Breakfast*
The meal this city treats as an afterthought. These are the kitchens open early enough to matter, with tables you can hold a conversation across.
Gebroeders Niemeijer
A proper French breakfast under an original art deco ceiling, served from 8:15 with the stone oven going behind the counter.
Scandinavian Embassy
A pale-wood Nordic room on Sarphatipark that opens at 8:00 on weekdays and pours coffee from Scandinavia's best roasters rather than its own.
Bakhuys
Doors at 7:00 on weekdays, a wood-fired stone oven at the centre of the room, and breakfast served until 14:00.
Vinnies
Open at 7:30 on weekdays and laptop-free from lunch onward, which tells you exactly what this room is for.
Pension Homeland
Breakfast from 7:00 in the old naval officers' mess on the Marineterrein, eaten with the marines' own cutlery and a view over the water.
Morgan & Mees
An 1880 corner building with nine rooms above and a kitchen that opens at 8:00 every day, ten minutes from the Jordaan and nowhere near the crowds.
De Wasserette
Open at 7:30 every single day, a block off the Albert Cuyp, which makes it the most reliable early table in De Pijp.
Toki
A corner coffee bar with a four-person bar built into a window opening, so two people can sit facing each other and actually talk.
Brasserie De Joffers
Oud-Zuid's neighbourhood brasserie opens at 8:00 and runs a printed breakfast card until noon, cake included from Patisserie Holtkamp.