Renzo's

Oud-Zuid's Italian counter: heaped trays, proper sandwiches, and no seats worth fighting over.

Every posh neighbourhood needs one honest counter, and Renzo's has been Oud-Zuid's since 1986. It's a delicatessen first, cheeses, cold cuts, wines, a pastry case that sabotages diets, but the reason there's a queue of gallery owners and dog-walkers out the door at one o'clock is the food made in-house daily: trays of lasagne and melanzane, roast meats, salads that actually taste of something, and sandwiches built with deli-case generosity rather than café stinginess. You eat perched at the handful of stools or on a bench with the Van Baerlestraat traffic for company, spending a tenner where every neighbouring establishment would charge thirty. Open until nine at night, seven days a week, which makes it the local secret weapon for shameless-but-excellent takeaway dinners. The fanciest streets in Amsterdam, it turns out, are fed by the least fancy kitchen on the block.

Get the lasagne from the counter, warmed up, plus whatever antipasti tray looks freshest, then a cannolo for the walk home.

Photo: Renzo's Delicatessen