The Best Cocktail Bars in Amsterdam

Door 74 is Amsterdam's best-known speakeasy, accessible only via text message reservation to an unlisted number and located behind an unmarked door on Reguliersdwarsstraat. The effort is worth making: the cocktail programme here consistently sits among the best in the Netherlands, with a menu that balances technical ambition against genuine drinkability. The room holds around 30 people and the atmosphere is exactly what you want a bar like this to feel like — dark, warm, and slightly conspiratorial.

Order: The house Negroni variation or ask the bartender for a bespoke recommendation

Tales and Spirits sits on a quiet street in the Old Centre and has built one of the most consistent reputations in Amsterdam's cocktail scene without attracting the fuss of Door 74. The drinks are technically accomplished and the atmosphere is genuinely welcoming — no velvet rope, no attitude, just very good cocktails made by people who know what they are doing. The Dutch gin-based drinks are particularly strong, and the bar team takes real pride in their jenever programme.

Order: The house Dutch Gin Sour or the seasonal Smash

Wynand Fockink has been distilling and serving jenever from this location since 1679. The proeflokaaltje — a traditional Dutch tasting room — is one of the most historically significant drinking spaces in Europe, and the jenever here is made on the premises to recipes that have not fundamentally changed in centuries. The glasses are filled to the brim in the traditional manner, requiring you to bend down and take the first sip at the bar. No cocktails, no food, no pretension. Pure Amsterdam.

Order: Oude jenever, neat, taken the traditional way

Rosalia's Menagerie is a small bar in the Jordaan with a big reputation among Amsterdam's cocktail community. The menu is seasonal and personality-driven — the bar team changes the drinks as often as the ingredients suggest they should, not according to a quarterly schedule. The room is genuinely tiny, which creates the kind of conversations between bartenders and guests that define why people prefer bars to drinking at home. Book ahead for weekend evenings.

Order: The current seasonal cocktail — ask what is best tonight

Bar Bukowski sits on Oosterpark and has the atmosphere of a bar that has absorbed a great deal of good conversation over the years. The cocktail menu is honest and well-executed — no theatrical garnishes, no unnecessary complications — and the beer selection is stronger than most dedicated cocktail bars. The terrace facing the park fills from 5pm onwards on warm evenings. The crowd is local, mixed in age, and entirely at ease. One of the best atmosphere-to-price ratios in the city.

Order: House Whisky Sour or the draught craft lager

Flying Dutchman occupies a houseboat on the IJ waterfront in Westerdok, which immediately makes it unlike any other bar on this list. The cocktail programme is straightforward and well-made, but the draw is as much the setting as the drinks — sitting on the deck with a Gin and Tonic watching the harbour traffic is one of Amsterdam's better ways to spend an early evening. Open in warmer months only. Arrive before 6pm in summer for a decent seat on the water.

Order: Dutch Gin and Tonic with Nolet's or Genever

In de Wildeman is a former distillery dating from the 17th century that now operates as one of Amsterdam's finest beer bars — around 200 Dutch and Belgian bottles alongside 18 draught lines. The no-music policy keeps the focus on conversation and the beer, both of which benefit from the attention. The dark wood interior and candle-lit tables create an atmosphere that feels genuinely historic without feeling preserved in amber. Not a cocktail bar, but essential Amsterdam drinking.

Order: Whatever Dutch craft beer the staff recommend from the current draught list

Canvas operates on the seventh floor of a former newspaper building in Westerpark and serves the creative industry crowd that has colonised the neighbourhood's repurposed industrial spaces. The cocktail programme is solid without being exceptional, but the views across the city from the rooftop terrace are among the best in Amsterdam. The food is better than expected. The venue becomes a club later in the evening — arrive for cocktails at 6pm and leave before the bass starts if that is not what you came for.

Order: House Aperol Spritz on the terrace or the seasonal Dutch fruit cocktail

Hanneke's Boom is a seasonal bar beside the IJ waterfront near the NDSM ferry crossing, housed in a low wooden structure surrounded by reclaimed industrial materials. The drinks are basic and inexpensive — this is not a technical cocktail bar — but the atmosphere on a warm afternoon is one of the finest in Amsterdam. Local workers, artists, and the occasional tourist who took the free ferry across the water. Closes in winter. Worth the ferry ride in any warm month.

Order: Cheap local beer or house Gin and Tonic

Brouwerij 't IJ operates from a working windmill in the Plantage neighbourhood and is one of Amsterdam's most photographed spots. The tap room serves the full range of house beers brewed on site — the Columbus IPA and Zatte tripel are the standards to order — in a low-ceilinged space that fills with locals and informed visitors. Open limited hours, so check before arriving. The organic beers here are among the best produced in the Netherlands.

Order: Columbus IPA or Zatte tripel, poured fresh from the on-site brewery