Please note that since writing this blog post, Bar Pif has closed down
My favourite moment of the day is somewhere around 6.30 pm, when work is finished, it’s not yet time for dinner, and the kitchen is filled with the familiar glug-glug-glug sound of a just-opened bottle of wine being poured. If I’m at home, it’ll perhaps be accompanied by some cheese and crackers or slices of chorizo; if I’m out, it might be bitterballen or jamón.
Some of my favourite physical wine stores in Amsterdam include Wine & Roses and Wijnhandel van Krimpen in De Pijp, Cave de l’Est in Oost, Bilderdijk Wijnhuys in West, Hart’s Wijnhandel in the centre, and Vindict Wine with locations in the Jordaan and Noord. More and more Amsterdam wine shops are starting to stock Dutch wines as well – interesting to try!
For online wine orders, try Colaris, which carries a wide selection of wines at different price points as well as Vivino top-rated wines and some lovely gift packages. I also like Decántalo, which specialises in southern European wines (although plenty of other regions are represented as well). If your love of booze extends to cocktails, online liquor store Topdrinks sells every spirit imaginable, including all your favourite brands.
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Nowadays, there are dozens of great wine bars in Amsterdam. But when I moved here in 2006, there was pretty much just one: Bubbles & Wines. I used to go there a lot, but hadn’t been back in years – until very recently when I’d booked their “high wine” arrangement for a friend’s birthday. It involved eight half glasses of wine, in a diverse range of styles from an apple-fresh Cava to a luscious New Zealand Pinot Gris to a deep and complex 2014 Rioja Reserva. Each round came with snacks that were substantial enough not to need anything else for dinner, and the server very kindly switched out the platter of cured ham for some veggie snacks for my friend who doesn’t eat pork. This was particularly notable since I’d failed to tell them beforehand, and he was immensely kind and smiling about our last minute request. And all of this for €45 per person. When you consider that Bubbles & Wines is a stone’s throw from Dam Square, that feels like very good value. Sometimes the oldies really are the goodies.
New in my neighbourhood in 2023 is Bottleshop – located in that strange Beetlejuice building on Wibautstraat that used to be home to Undercover. It’s a natural wine bar that also serves some fantastic, upscale bar bites. I’m not usually a huge fan of natural wines, but I loved Bottleshop’s fruity, farmyard-y French Gamay and juicy, low-extraction Cabernet Franc. Not to mention their pungent cheeses, melting beef short rib, punchy chicken yakitori and simple but heavenly bread and butter. I’m glad this is only 50 metres down the road from my apartment!
In a super cosy little café in the Jordaan, Bar Parry is the kind of place where you turn up for a drink after work and end up spending all evening. It offers a number of interesting wines by the glass – I particularly enjoyed the silky Cava and Les Maiols light and juicy Spanish red – but there are also lots more wines by the bottle (you can take a look at them in the floor-to-ceiling wine cabinet at the back of the bar). On the food front, Parry’s shareable snacks are a cut above your average borrelhapjes: think sobrasada with orange marmelade, boiled eggs with anchovy mayo, and wafer-thin celeriac with beetroot mascarpone and dukkah. The evening I visited, it was raining outside – which only added to the snug ambience. Note: Bar Parry doesn’t take reservations, so it pays to arrive early.
Rayleigh & Ramsay have a unique concept in Amsterdam as far as I know: instead of table service, they have at least half a dozen (probably more) wine-dispensing machines throughout the bar. Each machine contains ten bottles of temperature-controlled, vacuum-sealed, perfectly preserved wine. As a customer, you simply pre-load a card with credit and wander around to take your pick of the dozens of wines available. And not only do they come by the glass – they come by the half glass and by the taster sample, too. In short, R&R is a great way to try lots of different, and interesting, wines – especially if you’re with a few people who each fancy something different. On the food front, Rayleigh & Ramsay does various shareable, snackable plates – think charcuterie, pâté, cheeses, and so on. If you’re looking for something more substantial, main courses are also on offer, and there’s a good-value fixed menu. Rayleigh & Ramsay now has two locations in Amsterdam: in de Pijp and Westerpark.
On perhaps my favourite square in Oost, Beukenplein, you’ll find Clos – a wine bar with a covered, heated terrace and plenty to make you happy in the wine and food department. The wines by the glass are arranged to make it easy to select one you’re bound to like, and the staff are extremely helpful with recommendations – including off-menu suggestions. There are plenty of top-notch snacks to nibble while you tipple: think good-quality charcuterie and cheeses, lotus root tempura, Porchetta-style veal with fennel and tarragon – and some more substantial main dishes as well. I enjoyed the buttery French Chardonnay that we drank at Clos most recently, but the wines have been fantastic on every other occasion I’ve visited as well.
Meanwhile in Amsterdam West, Fabus is a women-led wine bar featuring natural wines from underrepresented regions and some fantastic Levantine food to go with it. The vibe is rather younger and edgier compared with other places on this list (we were the oldest people there by about 10 years) but the wine selection is no less accomplished. The occasion we visited was one of those miserably damp autumn days when only red wine will do: we started with the “juicy AF” Carignan/Merlot blend by Reynard Rebels, followed by a super smooth, vanilla-tastic Spanish Tempranillo/Syrah blend. They paired perfectly with the creamy spinach-bean dip and panisse chips we ordered to nibble on. But it was the whole, spicy, roasted cauliflower with tahini sauce that really stole the show, eaten alongside a Greek red wine that (I kid you not) channelled pure After Eight mints. Bizarre but beautiful.
Editor’s note: I was invited to eat at Fabus as a journalist, and I didn’t pay for my meal. Obviously I try to be as objective as possible, but I always disclose when I’ve had a freebie.
Paskamer is Dutch for changing room, but this cosy spot in de Pijp is in fact a wine bar-slash-restaurant. So who knows where the name comes from? Because they offer around 50 wines by the glass, you can pair a different one with each dish you order, or just plump for a bottle to split with your pals. I think we accidentally did both, which is probably why I ended up so drunk. Anyhoo… The food is perfectly designed for sharing, and the knowledgeable waiting staff will help you with wine pairings if you’re into that. Think smoky pulpo (octopus) with spicy mayo paired with a Grauburgunder from Pfalz, or umami-rich marinated salmon with an Alsace Pinot Blanc. But perhaps my favourite wine came from the Spanish specials: a Catalunyan blend of syrah, carignan, mazuelo and grenache that tasted like a Priorat but for a fraction of the price. With cheese? Yes, please.
Opening on Frederiksplein in autumn 2022 and quickly becoming a firm favourite, Oocker occupies a skinny space but makes it both elegant and cosy. I visited with a small group for a friend’s birthday, and we polished off several fantastic bottles, from a smooth Jura crémant to a fresh-yet-full bodied Dao blend to a buttery Argentinian chardonnay. The staff were extremely knowledgeable, gave us great recommendations and were happy to have a chat about wine in general. During the daytime, there’s a limited snacks menu – of which we tried the caccio e pepe croquettes and the burrata bruschetta – both delicious. After 17:30, the menu expands into larger warm dishes, which you can share or not depending on how hungry you are. I loved the bone marrow and the slow-cooked neck of lamb. Oocker has a tiny terrace that acts as a sun trap, too.
Five Brothers Fat calls itself a Champagneria. But don’t let that scare you – they sell delicious Cava too, which is much more wallet-friendly. On the food front, Five Brothers Fat offers a tapas menu that’s designed to be shared: we tried the jamón Serrano, Manchego cheese, chorizo croquettes and pan con tomate – all of which were as you’d expect: simple but spot-hitting. On a more recent visit, I particularly enjoyed the watermelon and feta salad and the tuna tartare with Asian overtones. Prices are friendly – as is the atmosphere, for that matter.
Officially the cutest wine bar in Amsterdam, GlouGlou is the very definition of gezellig. I can happily while away an evening here, starting with after-work drinks and progressing steadily into late-night “ohhh, just one last round then” territory. GlouGlou specialises in natural wines – of which I’d like to tell you what to order, but I always seem to go off-menu with some ad-hoc recommendation or other from the nice barman. Snacks are a little less elaborate than at some of the other wine bars on this list, but no less tasty, with top-notch cheese platters to keep the wolf from the door (as my mother would say).
No more than a couple of blocks from GlouGlou (which is handy if the former is full), Wijnbar Paulus is a rather more modern, hipster alternative. But no less helpful when it comes to making off-menu recommendations. They also offer a selection of cold cuts and cheeses to keep the tipsiness at optimum level.
I was a little gutted when Alex + Pinard closed down in July 2023 as it was one of my favourite wine bars in Amsterdam. However, the same team are behind Bar Pif – a convivial little spot in the Jordaan for a glass of natural wine and some high-end bar bites. It has a French café vibe, with compact round tables spilling out onto the pavement and a constant buzz of conversation. I had a particular soft spot for their fried chicken and homemade pickles (two separate dishes but they went perfectly together) alongside a white Portuguese blend from the Setubal peninsula. In general, there were rather fewer wines by the glass than I might have expected (far more by the bottle) but I stuck to them anyway to give myself a chance to try more. The Loire valley “Improbable” blend of pinot noir, gamay and sauvignon blanc was also a hit – and surprisingly fuller bodied than it sounds.
Perhaps because it’s so close to Amsterdam’s touristy Leidseplein, I had overlooked Shiraz Jardin des Vins until very recently. But that was a mistake on my part, as it’s a gem of a wine bar with comfy lounge chairs and a candlelit atmosphere of romance. I tried two of their bubbles – a Crémant de Luxembourg and a Cava Brut – both of which were high in quality. I also very much enjoyed a portion of crunchy, savoury shrimp croquettes alongside a moreish orange wine from Valencia in southern Spain. Bring an old flame or a new love interest – Shiraz is full of romantic sparkle.
Equally candlelit and romantic (but in a slightly more shabby-chic way) is Bar Centraal – confusingly, not in the centre of the city but just off the Ten Katemarkt in Amsterdam West. Bar Centraal’s wine list leans low-intervention, and wine lovers will be surprised and delighted by bottles that you don’t often see. I was intrigued by the Jacquere white from Savoie and the Croatina red from Piemonte, but in the end we plumped for a fascinating bottle of Austrian Sauvignon Blanc that was all flinty gun smoke. Good rillettes, too.
Tucked into a cosy little spot on the Utrechtsestraat, Bar Babar specialises in natural wines. But don’t worry if you’re not a fan of the funky, unfiltered stuff. Both the Loire Valley Sauvignon Blanc and the Chardonnay from Beaujolais that I tasted were refreshingly funk-free and delicious. Babar serves a small menu of snacks as well.
Aperitivo o’clock, borreltijd, tapas time or happy hour – whatever you call it, what’s your favourite wine bar in Amsterdam for an early-evening drink and a snack?
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