Eating in Europe

I'm in amsterdam right now. Best thai I've ever had is in the Pijp at a place called Thias Eethuis Siriphon (1st (Eerste)van campenstraat.

Great turkish pizza and other turkish is near vondel park on Jan Pieter Heijerstraat called Turks resturant. We usually get pizza and some heniken to go and go over to vondel park to eat.

In vondel the best chill beer, snack and BBQ on sunday place in the Blue Teahouse (Bleuw Theehuis).

Burgermeester on Elansgracht has great burgers with various ingredients (salmon, macheego (sp) cheese , falafel...as well as meat)

I come to amsterdam all the time. Stay the hell away from the tourist areas and you can have a more genuine experience. I also highly reccomend renting bikes....but not the ones with big advertisements that scream tourist. I can point you in the right direction if you want.

Let me know if you want bar/ canal recs out of the tourist zone.

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Paris

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sent this semi-recently to someone i knew going to paris....


Bistroy Les Papilles
[link=(-https://www.lespapillesparis.fr/)]-https://www.lespapillesparis.fr/[/link]
-30 rue Gay Lussac 75005 PARIS
-near the jardin du luxembourg and the pantheon. It also sells wine and 'gourmet' food products. small place, good simple french food. Opened by a guy who worked as a patisserie chef for some really nice restaurants. Since it's a wine shop, you pick a bottle off the shelf and pay a corking fee--get a really good price. The way to go is to get the menu of the day.

La Cave de l'Os a Moelle
-181, r. de Lourmel 75015 PARIS
-Similar to les papilles as it's a wine shop as well, so you pick one off of the shelf. If you are a small number of people, you sit at a table with other people. You have to go at one of their seatings (i think 730 or 930). At your table is a huge assortment of hors-d'ouvres--breads, pickled vegetabes, pates, sausages, etc. When you are ready for the main cousre you walk to the back of the place and serve yourself from a big pot. There is also an assortment of desserts and cheeses and side dishes to choose from. You can go back for 2nds and 3rds, etc. Country-style type French food.

L'As du Falafel
-34 rue des rosiers. 75004.
-Not French food Falafels in the Marais area, kind of the Jewish section of town. Kind of a famous place, there is usually a big line. Walk up to the window and get a falafel for about 5euro--really good.


Maison Berthillon.
- 29-31 rue saint Louis en l'ile. 75004
-Ice cream shop. On an island near Notre Dame. Amazing.

Pozzetto.
-39 Rue du Roi de Sicile. 75004.
-Gelato shop. Also amazing. Pistachio I recommend. They have good coffee as well.

La Cafeoteque
-52, rue de l’Hôtel-de-Ville, 75004 Paris
-Coffee shop. If you really like coffee, it's the place to go. Start by a woman from Guatemala. They have a huge selection and roast their own beans. The workers are knowledgeable and there is a very descriptive menu about each coffee.

Le Comptoir du Relais.
-9 Carrefour de l'Odéon 75006.
-They have a pretty big menu of nice food. I believe they have stopped their reservation-taking completely and you wait in line if necessary. Pretty known as one of the best deals in the city. Great place.

L'Avant Comptoir
-next door to the restaurant above
-More recently, the guy who owns le comptoir bought a crepe shop and changed things. It's a small bar. Probably can hold 12-15 people. They have lots of little hors-douvres that you snack on while drinking their nice and very well priced wines by the glass. There is still a crepe window as well. Really good food and wine. One of my favorite places.

Creperie du Josselin
-67 Rue de Montparnasse 75014
-good crepes...get some cider

Pierre Herme
-185 rue de vaugirard 75015
-72 Rue Bonaparte 75006
-One of the best pastry shops in paris. Macarons are famous, i love the ispahan croissant (filled with rose almond cream, lychees, raspberries, glazed with rosewater glaze and raspberries on top). he worked at the famous older shop Laduree b/f opening this one. he is a little more 'creative' probably. very well known guy now.

-Sadaharu Aoki.
-35 rue de vaugirard 75015
-another great pastry shop. great. japanese guy, basically french pastry with some japanese influence. 35 rue de vaugirard.

Le Nemrod.
-51 Rue du Cherche-Midi 75006.
-nice cafe, croque monsieur is good [get the 'croque polaine' to get it on the good poilane bread]


le cafe du commerce
51 rue de commerce 75015. brasserie/restaurant. very classic french brasserie. good food at good prices.

les fables de fontaine.
-131 Rue Saint-Dominique 75007
-small and pricey place. seafood focused, i went once and it blew me away. tasting menu was around 80 euro per person (seems like the way to go as people ordering the 'normal 'menu seemed to have small portions for what they were paying.

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Yeah I'd def like to hear the bar scene and canals away from the tourist spots. Also the best coffee shops?

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Bars:

This time of year everyone sits outside on the terrace. Great spots for outside that are not too touristy are:

Tip: Any street name that ends in "gracht" is a canal.....or used to be. I've seen a couple of grachts that have parking in the middle now.

1. t' Arendest-Canal side spot that specializes in Dutch beers. Everytime I have gone there the outside tables were full but the waiter has always brought one from inside and set it up outside for us. No food but he let me get take away pizza from a spot....very good pizza but only for take away. Line out the door w/ 95% dutch people on Leligracht.

2. Cafe 't Smalle is a great spot on the Egelantiersgracht and looks at a small bridge on the Priensengracht.

3. Cafe Galerie Het Molenpad on Prinsengracht

4. Cafe Walem on Keizergracht...This place has a few more tourists as its very close to Liedestraat and Liedesplein (very touristy area). But its still nice and was designed by Garret Rietveld, a very famous dutch modernist architect from the 20's. I went to Ultrecht a few days ago to tour his most famous house.

Not on canals but great spots:

1. Gollem Cafe- Specializes in Belgian beers-There are 3 locations. 1 is in the Spui and is small w/ no outside seating....a bit toristy. The second is in the Pijp near the Thai place I listed earlier-small outdoor seating. The third is a new location on Overtoom near Vondel park. Large terrace seating. All 3 locations have great indoor atmos and play good music (motown, classic rock, etc.)

3. Bleuw Theehuis (blue tea house) in Vondel Park. This is our go to place. Lots of outdoor seating downstairs and upstairs and in the middle of the park surrounded by trees....which makes it a little difficult to find. It is a white, round "wedding cake " looking building (large circular bottom floor, smaller circular 2nd floor, small top circular roof.... w/ blue trim.

4. Noorderlicht- This is in a new reclaimed area in North (Noord) amsterdam. It was an shipyard that is now an artist area....MTv has its dutch headquarters here. To get there, take the free ferry that leaves from behind central station. There are 3 or 4 ferries....take the one that begins with an "H". The ferries only take 5 minutes to cross so if you screw up its an easy turn around. The ferry with drop you near the "Boat Hotel". There is a more upscale bar right at the dock but the Noorderlicht is a 10 minute walk. Google it to get the street name. It has outside seating that looks out over the water back to amsterdam.

Coffee houses:

Grey Area is the best quality but not a great atmos.....no coffee house has very good atmos IMO. Amnesia is 2nd in quality and a better atmos than Grey Area. We usually buy and go to a park or other nice spot.

In Paris, a few of my favorites:

Josephine, Chez Dumonet
Chez l'Ami Jean
Le Regalade
Le Petrelle