Editorial
Amsterdam came late to mezcal, and then made up for it quickly. The city now holds a small but serious cluster of agave rooms, from a Noord taqueria with a list that reads like an importer’s catalog to a Centrum cantina that has stocked agave for two decades.
Three rooms anchor the scene in Amsterdam. For the broader cocktail picture, our best cocktail bars in Amsterdam guide and the city cocktail hub cover the rest.
Coba in Amsterdam Noord built what local food press calls the first dedicated mezcal list in the city, single village bottlings poured in copitas alongside a taco menu that earns the trip across the IJ on its own. The room is cheerful and unpolished, wicker stools and cactuses. Ask the staff to steer a flight; they will.
Los Pilones, run by three Mexican brothers for more than 20 years, stocks over 200 hundred percent agave tequilas and mezcals across its locations, one of the most curated agave collections in the city. The Kerkstraat original is the room to drink it in. Start with an espadín neat and let the wall do the rest.
Cabrón approaches agave through the cocktail list, smoky palomas and mezcal margaritas alongside a taco led menu. It is the entry point for drinkers who want the flavor before the neat pour commitment. Go on a weeknight; the room is small and the regulars know it.
"Mezcal arrived in Amsterdam through the kitchens, not the cocktail bars. The taquerias still pour it best."
Order it neat, in a copita, at room temperature, and sip it over half an hour. Espadín is the entry grape of the agave world, reliable and affordable; tobalá and other wild agaves are the splurge pours, and the three rooms above will tell you honestly when a bottle is worth the jump.
Skip the slammed shot with salt and orange entirely. Every list above is built for sipping, and the staff at Coba in particular treat the spirit with the patience it rewards.
Amsterdam’s cocktail rooms increasingly keep agave in rotation, and a mezcal serve now shows up on most serious lists in the canal belt. The smart crawl pairs one taqueria pour with a cocktail room chaser.
For the global picture, our best mezcal bars in the world guide maps the category, and Copenhagen’s mezcal rooms make the closest Northern European comparison.
Coba for the list, Los Pilones for the bottle wall, Cabrón for the cocktails. Amsterdam’s mezcal scene is three rooms deep and all three are worth the trip; start in Noord and work south.
Coba Taqueria in Noord runs what local food press calls the first dedicated mezcal list in Amsterdam, while Los Pilones stocks more than 200 hundred percent agave bottlings across its locations.
Neat, in a copita, sipped slowly. Start with an espadín before moving to wild agave bottlings like tobalá, and skip the salt and orange shot ritual entirely.
Entry espadín pours sit in normal cocktail price territory, while rare wild agave bottlings climb steeply. The rooms above will say honestly when a bottle justifies the jump.
Sofia covers the European bar beat for barsforKings from a base in London, with regular stops in Copenhagen, Berlin, and Amsterdam. She has filed guides from 23 cities.
One email every week. The bars our editors are recommending right now, across 176 cities worldwide.