Café Van Leeuwen

Café Van Leeuwen is a canal-side café-bar at Keizersgracht 711 in Amsterdam’s Centrum, on the corner where the Keizersgracht meets Utrechtsestraat. It opens at 8:30 AM every day, runs a French-leaning kitchen, keeps a street-side terrace, and serves until 1 AM from Sunday to Thursday and 3 AM on Friday and Saturday. It is a practical all-day café rather than a specialty-coffee destination: breakfast, lunch, borrel hour, and late drinks all happen in the same room.

At a glance

Detail	Information
Address	Keizersgracht 711 (711HS), 1017 DX Amsterdam
Phone	+31 20 625 8215
Email	[email protected] / [email protected]
Hours	Sun–Thu 8:30 AM–1:00 AM; Fri–Sat 8:30 AM–3:00 AM
Terrace hours	Until 1:00 AM Sun–Thu; until 2:00 AM Fri–Sat (permitted maximum)
Reservations	Accepted; parties of 8 or more must book by phone or email
Nearest tram	Keizersgracht (tram 4), roughly a 2-minute walk
Kitchen style	French-leaning brasserie, plus Dutch bar snacks
Best for	Breakfast, long lunches, after-work borrel, late drinks, Sunday jazz

What the café is actually like

This is a neighbourhood café in the Dutch sense of the word: a room built for sitting, talking, and drinking over several hours rather than for a quick espresso and a laptop session. The interior is straightforward and wood-heavy, with tables that fold away so the floor plan can shift between quiet breakfast service and a packed borrel crowd. Large windows face the canal, and a first-floor room upstairs gives a higher vantage point over the water.

The corner location matters more than the décor. Keizersgracht 711 sits where one of the three main canals meets Utrechtsestraat, a shopping and dining street that keeps foot traffic steady from morning until late. That mix produces the crowd the café is known for at borrel time: students, people who live in the surrounding streets, and passers-by, rather than a purely tourist room.

Set your expectations around that identity. If you want single-origin pour-overs and latte art, Amsterdam has better addresses. If you want a table where nobody hurries you, a beer list with range, and a canal outside the window, this is the type of place that keeps working for hours.

The terrace, explained honestly

The terrace is the main draw in warm weather, but it helps to know how it is laid out before you arrive expecting a deck built over the water. The café’s operating licence covers a custom-fitted terrace at the building plus seating on the opposite side of the street, which is a common Amsterdam arrangement along the canals. In practice, some tables put you against the café wall and others place you closer to the canal edge, with the roadway and its cyclists passing between the two.

• Terrace service ends before the indoor closing time, so a 2 AM outdoor drink on a Friday is the ceiling rather than the norm.
• Sunny weekend afternoons fill the outdoor tables first, and the upstairs room is the reliable fallback.
• Canal-side tables catch the afternoon and evening light, which is why the sunset slot is the hardest one to get.
• Bring a layer. Dutch canal terraces turn cold quickly once the sun drops, even in July.
• Street-side seating means traffic noise. Ask for a canal-side table if conversation matters more than proximity to the bar.

Food and drink

The kitchen leans French rather than strictly Dutch, alongside a broad beer list and standard café coffee. Expect brasserie staples rather than a snack-bar menu, with Dutch bar classics available for borrel. Breakfast and lunch are both established parts of the day here, not afterthoughts, which is unusual for a café that also runs until the small hours.

Group dinners upstairs work differently from walk-in service. The first-floor room seats 10 to 35 people and runs on fixed menus agreed in advance, priced at €42.50 for three courses or €52.50 for four, with vegetarian options in each course and a cheese course available. Allergy requirements and menu adjustments are handled by phone or email when you book, not on the night.

Best time to visit

Time slot	What to expect
8:30–10:30 AM	Quietest window, easiest seat choice, best for breakfast and reading
12:00–2:00 PM	Lunch rush; busy, but the fastest way to see the room at full tilt
Around 4:00 PM onward	Borrel hour, when the local crowd arrives and the terrace fills
Sunset to late evening	Softer light on the canal; terrace demand peaks
Sunday from about 8:00 PM	Regular free jazz concerts, with the room noticeably fuller

Seasonally, April through September gives you long evenings and full terrace service, which is when the corner is at its best. Winter shifts the appeal indoors, and the upstairs room becomes the more comfortable choice once the canal wind picks up.

How to get there

The café sits inside the canal ring, so walking and trams both work well and driving does not.

• Tram: take tram 4 from Centraal Station and get off at the Keizersgracht stop on Utrechtsestraat, then walk onto the canal. Trams 9 and 14 stop at Rembrandtplein, a short walk away.
• On foot: roughly 15 to 20 minutes from Dam Square through the canal ring, and under 10 minutes from Rembrandtplein.
• Metro: Vijzelgracht or Weesperplein on the north–south line both put you within a 10-minute walk.
• By bike: practical and quick, but use a proper lock and a designated rack, as bike theft is a genuine problem in Centrum.
• By car: not recommended. Central Amsterdam parking is scarce and expensive, so use a P+R site on the ring road and continue by tram or metro.

Practical tips before you go

• Book if it matters. Reservations are possible, and required by phone or email for eight or more people, so do not plan a group visit around walking in.
• Payment: card is the norm across Amsterdam hospitality, and contactless or a Maestro debit card is the safest combination. Carrying €20 to €50 in cash is sensible backup rather than a requirement.
• Terrace timing: arrive before 4 PM on a sunny day if outdoor seating is the point of the trip.
• Pace: Dutch café service is deliberately unhurried. You will not be pushed out, and you will need to signal when you want to order or pay.
• Photos: shoot the canal and the corner rather than other guests, and skip flash indoors.
• Accessibility: like most 17th-century canal buildings, the entrance has a step, the stairs to the first floor are steep, and the restrooms are small. Call ahead if step-free access is essential.
• Combine the visit: the shops and restaurants of Utrechtsestraat are immediately outside, and Rembrandtplein, the Amstel, and the Hermitage building are all within a short walk.

Frequently asked questions