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Neighborhood
- Western Canal Ring
$$ - average
Eclectic (Varied)
Popular Vegetarian Restaurant
De Bolhoed (named after a "Bowler's Hat" since it used to be a hat shop) is a very eclectic restaurant. The decor is a combination of Dutch, Thai and Australian aboriginal art, and the cuisine is organic vegetarian with a hint of Latin flavor. Almost any item on the menu can be made vegan, and they have a large selection of desserts.
The 13, 14, and 17 trams, as well as a number of buses, can drop you off at Westermarkt, which is a just a few blocks south along the Prinsengracht.
- (Mostly) Organic
Added by Eric Purdy on Sep 2 04 (updated Dec 21 07)
Reviews
I am sorry to say this was one of my worst eating experiences. I read mixed reviews on the net about this place but was staying around the corner so thought I would check it out. My hummus and salad took an hour to arrive, and my polite requests after waiting 40 minutes were treated very rudely, by staff that seemed extremely stressed, despite the place not being especially busy. If I hadn't have been asked to pay up front I would certainly have left. The staff seemed more interested in smoking their cigarettes.
About 40 minutes after eating their food, I had violent diarrhea, whether from poor hygiene in their kitchen, or malice, I could not say. I have never bothered to write an online review before, but I felt I should warn people about this place. Avoid.
De Bolhoed is a pleasant vegetarian restaurant on Prinsengracht, one of the closest vegetarian sit down restaurants to the center of the city. It has a neighborhood restaurant flavor, and while the service can be slow by American standards (not really a point against it since this is true of almost ANY dutch restaurant), I always have a pleasant meal there.
The vegan daily special (which, unlike the other reviewer, I've never had the misfortune to learn had run out; we usually come around 6 though) is always a huge plate of food, usually including a salad, a couple of veggie sides, and a few ethnic specialties. One day it was classic Dutch food, great to have the opportunity to try vegan; I loved my kale stamppot (a mashed potato-ish dish), although the veggie burger patties were a bit too...whole grain...for me. The next time it was thai, with curries and rice dishes. Usually some parts of the daily special are mediocre, others are incredibly tasty. The presentation is a little homey - expect to get a plate overflowing with different dishes crammed together on your plate - but there's always something deliciously tasty on it.
The desserts are some of the best vegan desserts I've had in Amsterdam, which unfortunately isn't saying that much, but they're not bad. In general the vegan cuisine has a ways to come in Holland, but here the cuisine is something like good home cooking with a completely unrushed atmosphere. There's no idea here that the servers need to turn over n tables an hour. Don't come unless you've got a few hours to savor conversation and company with your dining companions, but for those times when you do want to linger and catch up, it's great.
De Bolhoed is a quaint all-vegetarian restaurant overlooking the Prinsengracht canal. It has a great location: only a few blocks away from the Anne Frank House and other Amsterdam museums.
Make sure that you get to De Bolhoed early in the evening. The restaurant closes at 10:30, and often it runs out of its "vegan daily special" (a 6 course, completely vegan meal) early. I got there at around 8:30 PM and they had already run out of the vegan special and the pasta of the day, so I was stuck ordering a la carte. The a la carte meal that I ordered was a bean burrito, which was decent but not spectacular. There are many vegan cakes, cookies, and brownies displayed in the dessert case, but they look a lot prettier than they taste (my slice of chocolate strawberry ganache cake was a bit dry and didn't taste particularly sweet). I don't know if the same is the case for all of the vegan desserts, though.
That said, the service was excellent and the people working there spoke good English (which is very helpful to those of us who do not speak Dutch). The Dutch grotesque statuettes of vegetables that are located throughout the restaurant are worth admiring while you are waiting for your meal. I honestly think that I would have had a much better gustatory experience if only had been there early enough for the seitan ravioli vegan special.