Amsterdam Food Tasting Tour of Hidden Gems (Small Groups)
Description
Join us and savor Amsterdam’s culinary treasures like a local! Embark on an unforgettable food tour, where authenticity and genuine Dutch flavors take center stage. Unlike typical touristy experiences, your carefully curated tour leads you to hidden gems, ensuring an immersive culinary adventure. We prioritize visiting traditional and family-run spots, where you'll get a true taste of authentic dishes prepared with care. Engage with locals, learn about their food traditions, and feel like part of the community as you share in their culinary delights. This 7-stop tour includes tasting rich Dutch cheeses, crispy kibbeling (fried cod), and Amsterdam-style herring served with onions and pickles. Enjoy grillworst sausage, Surinamese bara with curry chicken reflecting the city’s multicultural roots, fluffy poffertjes with beer or coffee, bold licorice liqueur, and fresh caramel-filled stroopwafels. Come hungry and curious — discover the real heart of Amsterdam’s food culture.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Welcome to Amsterdam! We begin your culinary journey with a tasting of Dutch cheese — from the creamy smoothness of young cheese to the rich depth of aged (old) varieties, and the unique tang of goat cheese. You'll try both traditional and modern flavors from Amsterdam and beyond in a local shop that sets the perfect tone for the experience ahead.
Next, we dive into two local seafood classics that are a must-try in Amsterdam. First, you’ll taste kibbeling — crispy, golden-fried cod bites served with a tangy remoulade sauce. Then comes Dutch herring, a traditional delicacy served Amsterdam-style with pickles and chopped onions. Locals eat it by lifting it by the tail and taking a bite — and you can too! Both are served at a beloved local spot that captures the heart of the city’s street food culture.
We’ll take you to a beloved neighborhood butcher to try grillworst, a warm sausage infused with cheese. It’s a favorite local snack and the kind of flavorful, hearty bite that makes you feel instantly connected to the city.
Here we explore Amsterdam’s colonial culinary roots with a stop at a Surinamese eatery. You’ll try bara, a spiced lentil dough fritter, filled with rich curry chicken. Thanks to the deep ties between the Netherlands and Suriname, this dish is now a beloved staple of the Dutch food scene.
Next, we head to a cozy spot to enjoy poffertjes — mini pancakes served warm with butter and powdered sugar. You'll pair them with a Heineken beer, coffee, or your drink of choice, making for a perfectly balanced sweet-and-refreshing break in your tasting journey.
Get ready for something uniquely Dutch — Licorice liqueur, also known as Drop Shot! We'll visit a bar where locals go to unwind, and you'll get to try this bold, salty-sweet spirit in an authentic setting few tourists ever find.
We end on a sweet note with a freshly made stroopwafel, a classic Dutch cookie made from two thin waffles filled with gooey caramel syrup. It’s still warm, straight from the iron — the perfect final bite on this delicious journey through Amsterdam’s hidden gems.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Reviews(20)
Celine was a lovely and knowledgeable guide. We had 7 food stops: cheese (3 kinds), fish (kibbling which is fried fish, I even was brave and tried the pickled herring, it wasn't bad), meat, chicken curry sandwich, poffertjes (mini pancakes, loved these), a licorice flavored liquor, and finally stroopwaffles. We all enjoyed the variety and the mingling with the locals. Great tour!
Thank you so much for your wonderful review! 😊 We’re really happy to hear you enjoyed the variety of stops with Celine, especially the mix of local flavors like cheese, kibbeling, poffertjes, stroopwafels, and more. It sounds like a full taste of Amsterdam! We’d also love to welcome you in another city. Just search on Viator: “City + Food Tour in Hidden Gems” and you’ll find us in Porto, Lisbon, Madrid, Milan, Krakow, Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, Mexico City, Cuenca, Quito, and Prague.
This tour was so much fun, and very informative. The guide was very knowledgeable and friendly, and the food was varied as well as delicious; a true taste of Amsterdam. Highly recommend!
Thank you so much for your wonderful review! 😊 We’re really happy to hear you had so much fun and enjoyed the mix of delicious and varied food, as well as the knowledge and friendliness of your guide. It’s great to know you felt it was a true taste of Amsterdam. We’d also love to welcome you in another city. Just search on Viator: “City + Food Tour in Hidden Gems” and you’ll find us in Porto, Lisbon, Madrid, Amsterdam, Milan, Krakow, Warsaw, Budapest, Vienna, Berlin, Mexico City, Cuenca, Quito, and Prague.
What a cool and amazing experience, everything was great from start to finish. Local food tour!
Such an amazing real Hidden gems tour, we had a really good time with a friendly guide, we went to 7 stops, very cool and great experience.
Each stop was unique and located in authentic local places. Walking through the neighborhood was beautiful. Strolling around the Jordan neighborhood was totally excellent. A wonderful experience overall.
Small bites of cheeses, meats, fries and sweets but it was enough for the both of us. We loved our tour guide Thomas.
Thank you so much for your kind review! We’re very happy you enjoyed the tastings and had a great time with Thomas. If you travel again, you can also join our tours in Lisbon, Porto, Madrid, Milan, Prague, Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, Krakow and Warsaw. In the Americas we’re also in Quito, Cuenca and Mexico City. Just search on Viator for “City Food Tour Hidden Gems” in any of these cities and you’ll find us. We’d love to host you again!
The Amsterdam tour had seven stops and we enjoyed it a lot. We tried different cheeses, herring, some drinks and also sweet food . There was a nice variety and the atmosphere was great. Definitely a fun experience.
Local amazing food tour! We were in the jordan neighborhood visiting local hidden gems. Tasty food and a nice time with a cool guide!
I loved everything, we went to several places where we ate and drank local food in unique places, we thought it was just what we wanted!
Disappointed! We did not visit 2 stops. Never tried the fish/seafood or the sausage. Guide told us the seafood place was closed….not sure why the tour would be scheduled without an alternative to tasting one of the specialties of Amsterdam. The tour catered more to a teenagers taste. French fries were the highlight of any of the food. Had to ask for drinks and weren’t even offered any at some places. Not what I would expect from a tour of this price. The young girl that did our tour was nice but would have preferred a guide with some culinary knowledge of the area.
We must clarify that your tour was booked for a Saturday evening. As clearly stated in the booking information, the traditional fish shops in Amsterdam close early on Saturday nights, which means seafood tastings are not available at that specific time. This happens only on Saturday evenings, not on other days. We always recommend that guests who want to try seafood on Saturday book the midday tour, when those shops are open. In your case, we provided an alternative stop so you could still enjoy a complete food experience. It is therefore inaccurate to say that we “skipped two stops” — we adapted the tour based on what was open at that hour on Saturday . Regarding drinks, we provide beverages at every stop, so the claim that they were not offered is not correct. Finally, our guide is a lifelong Amsterdam local with deep knowledge of Amsterdam’s culinary culture. Many guests appreciate her expertise and passion. It seems that in your case, the issue was more about personal taste preferences — for example, not enjoying the stroopwafels because you do not eat sweets — rather than the quality of the food or the tour itself. Sincerely!
