Perfect Sunday Afternoon: Sunday Roast at Café De Tropen
With restaurants and cafés still closed, we can collectively remain deeply grateful that hotel restaurants are allowed to open—as long as they only serve hotel guests. And that means, yes, you also have to stay overnight at the hotel in question—and let’s be honest, that’s no punishment at all! So I went to The Sunday Roast at café restaurant De Tropen, preceded by an overnight stay at the Tropenhotel in Amsterdam-Oost. And of course, I brought a Brit along!
Let’s start with what’s unique about this concept: you don’t stay at the hotel the night after the meal. Because a Sunday Roast—you can probably guess from the name, and it’s also served in the afternoon entirely according to British tradition—is on Sunday. And most people simply have to go back to work on Monday, which means getting up and leaving brutally early. So the overnight stay is on Saturday, and that makes this extra fun. When you wake up, you can first enjoy a lovely breakfast at the hotel, then you have some time to do your own thing, and then the Roast party begins! Much more fun than packing your bag in the morning and trudging home; no, you get to enjoy the entire afternoon after already having had such a great night.
Hotspot Oost
The Tropenhotel isn’t the newest or trendiest hotel in Amsterdam. But that doesn’t matter at all, because the staff are incredibly friendly, the beds wonderfully inviting and comfortable, and above all: it’s in a truly triple-A location. On one side of the hotel is the monumental Tropenmuseum (definitely worth a visit), alongside the beautiful Plantage neighbourhood with its impressive history, Artis (!) and, generally speaking, a very lovely part of the city for a stroll.
Incidentally, our beloved restaurant NENI has just opened a takeaway pop-up in this neighbourhood, so run don’t walk! On the other side of the hotel you’ll find the more rugged Oost, which feels a little Berlin-ish in all its urban cosiness. Not entirely surprisingly, you can find places serving absurdly delicious food every few metres here, so make sure you arrive in Oost hungry on Saturday and simply eat your way through the whole neighbourhood!
Saturday to Sunday: the (food) route
So you check in on Saturday, from 3:00 p.m. onwards, and the fun can begin. Put your bag in the room, put on comfortable shoes and head out. Or don’t, of course! You can also flop onto that bed, turn on the TV, indulge in the Tony’s Chocolonely bars waiting for you in the room and simply wait until tomorrow before venturing outside.
But what’s important to know is that the restaurant (Café De Tropen) is not (yet) open on Saturdays, because for now it only opens for the weekly Sunday Roast. So on Saturday you have to forage for your own dinner, which is actually great fun—hence my mentioning all those food spots. So really do take a walk via the Dappermarkt (keeping your distance, of course) and the Eerste van Swindenstraat and go on a food hunt like we did.
Also note: after 8:00 p.m. you can no longer buy alcohol in shops or order it at reception, so those cold beers you’re about to see were bought well in advance… What did we bring back to the hotel room? These ridiculously delicious fried chicken burgers from Surinamese Naskip on the Dapperstraat (more on those soon, because they were absurdly good!) And also: the best, biggest (meaning most generously filled) spring rolls I’ve ever eaten (and I’m Indo, so that’s saying something) from Toko Bersama on the Eerste van Swindenstraat. Add a few ice-cold cans of Corona beer from the supermarket, plus some crisps for the film. And maybe some M&M’s. Admit it, that’s what you want in your hotel room, right?! It can’t always be lobster and champagne ?
Morning has broken
The next morning we woke up in a celebratory mood, because today was the day we’d come for: The Roast in Oost! But first we enjoyed a lovely breakfast in the hotel’s breakfast room, right by Oosterpark, where large windows offered an unobstructed view of all sorts of sporty people who were clearly doing something other than eating pecan rolls, croissants and freshly made scrambled eggs, as we were.
After that, we made a relaxed attempt to let breakfast settle by taking another lovely walk through the neighbourhood, because we were expected at the restaurant at 1:00 p.m. For this occasion, we were allowed to keep the room until we left for the restaurant, and you can always leave your bags in a locked room at reception.
Excellent roast, easy tunes
At exactly 1:00 p.m., we climbed the few steps of the truly magnificent building that houses the museum and café restaurant De Tropen. The welcome was incredibly warm; we sank onto a comfortable sofa with a view of large plants and a sleek, inviting bar, and the whole setting is simply wonderful. The view outside over the museum gardens makes you forget you’re in the city.
A welcome drink arrived immediately, perfectly in keeping with the beautiful autumnal day it was, with low sunlight streaming through the large windows. After a long walk, the hot rum punch and apple cider were just the thing to help us settle into the sofa and the atmosphere. Another highlight: the three-piece band The Lazy Sundays, playing relaxed live music; exactly present enough in terms of volume, with old hits that had us gently bopping or humming along almost continuously. Lovely.
Then, one course after another, at an easy pace that left plenty of time to catch up with those easy tunes in the background, came several courses of excellent comfort food. A spicy parsnip soup with garlic-and-Brie bread, then the roast as the highlight, followed by a delicious dessert: the Portuguese pastry pastel de nata with ice cream and cream. Not British, but very fitting in this global setting!
The British verdict
But the roast, of course, was what it was all about! I’m married to an Englishman, so it all fell into place: he hasn’t been able to visit his family in London for months, has therefore missed I-don’t-know-how-many roasts, and this was truly the moment to replenish his nostalgia reserves. And his meat reserves.
How did he like it? The verdict was clear: absolutely delicious! Tender, juicy rib eye, cooked just right, perfectly roasted potatoes, beautifully grilled celeriac and, as the ultimate test of skill, the Yorkshire pudding and of course: the gravy. Before this English romance, I had always assumed Yorkshire pudding was something sweet, but it’s a side dish made from pancake batter baked in the oven and soaked in gravy, indispensable with a proper Sunday Roast. This one was outstanding: light and soft with a little bite in the crust, all accompanied by genuinely excellent gravy.
The perfect Sunday afternoon
In short: this is an ideal way to spend a Sunday afternoon! There are games ready for you to play at the table, the music is relaxed and uplifting, and the food is excellent. Something to make the English homesick (although I think this may have been the best Sunday Roast my husband has ever eaten), and something for all of us to look forward to. And by the way, if you don’t want to eat meat, there’s also a vegetarian roast. Colleague Vincent previously wrote about the growing trend that is the Sunday Roast, and corona may have tried to spoil the fun, but let’s all keep pushing on regardless…
The package (Sunday to Monday is also possible) can be booked via De Tropen’s website. Do it!
De Tropen Café en Restaurant, Mauritskade 64, Amsterdam
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