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Although this area of Holland is home to some of the country's most worldly restaurants, keep in mind that most bars also offer house specials whose prices are usually cheap enough to keep students and young people sated (keep an eye out for the kleine kaart, or lighter meal menu, usually offered in the bar area and available throughout the day). Perennially popular dishes such as satay and pepper steak never come off the menu.
Stepping into "The Laughing Javanese," off an old Haarlem street that hasn't changed in centuries, you are hit with a flash of color and pungent smells. You can sit upstairs at one of the window tables and look out over the sober gabled houses while eating kambing saté (skewers of lamb in soy sauce) and kipkarbonade met sambal djeroek (grilled chicken with a fiery Indonesian sauce), or cobble together a meal of 12 or more small dishes if you want.
A short walk from the Frans Hals Museum, the city's favorite ice cream parlor has been making Italian-style gelato since 1949, in around 50 mouth-watering flavors.
The spacious and high-ceilinged Grand Café Brinkmann offers baguettes, pancakes, and other light snacks. Windows edged with stained glass overlook the Grote Markt and Sint Bavo's church across the square.
One of Haarlem's best eetlokaals (dining spots), which attracts locals with its long bar, cozy tables, and lovely sun trap of a garden, is also extremely popular—get here early or book ahead to snag a table. The menu offers standards but with a twist: try the Popeye Blues Salad—a wild spinach, blue cheese, and bacon number, with creamy mustard dressing for a lighter option—or, for dinner, lamb with ratatouille and rosemary jus.
The café/restaurant of the Jopen brewery enjoys a magnificent setting in the lovingly restored interior of the former Jacobskerk; the ecclesiastical feel has been maintained thanks to the high ceilings and stained-glass windows. The restaurant on the mezzanine (evenings only, Tuesday–Saturday) serves weekly stews and a variety of other meat and fish mains; a simpler lunch menu is available in the grand café below.
This long-standing city favorite, housed in the hotel of the same name, is a showpiece for the combined talents of chefs Mark Gratema and Kevin Kion. The spacious, airy dining room is a seamless blend of modern and traditional, with wood-paneled walls, crisp linens, and chic furniture—the perfect backdrop for sampling an endlessly changing menu of cutting-edge and creative dishes that are as big a treat for the eye as they are for the palate.
A very funky restaurant-bar, XO has chunky silver graphics, purple-and-gray walls, and fun touches like "king" chairs, complete with claw feet and red cushions—an alluring setting for lunch and evening edibles. The menu contains a wide array of mouthwatering and exquisitely presented burgers and sandwiches, joined by a few more substantial mains available evenings only.
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