THE NETHERLANDS - Best of Europe 2014 - page 1350

020/620-3074). Split a large box, grab a bench on the charming Spui Square around the
corner, and you've got perhaps the best cheap, hot meal in town.
Near the Mint Tower
(See “Hotels & Restaurants in Central Amsterdam” map, here . )
Café 't Gasthuys, one of Amsterdam's many brown cafés (so called for their smoke-
stained walls), has a busy dumbwaiter cranking out light lunches, sandwiches, and reason-
ablypriced,ifuncreative,dinners.Itoffersalongbar,alovelysecludedbackroom,peaceful
canalside seating, and sometimes slow service (€6-10 lunch plates, €10 three-course dinner,
€11-15 main courses, daily 11:00-16:30 & 17:30-22:00, Grimburgwal 7—from the Rond-
vaart Kooij boat dock, head down Langebrugsteeg, and it's one block down on the left; tel.
020/624-8230).
De Jaren Café (“The Years”) is a chic yet inviting place—clearly a favorite with locals.
Upstairs is a minimalist restaurant with a top-notch salad bar and canal-view deck (serving
€16-20 dinners after 17:30, prices include salad bar plus fish, meat, and veggie dishes; €14
for salad bar only). Downstairs is a modern café, great for light lunches (soups, salads, and
sandwiches served all day and evening) or just coffee over a newspaper. On a sunny day, the
café's canalside patio is a fine spot to nurse a drink; this is also a nice place to go just for
a drink in the evening and to enjoy the spacious Art Deco setting (daily 9:30-23:00, a long
block up from Muntplein at Nieuwe Doelenstraat 20-22, tel. [phone]).
Pannenkoekenhuis Upstairs is a tiny, characteristic perch up some extremely steep
stairs,whereArnoandAlicookandservedelicious€6-12pancakestofourtablesthroughout
the afternoon. They'll tell you that I discovered this place long before Anthony Bourdain
did (Mon-Fri 12:00-19:00, Sat 12:00-18:00, Sun 12:00-17:00, Grimburgwal 2, tel. 020/
626-5603).
La Place, on the ground floor of the V&D department store, has an abundant, colorful
arrayoffresh,appealingfoodservedcafeteria-style.Amultistoryeaterythatseats300,ithas
a small outdoor terrace upstairs. Explore before you make your choice. This bustling spot
has a lively market feel, with everything from made-on-the-spot beef stir-fry, to fresh juice,
to veggie soups (€4 pizza and €5 sandwiches, Sun-Mon 11:00-19:00, Tue-Wed 10:00-19:30,
Thu-Sat 10:00-21:00, at the end of Kalverstraat near Mint Tower, tel. [phone]). For
fast and healthy take-out food (sandwiches, yogurt, fruit cups, and more), try the bakery
on the department store's ground floor. (They run another branch, which has the city's ulti-
mate view terrace, on the top floor of the Central Library —Openbare Bibliotheek Amster-
dam—near Central Station.)
AtriumUniversityCafeteria, athree-minutewalkfromMintTower,feedstravelersand
studentsfromAmsterdamUniversityforgreatprices,butonlyonweekdays(€7meals,Mon-
Fri 11:00-15:00 & 17:00-19:30; from Spui, walk west down Landebrug Steeg past canalside