In researching our Amsterdam trip in advance, most of our focus was on picking a few key possible adventures (Canal cruise, Anne Frank, Museums, etc) for us to enjoy with our daughter Kat and her fiancé Jacob. Once that was done and the reservations were made it was time to focus on what really matters - pizza. And I must say we learned that there is a surprisingly robust pizza scene in Amsterdam.

Based on our advance research and discussions with locals on the ground, the following are the places we chose. Amazingly, this was probably only about half of the places we had hoped to check out…

Pizza Beppe

Nice workhorse pizza with noteworthy crust just down the street from our hotel not far from Leidseplein. We enjoyed the atmosphere as we sat outside right next to the busy street still marveling at the bicycling chaos taking place around us. We had just arrived from Colorado that morning and were exhausted and still getting used to the sensory overload created by the masses of people on foot, car and mostly bike.

Overall Rating – 7.5

Renato’s in the Foodhallen

Renato’s had solid online reviews so that coupled with it being in the Foodhallen made us put this on our must see list. We liked the pizza fine – though nothing really stood out about it. The Foodhallen however was very cool with tons of good looking food choices, beer and interesting seating options. We sat upstairs and enjoyed the views and immersed ourselves in local culture with the bitterballen (thanks? Jacob) but mostly loved the really tasty and beautiful tart-looking pastry desert things. Highly recommend this French pastry place – can’t remember the name but figure it out and go! (Editor’s note: the dessert place is called Petit gâteau)

Overall Rating – 7.0

La Perla (Jordaan)

This place is a cut above as far as atmosphere, quality and professional service compared with other places visited. Best atmosphere hands down and very popular and tough to get a seat without some pre-planning. All in all a top 2 pizza while visiting the area and a special shoutout to the quality of all facets of the pizza and particularly the sauce.

Overall Rating – 8.5

Da Pizzabakkers

Obviously, pizza is such a personal thing but I have to say this was my personal favorite pizza on the trip. Did it have the atmosphere of La Perla or Beppe? No, in fact it was just a small basically carry out focused place with one guy working the oven. Is it all the rage with the pizza paparazzi and hard to get into? Nope, it just quietly goes about its business pumping out great extra thin crust pies. So we ended up carrying out and finding a table nearby to wolf down the pizza. What made the pizza so wonderful to me was the exceptional execution of a simple yet remarkably tender extra thin crust coupled with top end cheese and very good sauce. (Editor’s note: the second picture is from a later date - Jacob and I have ordered this pizza several times since the initial visit and it holds up!)

Overall Rating – 9.0

nNea*

Speaking of the crowds and pizza elites – this is the place for them. As I recall, their waiting list when we called and then later stopped by went out at least 2 months and might have been longer. It was ridiculous but hey good for them. We ended up carrying out and thought it was a fine pizza – high quality ingredients and well executed - but didn’t really get all the hype about it. Nothing stood out as all that interesting about it. *Having said that, take this rating with a grain of salt as we didn’t get around to eating the pizza until at least an hour or so after carrying it out (because we were busy drinking and looking for Pub Cats).

Overall Rating – 7.0

Bonus Review: L’etna in Bruges, Belgium

We had to walk quite a while to reach this place from our fancy hotel in Bruges – probably took us 30 minutes because we didn’t really know where we were going but it allowed us to see more of Bruges’ dark underbelly. Just kidding – there was no underbelly – it was a pretty town and the walk was great. The pizza was a very thin crackerlike pizza that was more like a snack. We did really enjoy it (especially me as it was a bit thin for Aimee) but I could have eaten 2-3 of them in one sitting. The owner was a nice guy and his dad was there helping him out and was also wonderful. In fact I think they opened up just because of us as we got there early. Their credit card machine didn’t work and they felt bad so I had to go walk to get cash and while I did that they shared a free bottle of red wine with Aimee. How nice for her.

Overall Rating – 7.5

Extra Bonus Review: Kattenkabinet

The best cat museum we’ve ever been too – hands down!

That’s all we got around to during our 5 night (Amsterdam) / 2 night (Bruges) trip. Wonderful and memorable trip with Kat and Jacob and the impressive selection of pizza places was an added plus!

Last modified on 2024-06-15