Café-Restaurant Amsterdam

Housed in a century-old water-pumping station, this is dining as spectacle: a cathedral-height industrial hall lit by stadium floodlights, white tablecloths below. The brasserie menu runs wide — steak frites, seafood platters, bitterballen, a sticky toffee pudding worth saving room for — and that breadth makes it the rare place that seats grandparents, toddlers and date nights with equal ease. Service is young and quick-footed. Not the city's most refined kitchen, and it doesn't pretend to be; you come for good food inside an unforgettable room.

At a glance

For French cooking in Westerpark, Café-Restaurant Amsterdam at Watertorenplein 6 is one of the addresses in this guide. Open seven days a week; the earliest opening time is 10:00. Check cradam.nl for current opening times and the menu. It's about a 5-minute walk from Fabrique des Lumières.