Best-of list · Cocktail Guides
The 9 best cocktail bars in Amsterdam for 2026, from Door 74 and Tales and Spirits to Flying Dutchmen, Pulitzer's Bar and Bar Oldenhof, ranked.
The short answer
9 ranked rooms follow. How we picked is at the end of this guide.
The best cocktail bars in Amsterdam are Door 74, the speakeasy that set the Dutch template, plus Tales & Spirits and Flying Dutchmen for technique and Pulitzer's Bar for a canal-side classic. Most cluster around the Negen Straatjes and the canal belt. Expect 13 to 16 euros a cocktail, and book Door 74 ahead, since it takes reservations only.
Amsterdam's cocktail scene is the most underrated in Europe. Door 74 set the modern Dutch speakeasy template. Tales & Spirits and Flying Dutchmen extended the technique. The nine below show how the Dutch genever tradition has been integrated with modern cocktail technique to produce something distinctively Amsterdam.
Door 74 reopened the modern Amsterdam cocktail story when it arrived in 2008, an unmarked door on Reguliersdwarsstraat, a buzzer, and a hush behind the curtain. The bartenders work the classics with quiet precision and the booths fill fast. It is reservations-first for a reason. Book ahead, ring the bell, and let the room's calm set the pace for the night.
Full listing & hours →Tales & Spirits fills a 1575 canal house on Lijnbaanssteeg, candlelit and full of curios, where the team pours into characterful vintage glassware you can buy on the way out. It runs walk-in only, Tuesday to Saturday. The mood is warm and a little theatrical. Come early to beat the queue, take a counter seat, and let the bartender match a drink to your glass.
Full listing & hours →Flying Dutchmen Cocktails sits in a handsome Singel canal house, founded by award-winning bartenders with an encyclopedic backbar and crystal-clear ice. The drinks are exact and the room intimate. It is a bar for people who care how a cocktail is built. Come on a quiet evening, sit close to the bar, and ask the team to make something to your taste.
Pulitzer's Bar is the polished canal-side living room of the Pulitzer Hotel on Keizersgracht, with an art deco mood, water views and a classics-first menu that rotates with the season. It suits a refined early drink or a calm nightcap. Come before dinner, take a window seat over the canal, and order a seasonal classic poured with hotel-bar care.
Full listing & hours →Hiding in Plain Sight tucks into Rapenburg in the old center, a small craft room that runs pre-Prohibition classics alongside tiki and a bartender's sense of play. The list is deep and the seats are few. It rewards the curious drinker. Come early in the evening, take a stool at the bar, and let the team steer you from a classic toward something stranger.
Full listing & hours →The Butcher Social Club lives in and around the A'DAM tower across the IJ, a sprawling playground of burgers, music and cocktails that runs from morning until well past midnight. It is loud, social and fun rather than precious. Take the free ferry from Centraal, come with a group, and treat it as a long, easy night with a view back over the water.
Full listing & hours →Bar Oldenhof is a small Jordaan room that takes cocktails and whisky equally seriously, around thirty seats of leather banquettes and low light. The drinks are made with intention and the mood stays unhurried. It suits a quiet date or a slow nightcap. Come on a weeknight, settle into a banquette, and ask the bartender to pour something off the whisky shelf.
Full listing & hours →Bar Baarsch is the neighborhood heart of De Baarsjes out west on Jan Evertsenstraat, a warm cafe-bar where the kitchen runs late and the calendar fills with disco bingo and community nights. This is local before fancy. Come for an easy dinner and a drink, stay for whatever the room has on, and you will leave feeling like a regular.
Full listing & hours →Glouglou is the natural wine bar that anchors De Pijp on 2e van der Helststraat, all additive-free bottles, small seasonal plates and a flower-lined terrace. It is not a cocktail room and does not pretend to be, which is the point. Come for an unhurried glass on the terrace when the weather turns, order a few plates, and let the night stay simple.
Full listing & hours →