Café Americain – Amsterdam’s Art Deco Grand Café

Dinner at Amsterdam’s Art Deco Grand Café:

Amsterdam has a number of grand cafés where you can enjoy dining in elegance and on our one free night in Amsterdam, we chose to dine at Café Americain, the oldest of the grand cafés in this city.

Café Americain is one of the restaurants of the Amsterdam American Hotel in the Central Canal Ring district. The café has a past reputation for being the hangout for writers, musicians, actors and other artists and on the hotel’s website it promises “Wining and Dining between celebrities and artists”. In other words, it’s a place to “see and be seen”.

“Being seen” is not a priority when we don’t know anyone in town. Our main reason for choosing Café Amercain is the art-deco features of the hotel and restaurant that we’ve heard so much about. The American Hotel, built in 1900, is one of Amsterdam’s distinctive landmarks and is officially listed as a national monument.

Café Americain Restaurant Features

On entering the restaurant, we were immediately impressed by the classy feel of the place. Dark timber floors, large stained-glass windows, frosted-glass antique Tiffany chandeliers from the 1920s, velvet upholstery and tall carved columns give the place an elegant but yet cosy atmosphere.   In a section of the restaurant are old library-style desks  where hotel guests can sit and read international newspapers.

The  Café Americain offers international dishes based on seasonal foods. It was a cold evening so we both had soups to start followed by seafood pasta and a fish dish for our mains. Service was very smart although the mains took a while in arriving which meant that I ate too much of the nice breads and interesting spreads. The elegant chairs were very comfortable and the ambiance is great so this is a place to enjoy slow food anyway.

Whilst the food was enjoyable, I will probably remember the restaurant more for its art deco decorations and ambiance than its cuisine. Café Americain is upmarket restaurant and prices are at the higher end, but it was worthwhile going there just to experience dining in Amsterdam’s oldest grand café.  If you’re planning to dine there, book early and try asking for a table by the large stained-glass windows.

Getting there:

Leidsekade 97
1017 Amsterdam
Tel: +31 (0) 20 556 3000

Things to do in Amsterdam

Click here to get a free PDF of this post

How about you, what do you think?