meat options. There's also a bakery/grocery with some breakfast items (forgot what it's called)

[Ellen]

Any reason to take the introductory lesson at Anne Franklin house? Reviews?

[LFR]

Just got back Amsterdam yesterday.

Tempted to write a very long Paris Belgium Amsterdam TR but for now will just add some two cents here:

Anne Frank house: Pre-Covid taking the 7 euro introductory class was a "hack" because it allowed you to wait on line (even if you had bought tickets weeks earlier). Now there are so few people that it's kinda pointless. The class is fine and gives more details to the Franks and WW2 in The Netherlands but not anything you can't get from inside the house and from wikipedia.

Either way you should get the Museum Card (https://www.museum.nl/en) and then once you have it you can book a Anne Frank and Van Gogh timeslot. I stupidly bought Anne Frank and Van Gogh in advance AND then bought the Museum Kaart for the Jewish area stuff, the Rijkmuseum and a few others.

Now that we're on the topic: Upon arriving in AMS they didn't ask for anything other than passport and "how long you staying?" No proof of vaccination or anything like that.

Within Amsterdam you'd be nuts to have a car because the city is essentially not built for them. However, Uber rides from the Andaz (will return to later) to the "new" Jewish area (where the restaurants are) and back can be 15-30 euros each way. If you KNOW you are going twice a day to get food AND you're a Globalist AND you're booking the Andaz on points AND you find a cheap rental car then getting the free 65 Euro a day parking at the Andaz is sweet.

Hotels: I was thinking about using some of my free Hilton nights on the Waldorf but really wanted to try the Andaz. I can't say enough good things about the staff at the hotel. Probably most eager/accommodating hotel staff I have ever encountered for all things shabbos/kosher. Since there was no free breakfast they initially told me "spend whatever you want every day for breakfast and we'll reimburse you" but they took that back and instead told me to place a large order of meat at the butcher Marcus and they would pay for it. Incredible about elevators and such. Only downsides were 1) no great solution for hot water shabbos morning and 2) the rooms- even the big ones (I had a canal view) have open floor plans which are not good. Shower opens into room and bathroom opens into room. The sink is in the middle of the room so there's no way to use the sink whether it be for drinking, washing hands etc. without waking up someone in the room. Definitely an annoying feature. Location is awesome and as stated the staff is unlike anything I've ever experienced.

Food: You can get bread at Mouwes or Rimon. We got buns at Mouwes which were very solid and we used them for lechem mishna and for our Marcus meat sandwiches. Good almond/marzipan dessert from Mouwes. Restuarnats: Pizza and Co is very good and its nice that they make the pizza there when you go on but its not as spectacular as some have claimed ("maybe the best pizza I ever had"). They actually had these awesome little chocolate bon bons that were exceptional. They also have homemade ice cream that I didn't try.

H. Baron still exists but its catering only. Their website says "open for lunch and dinner" but that's only because they'd rather confuse the public and probably get multiple inquiries a day for lunch rather than spending 10 seconds to change their website.

Meat Me was good. The ribeye was the best thing we had there but everything was good. Only positives to say but its not Reserve Cut. Pretty typical "out of town" nicer non-hole-in-the-wall meat restaurant.

I'm not sure what food there is to buy in Central Amsterdam. I think the Chabad website lists some supermarkets that have stuff but if you plan ahead you can probably buy everything you need from the area with the stores/restaurants.

We davened at the Spanish Portugese shul. Very nice people there all around and nice kiddush after davening. That being said the place is DEAD just like the big Synagogue in Paris is DEAD. They only could get 5 men Friday night and didn't even try to get a mincha/maariv on Saturday. Beautiful building, interesting nusach, and as I said: very nice people. But if davening with a minyan is your thing you will not get it there.

Amazing city, very nice people all around, more violence in America against Jews than against Jews in Europe while we there last week and certainly way more to do than Belgium. If people want I can give more details about the week in Paris and Belgium the week before.

[Dan]

Thanks for the mini-TR. Absolutely let's hear about the rest and post some pics!

[LFR]

https://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=125692.0