Eating Vegan In... Amsterdam
Last summer I had to say goodbye to my two best friends who would be moving away to the Netherlands for a year to study abroad. One was going to Amsterdam and the other one was off the Rotterdam. It was bitter sweet, as the silver lining was that I would get to go and visit them both, and with free accommodation, (thanks guys).
It had been four months since we had last saw each other. We had all been so busy with moving and other personal things going on in our lives. With being in final year, my dissertation deadlines were looming, and I knew if I didn’t go and visit them now, then I wouldn’t be able to see them until Christmas. And that was simply NOT an option.
So, with a week to go, I booked my flights to Amsterdam for 13th– 16th October and I was finally going to be reunited with my best friends in a city that I had never visited before.
It was 11am on 13th October and I was on a train from Leeds to Manchester Airport in order to make my 2.50 flight to Amsterdam. I had never travelled alone before, and to say that I have little to no common sense when it comes to anything ever, would be an absolute understatement. So, I thought it would be best to arrive early.
I got through security really quickly and I had an hour and a half to kill before my gate was open. Having only had some toast back home in Leeds, I quickly became very hungry.
I spotted a Boots and got a meal deal. Meal deals are not a thing in the Netherlands, so this would be my last one for 3 days - truly, how did I cope?
Time really did fly by and I was soon on my way to Amsterdam. The flight was so quick; just as I was getting comfortable we were preparing to land again. I finally arrived in Amsterdam at 5.15pm local time.
From the airport, I hoped on a train to Zuid and then I got on a Metro to Uilenstede to meet my two friends, Sophie and Jem, (or at least I thought I was on that metro. I had in fact got on the wrong one, travelling to central which was the opposite direction to where Sophie was staying. I told you I had no common sense.)
The situation was quickly rectified and soon I was on the right metro, just six minutes away from reuniting with Sophie and Jem.
I spotted them both at the metro stop and I ran off into their arms.
After our emotional reunion, Sophie showed us around her campus and took us to her flat. We had a catch up over some jam on toast and quickly showered ready to go out that evening.
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Sophie had planned a whole itinerary for us for the weekend, so I had no idea where we were going. On the metro, she soon revealed that we were eating at Vegan Junk Food Bar that night. Now, I have been talking about going to VJFB ever since she moved to the Netherlands, so I was so excited.
We went to Marie Heinekenplein 9, 1072 MH Amsterdam, Netherlands, (there are two locations), and when we got there the place looked very busy. We queued at the door for around 10 minutes, with servers continuously walking past us ignoring that we were waiting for a table.
Sophie quickly got a server’s attention and he informed us that there was a 45-minute wait on tables this evening. We gave him our number and decided to head off for a drink whilst we waited on our table.
Seeing as my friend lives in Amsterdam, she knew of some cute independent places, which that was definitely useful when it came to picking somewhere to get drinks.
Before we knew it, we got a call saying our table was ready and off we went to Vegan Junk Food Bar.
We sat down at around 10pm (VJFB closes at 12, so this came in handy since we were pretty late). We began looking at the menu and everything sounded incredible.
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| VJFB Menu |
Sophie and I decided to go for the Original VJFB burger with fries. Jem, unfortunately, wasn’t feeling great, so she only ordered some sweet potato fries, which was gutting because we were all so excited to try the food there. We made the decision that were going to come back tomorrow if she was feeling better, as Sophie revealed plans for dinner tomorrow night were completely open.
Our food took SO long to arrive. We were sat waiting for around 40 minutes and it was 11pm by the time we ate. As you can imagine, we were STARVING.
I have to say though, despite the wait, the food did taste amazing. The burger came with vegan cheese, mayo and salad, and we also ordered some mayo and ketchup for our chips too.
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| Original VJFB Instagram: emeatsvegan |
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| Original VJFB Instagram: emeatsvegan |
The service was absolutely dreadful and the servers continuously avoided eye contact with us so they didn’t have to come to our table. I understood it was a little busy, but it had died down by the time we were eating, and it was incredibly frustrating when we wanted to order more drinks. They definitely lost money by ignoring us.
The bad service tainted the experience for me, but the food was still great, and I was excited to try something new on the menu the following day.
We finished our food and the bill came to 40€ for all three of us – which was reasonable to me! One thing to note when going to VJFB – they do not accept cash, so make sure you have your card with you.
Overall
Food = 9/10
Atmosphere = 7/10
Service = 3/10
After VJFB, we went to a bar and shared a bottle of wine – my friend was feeling better at this point thankfully.
We were pretty drunk and tired, so after we finished the bottle, we went home and were in bed by 2am.
I had a really nice first night in Amsterdam and it was so amazing to be reunited with my best friends finally! I was excited to see what Sophie had in store for us tomorrow.
Day Two
We woke up after having the BEST sleep. I think I was so tired last night that I was completely knocked out, leading me to wake up at 10am feeling fresh and ready for the day.
Sophie informed us our first stop of the day was a picnic Vondelpark, which is this lovely park in Amsterdam Zuid. It was gorgeous weather in Amsterdam – around 25 degrees, so a picnic in the park was the perfect activity.
First, we needed to get some snacks for our picnic. We stopped off at Jumbo, which is a local supermarket very near to Sophie’s campus. We bought some bread, an assortment of humous, a fruit platter, some olives, (which I ate all of because everyone else hates olives. All the more for me), and we also got some crisps and some juice. We packed up our shopping in our backpacks and off we went to Vondelpark.
We travelled by metro to most places, seeing as Sophie lives pretty south of Amsterdam, so this was definitely the easiest way to get around, (although certainly not the cheapest).
We arrived at Vondelpark and enjoyed our picnic in the sun.
After spending an hour here, we made our way to the next location: Amsterdam’s Sex Museum.
The museum was only 5€ to get in, and it was definitely worth the visit. We got our iconic photos sitting on the giant penis and managed to make our way around the museum in around half an hour. It must have been 3pm by the time we reached the end.
We decided to walk around Amsterdam for a little bit and managed to find a bar with some nice outdoor seating where we could have a drink. We stopped off here for a few beers and enjoyed the sun.
My favourite thing about holidays is drinking in the day, whilst sitting in the sun – heaven.
Whilst we were drinking, we had some time to figure out what we wanted to do with the rest of our day. We all settled on taking a pedalo along the canal. I’ve been on one in Prague before and it was so much fun, so we were all pretty keen on the idea.
We finished our drinks at around 4.30 and made our way to the pedalos. Unfortunately, the man at the desk informed us that we were too late to ride the pedalos today. It was a Sunday and was nearing on night time, so I don’t know what we expected.
With that plan out of the window, we found another bar and drank some more beer. It was getting on to dinner time, so after we finished even more drinks, we headed back to VJFB for round two.
Jem was feeling 100 times better that night, so it was only right that she got to try the food there too.
We decided that we were going to go to a different location this time. We headed to Staringplein 22, 1054 VL Amsterdam, Netherlands. Seeing as we had awful service the night before, we wanted to see whether it was just that venue that was disappointing.
This venue was much more like a fast food place, rather than a restaurant like the other one. I preferred this as it was what I was expecting from a junk food “bar” and the overall atmosphere seemed to be a lot more chilled out. Also, in this venue, you order at the bar and pay straight away, which was already 10 times fast than the other place.
The menu was exactly the same, so we decided to try something new. We each ordered the Daddy McChicken Sandwich and then shared three sides: the nuggets, the fries and the bitterballen.
The food arrives within 15 minutes, which was already much quicker than the last place.
After trying both the burger and the chicken sandwich, I would definitely recommend getting the chicken sandwich. I feel as though I have had so many vegan burgers, so I have a lot to compare them too, however, I rarely get to try a good vegan chicken sandwich, and this one was incredible.
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| Daddy McChicken Instagram: emeatsvegan |
I was also really happy I got to try bitterballen, as my friend said this is a delicacy in the Netherlands, however, it is usually made with meat, so I doubt I would have gotten to try this anywhere else.
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| Fries, Nuggets and Bitterballen Instagram: emeatsvegan |
I have had my fair share of vegan nuggets (Frys Family, Quorn), so I was expected the nugs to taste like every other nug I’ve eaten before. BOY was I wrong. I cannot even put into words how good these nuggets were. They came with a BBQ dipping sauce, which made them so much better.
I would definitely recommend going to this VJFB, rather than the one in de pijp, as our overall experience was lot more positive in terms of food quality, atmosphere and service.
We had already paid for our bill upon arrival, so we were able to make a swift exit and head out for some drinks.
Overall
Food = 10/10
Atmosphere = 9/10
Service = 9/10
Next to VJFB, we spotted a bar called “PARCK”. We took a look inside and decided to have a few drinks there. We ordered a bottle of wine to share and some ping pong balls, so we could have a go on the table.
This bar was so much fun and chilled out. It was a great place to go and have a few chilled drinks. We actually noticed that they were a 100% vegan restaurant too, specialising in kebabs. What are the chances?
We spent the rest of the night here, before heading back home. Jem had a 6am train back to Rotterdam the following day, as she actually had an exam in the afternoon, so we couldn’t stay out too late. We got back to the hotel and had a chill evening before heading off to sleep.
Day Three
We woke up at 6am to wave Jem off and fell straight back to sleep until 9.30. I was on holiday after all.
We both got ready on Sophie’s balcony and after checking in to my flight and downloading my boarding pass, we made our way into central.
Sophie’s friends had been to a place called VegaBond, which was a vegan café that looked really nice, so we decided to go there for some brunch.
We both ordered 2 iced lattes with soy milk, (if there’s one thing to know about me and Sophie it’s that we love iced lattes), and we also both got some summer rolls.
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| Summer Rolls and Iced Soy Lattes Instagram: emeatsvegan |
The summer rolls had avocado, cabbage, and carrot in - basically a load of raw veg with a peanut dipping sauce. They were really nice if you like raw food, however, for me, they were a little underwhelming. I am not a huge raw food lover; however, the iced lattes were great. We also sat outside in the sun and lots of people commented on how nice our food looked. Personally, I think I would have enjoyed them more if they came with a side of soy sauce, as oppose to peanut.
Overall
Food = 5/10
Atmosphere = 8/10
Service = 9/10
We were surprisingly so full after those summer rolls, so we decided to walk off our brunch. This is what a lot of our day consisted of – walking. It was so much fun just walking around Amsterdam and getting to see the sights, although, we really did miss Jem.
We went to a few shops and then of course, it was time to sit down and have a beer. We couldn’t believe how lucky we were with the weather, although, it was deeply concerning that we were melting in Europe in the middle of October. Global warming and all.
We spent about an hour drinking outside until we eventually got moving again. We looked around a few souvenir shops and managed to get a look at the Red Light District.
Sophie got some chips for a snack and I ordered some noodles from Wok to Walk. I had them with tofu, broccoli and soy and black bean sauce. It was delicious, but a little pricey. I expected it to be expensive, as it is a well-known chain. They definitely filled me up though.
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| Noodles Instagram: emeatsvegan |
We continued to walk around the streets of Amsterdam before ending up in yet another bar. We drank and drank until the sun was beginning to set. We completely lost track of time, but had the best day exploring.
Sophie and I both agreed that seeing as we had been snacking on little bits all day, we didn’t really want to go for as big evening meal, as neither of us were particularly hungry. Instead, we headed back to Sophie’s flat with an armful of snacks from her campus shop and proceeding to get drunk and eat on her balcony – it was perfect.
Unfortunately, I had to be up at 6.30am for my flight back to Manchester in the morning, so reluctantly we went to sleep at around 12.30.
Before I knew it, I woke up in the morning and had an emotional last goodbye with Sophie.
My flight went smoothly – we were delayed for about an hour, but it wasn’t a big deal.
I had such a good time in Amsterdam and I really loved the Netherlands. I have been to a lot of places in Europe, but there is something so different about the Netherlands. The buildings are beautiful, the people are nice, it has a really chill vibe that a lot of places in Europe are lacking. I will definitely be going back, as I realised I only really managed to review two places. For me, this trip was all about seeing my best friends and for once food was not my top priority.
Next on my list is Rotterdam to visit Jem!
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