Café Smit & Voogt

Café très sympa à Amsterdam, ambiance calme et familiale, les gens y sont détendus et souriants. Et puis les tartines y sont excellentes, pour un prix très accessibles. Les bières y sont pas mal non plus ;)

English menu, delicious food and very helpful bartenders who know the beer! We all got the buffalo mozzarella, tomato and ham sandwich. Delicious!

This place is a local bar and restaurant, so if you’re not in the area, that’s quite alright. You can find plenty of cool places more in the center of Amsterdam. But when it is really cold out at night and you’re stuck in a hotel across the street, this place gets the job done… and in a friendly manner.
It was about 10pm when the urge for vices started kicking at me. And reluctantly, I responded. I put on more clothes and headed out the hotel door to across the street.
There were only 2 couples eating and finishing up their evening. I sat down at the bar and the Dutch bartender was extremely nice to me. I asked him for a draught beer. He then proceeded to tell me about each one they offered. Most of his descriptions went in and out of my head. But, the last one he mentioned immediately made my brain light up. He said something along the lines of craft beer, dark wheat beer, locally brewed… and well I was SOLD! It indeed was a great glass of beer, tasty and creamy.
Oh and if you’re looking for cancer sticks, look no further than the cigarett machine upstairs, yes, they stil have one of those. The bartender downstairs will give you change if you need and a token that allows you use the machine (to keep minors from smoking).

After two hours of Dutch lessons, when my brain is somewhere between fried and mashed potatoes, it doesn’t take much to get me into a bar. So when my other classmate suggested we grab a beer I responded with an enthusiastic, ‘Yes!’.
Across the street from where we study is Café Smit & Voogt. The bartender was very friendly and entertained us by speaking Dutch to us as we worked through it :)
I had a beer from Brewery het Ij (9% alc) for about euro 3.4. My classmate had a Westmalle trappist beer. We split some oude kaas (aged cheese) with tasty mustard. Then, feeling in the mood for something sweet, we ordered Bailey’s on the rocks. Yum.
The café is cozy, has a great selection of beers and snacks. Clean bathrooms. Friendly staff. For a Wednesday night it was busy but not full.
This will probably become a weekly stopover post-​Dutch lessons.
Proost!