Leidseplein

Surely, anyone who has ever visited Amsterdam in the last half century has been directed to Leidseplein when inquiring about restaurants. Many fine restaurants lineup along Spuistraat too, but most “visitors” end up wandering around and through the carnival atmosphere of Leidseplein with its neon lit side streets filled to the brim with ethnic restaurants, none of which seemed to be Dutch.

You can find Greek, French, Italian, Indian, Argentine, Thai, Mexican, Japanese and Chinese, to name but a few of the types of restaurants we saw. As we wandered along hoping to be inspired, I regretted that the wonderful Indian restaurant, Mumtaz, was no longer in operation. It was there that I found the very best Lamb Korma I have eaten. It was uniquely made and very different than any Korma I have eaten in the States. The characteristics that I still recall were that the sauce was light, fluffy and sweet, and it had shaved coconut pieces added for a great texture. We settled on another Indian restaurant called Bollywood.

 

As you can see by the last photo, lower right, I found a suitable replacement for the Mumtaz Lamb Korma. This rendition was not quite as fluffy, but it was sweet and very flavorful and the shredded coconut was present.

The atmosphere changes dramatically during the day and seems less tawdry, since the waiters trying to pull you into their restaurants are less intimidating during daylight. For a great selection of restaurants, this is probably the best place in the city to find them in one compact location.