Het Elfde Gebod

Het Elfde Gebod: Amsterdam’s beer café at the top of the Zeedijk

Het Elfde Gebod (“The Eleventh Commandment”) is a specialty beer café at Zeedijk 5, a short walk from Amsterdam Centraal at the northern end of one of the city’s oldest streets. It pours 14 beers on tap and stocks more than 120 specialty beers in bottle and can, with an emphasis on Belgian and Dutch brewing.

The café is part of the Café Gollem family of Amsterdam beer bars and is registered as Gollem Het Elfde Gebod B.V. If you know Gollem’s other locations, the format here will feel familiar: a small brown café with a deep list, wooden panelling and old stained-glass windows, and a chalkboard menu instead of a printed one.

The name is a joke at the expense of the Decalogue, and locals tend to fill in the missing commandment themselves. One Amsterdam bar guide suggests “Thou shalt brew beer.” Whatever version you prefer, the point is the same, and the café leans into it without any of the reverence that specialty beer bars sometimes attract.

At a glance

Address	Zeedijk 5, 1012 AN Amsterdam (Centrum / De Wallen)
Type	Specialty beer café, brown café interior
On tap	14 lines
Bottles and cans	120+
Hours (commonly published)	Mon-Thu 16:00-01:00, Fri-Sat 14:00-03:00, Sun 14:00-01:00
Reservations	Not accepted
Payment	Cash and card
Dogs	Welcome
Wi-Fi	Free
Nearest station	Amsterdam Centraal, short walk
Traveller rating	4.6 / 5 from 159 Tripadvisor reviews

What the beer list actually looks like

There are 14 taps and over 120 bottles and cans, and the list lives on a chalkboard on the wall opposite the bar. Drafts are written on the left, bottles on the right, and it is all in Dutch. If you do not read Dutch, either arrive with a style in mind or ask at the bar, because the board is not going to help you translate a Belgian dubbel.

Two practical consequences follow from that setup. First, strengths are high by international pub standards, so check the ABV on the board before ordering a second: Belgian dark ales in this range routinely sit near 11 percent. Second, because the list rotates, the board is the only accurate menu. Anything you read online, including this page, is a snapshot.

The café also hosts borrels and tastings, and the Zeedijk business directory lists it as suitable for both, which is worth knowing if you are organising a small group rather than turning up alone.

The room, and why its size matters

This is a genuine Amsterdam brown café: wooden panelling, old stained-glass windows, low light, and seating that fills up fast. Reviewers consistently describe it as warm and friendly and also as tiny, and older reviews note it could get smoky.

The small footprint is the single most useful thing to know when planning a visit. It means the café rewards early arrivals and off-peak hours, and it means a group of six will change the atmosphere of the room. It also means there is no reservation system to fall back on, since the café does not accept bookings.

When to go

Opening times vary by day, and the weekend runs much later than the rest of the week. Use these windows as a planning guide, then confirm the day’s hours directly.

Visit window	What to expect
Weekday opening, from 16:00	Quietest stretch of the week and the easiest time to get a seat in a small room, since the café does not open earlier Monday to Thursday.
Weekend afternoons, from 14:00	Friday, Saturday and Sunday start two hours earlier, which makes an afternoon beer possible before the evening crowd arrives.
Late weeknights	The café runs to 01:00 Monday through Thursday, so it works as a last stop near Centraal.
Friday and Saturday nights	Latest closing at 03:00, and the busiest hours in the smallest space. Fine if you want the crowd, difficult if you want a table.
Sunday	Opens 14:00 and closes 01:00, the longest quiet run of the week for working through the bottle list.

One caveat on hours: sources disagree. Tripadvisor and local city guides publish the 16:00 and 14:00 opening pattern above with 01:00 and 03:00 closings, while the official Zeedijk directory has shown a reduced schedule with Monday and Tuesday closed and a 22:00 close, and adds its own warning that times may differ. Check the café’s own channels or call ahead before making a special trip, particularly on a Monday or Tuesday.

How to get there

Zeedijk 5 sits at the very start of the Zeedijk, near where it meets Prins Hendrikkade, so almost everything that stops at Amsterdam Centraal works.

• On foot from Amsterdam Centraal: leave the main entrance, cross Prins Hendrikkade toward the Damrak side, and pick up the Zeedijk where it begins. It is a short walk of a few minutes.
• By train, metro, tram or bus: all of these converge on Amsterdam Centraal, which is the relevant stop. Line numbers change with network reshuffles, so check your route in 9292 or GVB on the day rather than relying on a published list.
• By ferry: the free IJ ferries to Amsterdam Noord run from behind Centraal, which makes the café an easy first or last stop around a trip across the IJ.
• By bike: street parking at this end of the Zeedijk is tight and heavily enforced. Use the guarded bicycle parking at Centraal instead.
• By car: not recommended. This is central Amsterdam, the surrounding streets are largely pedestrian and cyclist territory, and the nearest option is a paid garage near the station.

If it is full: the Gollem cafés

Because Het Elfde Gebod is part of the Café Gollem group, a full room is not a dead end. The group runs several other specialty beer cafés in Amsterdam, including locations on the Raamsteeg, the Overtoom and the Amstelstraat, all with comparable lists and the same house style. Confirm current addresses and hours on the Gollem website, since individual locations open, close and change hands over time.

Frequently asked questions