De Rozenboom

Our first "real" meal in Amsterdam was at De Rozenboom, a place we stumbled upon after spending the first afternoon of our trip wandering the city to get acquainted and chasing the beer bike (more on that another time). We had passed many places that looked like pubs or restaurants, but didn't see anyone eating any food! They were only drinking beer so we had no idea what the food looked like. Then we found De Rozenboom on a little alley, and after we saw that they had some Dutch dishes, headed right in.


De Rozenboom was a cute little place built on multiple levels. They had tables outside and inside, and we opted for an inside table since it was getting cool (and I was one of about 5 people we saw that day wearing shorts).

They had a huge menu, with pancakes, soups, salads, burgers, lots of entrees with chicken, meat and fish options, and of course, the Dutch specialties. All of the Dutch dishes came with soup. It was a simple chicken soup with a nice, mild flavor. There wasn't much in it but it was a good broth which you could tell was made from real chicken. (Wow, I look completely exhausted.)


I got a dish called boerenkool met worst, which was listed on the menu as kale with a smoked sausage. I didn't know anything about this dish beforehand, and was expecting sausage with something like sauteed kale on the side, but what I got was this:


Mashed potatoes mixed with kale and topped with bacon! It was also accompanied by a nice salad which had something that tasted to us like rakkyo!

A ordered kapucijners met spek, uitjes, zuur, picalilly & bal gehakt, which was translated (they had an English page) as marrow peas with bacon, onions, pickles and a meatball. His dish also came with the salad.


It was so good. Both dishes were really tasty and a great introduction to Dutch traditional dishes, but I give A's dish a slight edge for tasting so healthy. It also wasn't as heavy as kale and bacon topped mashed potatoes! A also liked his better for similar reasons. He found it really refreshing and liked the marrow peas. The marrow peas were definitely a standout.


We also got Amstel beers to drink with dinner. I love how they serve beer in smaller glasses in Europe! Much more my style.

The dishes reminded us of Dutch comfort food and it was such a cute little restaurant, so it was perfect for a meal at the end of an exhausting travel day. If you should find yourself in the area (it's a short walk from the Spui tram stop), we definitely recommend it. Check out the marrow peas!