Amsterdam has one of the more varied Indian food scenes in Europe, shaped by a large Indian community, decades of Dutch appetite for curry and tandoori, and a steady wave of newer, more regionally specific kitchens. Whether you grew up on this food and want it done properly, or you’re simply curious what “Indian food” can mean beyond a standard tikka masala, this list covers both the reliable classics and the spots doing something more specific. Here are ten worth knowing.
1. Koh-I-Noor (Westermarkt)
One of the oldest Indian restaurants in the Netherlands, Koh-I-Noor has been run by the same family at Westermarkt 29, right by the Anne Frank House, since 1981. The owner arrived from India in the late ’70s, trained at the Hilton Schiphol, and later opened the restaurant with a chef who had over 20 years of experience. The North Indian menu hasn’t changed much in over four decades — tandoori classics cooked in an original charcoal
tandoor (a clay oven that gives meat its distinctive smoky char), lamb saag, fish tikka masala, and a well-loved Peshwari naan (a sweet naan stuffed with nuts and dried fruit) — served in a linen-and-crystal dining room. It’s earned multiple hospitality awards over the years and has the kind of loyal, repeat local following that tends to signal genuine quality rather than just a good location.
2. Saravanaa Bhavan (Amsterdam-Zuid)
Part of a global South Indian vegetarian chain with roots in Chennai, Saravanaa Bhavan at
Stadhouderskade 123-124 is widely considered Amsterdam’s only dedicated South Indian restaurant — and its most-reviewed Indian spot overall. The purely vegetarian menu centers on the dosa, a large, thin, crispy rice-and-lentil crepe, most popularly served as a masala dosa (filled with spiced potato) or the spicier Mysore dosa. Round it out with vada (a savory lentil doughnut), idli (steamed rice cakes), uttapams, rasam, and a strong South
Indian filter coffee. It’s a lively, no-frills, tin-tray dining room — busy most nights, so
booking ahead helps
3. Ashoka (Centrum & West)
With locations in both Amsterdam Centrum and Amsterdam West, Ashoka blends Indian and Nepalese cuisine, offering an extensive lunch and dinner menu built around familiar, reliable dishes — chicken tandoori, butter chicken, chicken tikka masala, lamb madras, lamb saag, and paneer butter masala, plus fresh butter naan and paratha. It’s a solid, easy choice for groups with mixed spice tolerances or dietary needs, and its two-location
footprint makes it one of the more accessible options in the city center.
4. Samrat Restaurant (Near Dam Square)
Located at Bethaniëndwarsstraat 17, just off Dam Square, Samrat covers Indian cuisine broadly, from the north down to the south, with a menu spanning butter chicken, biryani, paneer tikka, and freshly baked naan. It’s fully halal, which makes it one of the more dependable choices in the city center for diners with that requirement, and its central location makes it an easy stop whether you’re a local passing through Dam Square or a
visitor staying nearby.
5. Indian Restaurant Swagat (Amsterdam-Zuid)
Swagat means “welcome” in Hindi, and the restaurant — at Stadionweg 247 — is known for a more specialized angle: Mughlai cuisine, the rich, slow-cooked style historically prepared for Indian royalty, heavier on cream, nuts, and layered spicing than everyday home cooking. Chef and owner Surinder Kumar built the menu around these dishes, making Swagat a good pick for anyone who’s tried the standard tikka-masala rotation and wants to taste
something a bit more elaborate.
6. Dot In Progressive Kerala Restaurant (Amsterdam-Centrum)
Billed as Amsterdam’s first Kerala restaurant, DOT IN sits at IJdok 35 in Amsterdam Centrum, a short drive or ferry ride from Centraal Station. It stands apart from the rest of this list by focusing specifically on Kerala’s coastal, coconut-and-seafood-driven cuisine from India’s southwest, plated with a contemporary, almost European fine-dining sensibility rather than the classic curry-house format. Standouts include an Alleppey prawns curry
simmered in coconut milk with raw mango, a duet of prawns shashlik finished with a lemon-butter sauce, and fresh Kerala porotta (a flaky, layered flatbread) with fish molly, a mild coconut fish curry. It’s the pick on this list for anyone — Dutch or Indian — who wants to try a specific regional cuisine that rarely gets its own restaurant outside India.
7. 29 Spices (Jordaan)
At Elandsgracht 36 in the Jordaan, 29 Spices takes a contemporary, street-food-inspired approach to Indian cooking under chefs Dipak and Rahul, drawing on the flavors of Mumbai and Delhi street stalls but with modern, colorful plating rather than a traditional curry-house format. It’s a good fit for a stylish night out — the kind of place that works equally well for a first introduction to Indian food or for someone who already knows the
cuisine well and wants to see it reinterpreted.
8. Rangoli (Brouwersgracht area)
Rangoli has built a loyal, largely local following for covering both North and South Indian cooking well — reviewers regularly single out its dosas as a pleasant surprise alongside strong North Indian standards like curries and biryani. It’s been a neighborhood fixture for years in the Brouwersgracht area, the kind of restaurant residents default to rather than something aimed primarily at tourists.
9. Restaurant Shiva (Oud-West)
Restaurant Shiva has built a reputation as one of the more consistently well-regarded Indian kitchens in Amsterdam Oud-West, praised for authentic, well-balanced cooking and steady quality rather than any one signature dish — the kind of dependable neighborhood spot residents recommend without hesitation.
10. Balti House
Named for the fast, high-heat balti cooking style (curry cooked and served in a flatbottomed steel pot, a format that originated with British-Pakistani and British-Indian restaurants), Balti House specializes in tikka masala, curry, tikka balti, and vindaloo — rich, hearty, reliably spiced dishes in that British-Indian “balti house” tradition rather than a strictly regional Indian menu. It’s a familiar format for anyone who’s eaten Indian food in the UK, and a solid, no-surprises option for newcomers to the cuisine.
Conclusion
What stands out across these ten is how differently each one approaches “Indian food in Amsterdam.” Koh-I-Noor and Samrat represent the classic, decades-old curry-house tradition that most Dutch diners already know; Saravanaa Bhavan and Rangoli open up South Indian dosas and vegetarian cooking that’s much harder to find in the city; and newer spots like 29 Spices and Dot In show the cuisine is still evolving here, moving well past a
single tandoori-and-naan formula. Whether you’re Dutch and exploring, or Indian and looking for something that actually tastes like home, there’s a genuine option on this list — not just the nearest curry house.
