Eating at Café binnenvisser

An informal atmosphere, unpretentious yet incredibly delicious food and a beautiful glass of wine. Eating at Café binnenvisser in Amsterdam West is like spending an evening at the pub, but surprisingly culinary.

The informality starts with the reservation. We can’t find a phone number anywhere, so we cycle over. They are rather nonchalant about making a reservation: “it’ll be fine”. And it is. The place is small and when we arrive (7:30 p.m. on a Monday evening), there is still plenty of room for our party of five. By the end of the evening, the place is completely full.

Brown café

Maybe it’s because of the bar, which takes up almost half of the place. Maybe it’s the wooden floor or the dim lighting combined with candles. Either way, the interior is reminiscent of a brown café. We are also pleasantly surprised to see a boiled egg on the bar menu, a true retro café classic.

Bar menu

We start with parsnip and celeriac fritters: crispy-fried, well-seasoned and served with a wonderfully tart vinaigrette. The fennel sausage we order is a bratwurst-style sausage, served whole with bread and a dollop of mustard. Rustic. We order a natural wine to go with it, as that is the only type of wine they serve here. A blend of sauvignon and chenin blanc from Vin de Frantz, to be precise: also approved.

Weekly menu

The menu is short and changes every week; two out of the four weeks in the month, it is entirely vegetarian. This evening, there are two starters, one main course and two desserts on the menu. All at more than reasonable prices. To start, the kinilaw of red snapper. The Filipino version of ceviche is perfectly balanced by citrus acidity, the creaminess of coconut milk, spicy green pepper and a finish of sea salt flakes.

Slow-cooked lamb

Next, I order the spelt taco with slow-cooked lamb shoulder, coleslaw and buttermilk, listed as a starter for a meagre € 6.50. It shouldn’t really be called a taco at all. It’s more like a kind of cracker, but it tastes good, so we don’t dwell on the incorrect word choice for long. The tender lamb falls apart, the coleslaw combined with the buttermilk and coriander is wonderfully fresh, and it is also substantial enough to serve as a main course.

Unbelievably cheap for this quality

Dessert

To share, we order the coffee crème brûlée (perfect texture, very light and with a beautiful thin sugar crust) and poached pear with cookie crumble and red cabbage cream. The cream tastes very savoury indeed, and we leave most of it. Clearly the least successful dish of the evening, but still above average. While the other dishes score around a 9, the pear gets a solid 7.

Unbelievably cheap

We stick to that one bottle of wine, while fresh tap water is constantly placed on the table. Including the tip, we spend € 35 per person. Unbelievably cheap for this quality. Perfect for a weeknight, but I can also easily imagine sitting here at a noisy bar on a Friday and ordering dishes and wine throughout the evening. That is certainly what I plan to do.

Café binnenvisser
Bilderdijkstraat 36
Amsterdam

Monday through Thursday 17:00 – 00:00
Friday and Saturday 17:00 – 02:30
Sunday 17:00 – 00:00

Image: Café binnenvisser via Facebook