Best Amsterdam vegan food to satisfy your tongue & your tummy

Are you looking for the best Amsterdam vegan food? We recently spent a month in the city, exploring all the animal-friendly foods we could find. Read on for our picks of the best places to eat vegan in Amsterdam.

In just a few short years, Amsterdam has gone from just OK in the vegan food department, to pretty darn amazing. It’s still not the best city in Europe to satisfy your vegan hunger (that honour would go to Lisbon or London) but Amsterdam offers a solid range of vegan delights.

However, I might be spoiled or just getting cynical, but I only found a couple of really exciting places to eat in Amsterdam. The rest seemed to be offering the same old vegan fare.

Don’t worry, though, you’re definitely not going to go hungry as a vegan in Amsterdam.

Especially with the help of our guide to the best places to eat!

So, read on for…

Your Tasty Guide to the Best Amsterdam Vegan Food

Our 3 Favourite Vegan Meals in Amsterdam

Men Impossible

Organic, vegan, gluten-free, available by reservation only

https://www.instagram.com/p/BdhgybYlvFQ/

My favourite Amsterdam vegan restaurant! I loved everything about Men Impossible.

Let’s start with the concept. Men Impossible is pretty much a one-man show, devised by Chef Atsushi, who set out to prove that vegan ramen is not only possible but totally delicious. This is the best ramen I’ve encountered on all my vegan travels.

To help prevent food waste, meals are by reservation only, which makes it easier to determine exactly how much fresh food is needed each day.

The menu consists of 6 Japanese starters and 3 types of ramen. You can order from one of 5 set meal combos, which gives you various quantities of each item.

I ate: The Beginner’s Menu, which includes a tasting portion of all 6 starters plus a bowl of ramen. I chose the black garlic ramen.

The ramen here is not floating in a big bowl of broth, as you might expect, but rather it is a soft chewy noodle accompanied by spices, toppings, and a creamy flavourful sauce. I find the flavour hard to describe, because I’ve never eaten anything like it before — but suffice it to say it was amazing and you should try it for yourself.

Vegan Sundays

Vegan pop-up, once a month on Sunday

If you’re lucky enough to be in Amsterdam for a Vegan Sundays event (or smart enough to plan your trip around it), you MUST go!

Though we missed the Sunday event, we did get to a special Mexican-themed pop-up on a Monday.

The food was a little more hoity-toity than the meals we usually recommend – in price but also in flavour, complexity, and quality. To be clear, it is totally worth paying a little extra. This is probably the best vegan food in Amsterdam; if I lived there I’d go to every Vegan Sundays event!

Unfortunately, the venue for the pop-up had serious mood lighting, so it was too dark for photos. Now, all I have is my succulent memories.

Our menu included: Cactus paddle, tomato, and tofu cheese salad; black bean stew with guacamole and fresh tortillas; and churros with grilled mango and chocolate sauce for dessert.

Cafe de Ceuvel

90% vegetarian, mostly vegan casual cafe

Built out of reused materials and part of a collective of small businesses in North Amsterdam, Cafe de Cuevel has some serious enviro-cred. They run an aquaponic garden on their roof and serve produce from local farms.

The only meat they serve is goose, sourced from the geese that they cull at Amsterdam airport so they don’t get caught in the plane engines. No, you could not make this up!

We ate: I had the no-tuna tuna sandwich. It didn’t taste like tuna to me (a good thing) but was a delicious combo of mushrooms and olives on a thick slice of whole grain bread. If you’re heading to North Amsterdam, this is the place you should eat.

Best Vegan Burgers in Amsterdam

Vegan Junk Food Bar

All vegan diner serving burgers and bitterballen

Our favourite vegan burger in Amsterdam. Just edged our of our list of top 3 places to eat vegan in Amsterdam, Vegan Junk Food Bar serves up great vegan fast food in two locations.

The service is welcoming and friendly (unlike so many Amsterdam restaurants) and the vibe is decidedly casual. The location just north of Vondelpark is on a neighbourhood square and is a lovely spot to sit outside on a warm evening.

We ate: The Original VJFB, the Chicken Burger, and an order of bitterballen. Bitterballen are a Dutch classic treat, and must be tried at least once. The deep-fried balls of gravy-ish stuff were crispy and flavourful – but not the kind of thing I usually like to eat.

While the Chicken Burger was very good, the Original burger is better. It has a meaty texture, though the patty itself could have more flavour. The toppings are perfect though, so as a whole, extremely satisfying.

Meatless District

Vegan mid-range restaurant with great burgers

I was expecting a lot from Meatless District. With its trendy gastro-pub decor and the slightly higher prices on the menu, I figured I was in for a treat.

It turns out, while this is a fine place to grab a nice vegan meal, it’s just not that exciting. In fact, I had a hard time describing it here, just because there was nothing great nor awful to say about it. It seems like the kind of place you’d go with your workmates for an office lunch. If you’re in the neighbourhood, give it a look-in, otherwise, don’t bother.

I ate: The MD Burger. The patty is made from ground seitan and has a nice meaty texture but, as with most veggie burgers, it was a little flavourless. The toppings on the MD Burger are Big Mac-style, with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and a “special sauce”. Overall, this was a great fresh burger and the accompanying fries were almost perfect!

The Dutch Weed Burger Joint

Vegan burgers with no “medicinal” ingredients

A little burger and fries joint on a backstreet in Amsterdam west, The Dutch Weed Burger Joint has a pretty cool concept. They use Dutch Weed, that is, Dutch seaweed, to create a nutrient-rich burger patty from one of the most renewable plants on the planet.

We’ve been a couple of times and the burgers are very tasty. If you want to take your plant-based eating to the next level of sustainability, drop by!

Vegan Breakfast, Pancakes, and Brunch

The Happy Pig Pancake Shop

Omnivore snack bar reimagining pancakes as street food

If you have a hankering for vegan pancakes in Amsterdam, The Happy Pig is happy to help. They offer vegan and “gluten light” options, plus a good range of waffles.

This is not by any means a must-eat in Amsterdam but it is a good place to get your pancake fix as you wander the city’s pretty streets. Unfortunately, despite their name, they also serve decidedly unhappy pigs and other meat products.

We ate: Pancakes, of course. They have a good range of vegan toppings, so you can go sweet or savoury. I recommend one of each.

Pancakes Amsterdam

Touristy pancake chain with vegan and gluten-free options

It’s the law that if you go to Amsterdam, you need to eat Dutch-style pancakes. OK, it’s my law – but you must obey!

So, I was happy to find that the touristy Pancakes Amsterdam now offers a separate vegan menu — ask for it when you arrive. Unfortunately, they don’t have a lot of vegan topping options — no ice cream, chocolate sauce, or chocolate sprinkles (sad face) — but you can go for the classics, like stroop or lemon and sugar.

We ate: Vegan pancake with stroop. Not the best vegan pancakes I’ve ever had (I make those at home!) but good for a snack.

Beter & Leuk

Cute almost-vegan cafe with breakfast and lunch

This little cafe features homey decorations, a bright front window, and a few sidewalk tables for sunny afternoons. Beter & Leuk is such a cute spot, you’ll want to hang out all afternoon — which explains why it was packed out I went on a Saturday for lunch. If I lived nearby, this is the kind of place I’d come on a regular basis, but to be honest, as a tourist, it’s not unmissable.

They serve up homestyle breakfasts, including pancakes, and lunches that revolve around the soup-salad-sandwich access. The vegan breakfast for two, including scone, pancakes, smoothie bowl, and a savoury sandwich, sounds awesome. Alas, I was only one!

I ate: They were out of tempeh for the tempeh sandwich, so I ordered a soup and salad of the day. The salad was a mixed cold plate with hummus, mayo, with a mostly lentil salad assortment. The sweet potato soup was thick and nicely spiced with autumn flavours.

The food was really good but not that exciting, as it was nothing I couldn’t readily make at home.

Vegan Fast Food

Vegan Options in Foodhallen Amsterdam

Omnivore modern food court

Three years ago, we stayed just around the corner from Foodhallen for a couple of weeks and there was almost nothing vegan there. Fast-forward to today, when there are vegan options at about 50% of the vendors. At various stalls, you can get burritos, burgers, dumplings, salads, dumplings, and a Poke bowl. There’s only one all-vegetarian stall: Padron.

We ate: At Dim Sum Thing we ate vegan gyoza and steamed buns. They were good but obviously not as good as the ones we’ve eaten in China!

Kebabi

Pub and vegan eatery just off Vondelpark

To be honest, we weren’t expecting much at Kebabi, a bar and vegan eatery, beyond standard greasy pub food.

What a nice surprise to be served a huge stuffed sandwich filled with chewy and flavourful kebab not-meat! It was big enough for two of us to share for a sizeable snack — I don’t think I could finish one on my own. They also serve bitterballen, fries, and other bar food.

We ate: The döner kebab, spiced smoked soya kebab meat in a giant fresh pita, slathered with creamy sauce. Yum!

Maoz

Dependable veggie falafel chain

Since the early days of our plant-based eating, Maoz has been a dependable staple in cities around Europe. On our first few visits to Amsterdam, it was one of the few places vegetarians could eat!

They are an all-vegetarian, mostly vegan falafel chain where you can get your nutrient needs satisfied on a budget. Also great when late-night post-pub snacks are needed.

More Vegan Restaurants in Amsterdam

For some reason, there is a proliferation of vegan restaurants in Amsterdam that begin with the letter “m”. Since these three places defied other categorization, I decided to lump them together based on that alone.

Mr & Mrs Watson

High-end vegan with home made cheese

https://www.instagram.com/p/BrDKrTrF8ZG/

I didn’t get a chance to visit Mr & Mrs Watson but couldn’t fail to mention it here, since the reviews of their vegan cheese plate are outstanding.

I have long-since stopped believing vegan cheese reviews, which is probably why I didn’t make the time to get over here — you can’t be disappointed if you don’t try! If you’re less cheesed-off about the vegan cheese scene than me, go and please report back!

Mastino V

Vegan & gluten free branch of small pizza chain

We’d read really great reviews of Mastino‘s pizza. Unfortunately, when we decided to go, we didn’t realize we had chosen their gluten free and vegan branch. I mean, if there’s one food that screams out for gluten, it’s pizza!

The crust was spongy and, at least for this gluten-eater, not very satisfying. The only special vegan topping is four kinds of vegan cheese but, as with every vegan cheese I’ve eaten, the oily sticky texture just detracted from the pizza. Huge props to Mastino for jumping into the vegan and gluten free market but I’d still much rather have a no-cheese pizza from a really great Italian pizzeria.

At Mastino’s other branch, in De Pijp, you can choose different doughs (not all gluten free) with vegan toppings.

We ate: Frida & Diego, which you would expect to be a Mexican pizza, but isn’t really. The New Vegan. Both were fine, but not exceptional.

Mooshka

All vegan hole-in-the-wall

This tiny food bar along the Amstel is great for a quick and casual meal. Mooshka offers burgers and a few assorted standard vegan mains. If you’re in the mood for something a little different, get the Ethiopian Injera Plate.

I ate: Injera Plate, a mix of 6 Ethiopian sauces, ranging from mild spinach, to spicy curry, and lentil curry, served on a the typical spongy, slightly sour Ethiopian flat bread. Very good.

Best Fries in Amsterdam for Vegans

Smullers

Fries with vegan mayo

You can’t really visit Amsterdam without grabbing a paper cone of frites. If you simply can’t have fries without mayo, then visit Smullers, a chain of fry strands that were convinced to start serving vegan mayo by Dutch vegan activists. Yay activists! There’s a branch inside central station and a few others scattered about the city.

Vlaams Friteshuis Vleminckx

Fries and more fries

After a little research, we found that Vlaams is consistently rated one of the best places for fries in the Amsterdam city centre.

While the fries we had were very good, we found them pretty indistinguishable from fries we’d had other places in the city. Unfortunately for vegans, the only sauce that doesn’t contain mayo is ketchup. Don’t order a double portion of sauce like we did, since it ends up being way too much ketchup!

Par Hasard

Sit-down fry shop

Known for serving some of the best fries in the city, Per Hasard offers another bonus – you can actually sit down inside while you’re eating them. There are only a couple of locations, and you’ll have to venture outside the centre to get them, but for fry aficionados, it’s worth it.

Vegan Bakeries, Cakes, and Desserts

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Amsterdam is packed with places to get a delicious slice of vegan cake or other vegan sweets. It would have taken another month for me to research all the vegan bakeries in Amsterdam. OK, that sounds like a great idea now that I say it out loud!

Until then, if you’re a cake nut, stop in at Koffie ende Koeck and Vegabond for vegan sweets.

(Related: Have a sweet tooth? Here are even more vegan sweet treats in Amsterdam) →

Tours We Recommend in Amsterdam

Treat Yourself to a Vegan Walking Tour

3 hours

If you have limited time in Amsterdam, and want to sample a range of vegan delights in quick succession, then hop on this Vegan Food Tour! You’ll get to explore some classic dutch food, including bitterballen and Dutch weed burgers (i.e., seaweed), while learning a little more about vegan culture in Amsterdam.

Find out more about the tour →

Indulge in a Beer Tour

3 hours

Forget the Heineken Experience! If you want to explore the amazing world of beer brewing in Amsterdam, this beer tour is the way to go. Not only do you get to sample some of the best craft brews from the city, but you’ll learn the stories behind the breweries and Dutch beer culture, too.

Find out more about the tour →

We hope this guide to vegan food in Amsterdam leads to many moments of pure deliciousness on your trip. If you liked the guide, please let us know in the comments below!

♥  Happy mindful adventures, Jane & Stephen

We’re not going to lie, it takes a LOT of work to create travel guides like this. But it’s easy to help us out! If you book or buy something using one of our personal links in this post, we’ll earn a small fee at no extra cost to you. Of course, we would never recommend anything we didn’t 100% believe in! Huge thanks in advance! –S&J