Kikkie van de Prinsensluis

A Jordaan brown-cafe corner where the smashburger, and its addictive green sauce, runs a close second to Bonnie citywide.

On the corner of Prinsenstraat and Prinsengracht, Kikkie van de Prinsensluis looks like a classic Amsterdam brown cafe until the plates arrive. It runs a seasonal a la carte menu of quiche with scamorza, mussels with 'nduja and barbecued octopus, with a chef who smokes his own pastrami, but the smashburger is what put it on the radar. Broodjestester ranked it second in the city at 8.8, one notch below Bar Bonnie, praising the tender meat and a mayo built around a green sauce nobody has quite pinned down; reviewers keep calling it a match for the best burgers they have had in the US. Your Little Black Book featured the room in April 2025 for its mix of traditional brown-cafe warmth and a tighter, more contemporary kitchen than the format usually delivers. Open seven days from ten in the morning until late, it works equally well for a solo lunch at the bar, a slow dinner for two by the canal-side windows, or a group taking over the corner tables. The green sauce alone is worth the detour.

Open daily from 10:00: Sun 10:00-23:00, Mon-Wed 10:00-00:00, Thu 10:00-01:00, Fri-Sat 10:00-02:00. No online booking widget found; call ahead for weekend dinner tables.

Photo: Kikkie van de Prinsensluis, via Your Little Black Book