Wok To Walk

Wok to Walk is a counter-service stir-fry chain that started in Amsterdam in 2004 and now runs more than 100 outlets worldwide. Four of its Amsterdam branches are currently open, all inside the canal ring, and a base box of noodles, rice, or wok vegetables starts at EUR 5.95 with a sauce included. You pick a base, add paid extras, choose one of seven sauces, and the cooks fire it in a gas wok in front of you in a few minutes.

I live in Amsterdam and I was sceptical the first time I ordered here, because fast-food Asian food in a tourist zone sets a low bar. It holds up better than the location suggests: the vegetables go in raw, the wok is genuinely hot, and a box is big enough to carry you through an afternoon of walking. What follows is the practical detail most pages skip, including current menu prices, which branch stays open latest, and how to order around allergens.

What Wok to Walk actually is

Wok to Walk began as a single small restaurant in Amsterdam in 2004, opened after a trip around Asia, and grew into a franchise with over 100 locations globally. The Amsterdam branches are compact takeaway counters, not sit-down restaurants. Some have a handful of stools or a window bar, but most orders leave in a box, and at peak times you will eat standing, walking, or on a nearby bench.

The food is pan-Asian rather than regionally specific. Sauces are named after cities (Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Beijing, Saigon) and the format borrows from Asian street woks, but nobody should walk in expecting the cooking of a specialist Sichuan or Thai kitchen. Judge it as fast, hot, customisable food at a price that is hard to match in the centre.

Amsterdam locations and opening hours

The company’s Dutch site currently lists five Amsterdam addresses, with Reguliersbreestraat 45 near Rembrandtplein marked as temporarily closed. The four open branches sit within a 15-minute walk of each other.

Branch	Area	Reported hours	Best for
Kolksteeg 8, 1012 PT	Off Nieuwendijk, closest to Amsterdam Centraal	11:00 to 01:00 Sunday to Thursday, 11:00 to 02:00 Friday and Saturday	First or last meal around the station
Damstraat 44, 1012 JM	Between Dam Square and De Wallen	Roughly 11:00 or 12:00 until 02:00, later on Thursday to Saturday	Sightseeing breaks in the middle of the centre
Warmoesstraat 85, 1012 HZ	De Wallen	11:00 to 02:00 Sunday to Wednesday, to 03:00 Thursday, to 04:00 Friday and Saturday	Late-night food after the bars
Leidsestraat 96, 1017 PE	Canal belt between Koningsplein and Leidseplein	11:00 to 02:00 most days, to 04:00 on weekend nights	Shopping on Leidsestraat, Leidseplein nightlife
Reguliersbreestraat 45	Near Rembrandtplein	Listed as temporarily closed	Not currently an option

Third-party listings for the same branch disagree by an hour or two, and the Damstraat listing in particular shows different weekday openings across platforms. If you are making a special trip after midnight, check the Google Maps listing for that exact address on the day. The official Wok to Walk site is the reliable source for which addresses exist; it is less reliable for hour-by-hour accuracy.

How the three-step menu works

Ordering runs base, extras, sauce, with optional toppings and a drink. The Amsterdam menu card prices it like this.

Step 1: the base, EUR 5.95

• Noodles, served with fresh vegetables and egg: egg, whole-wheat, rice, or udon
• Grains, served with fresh vegetables and egg: white rice or whole-grain rice
• Wok vegetable mix: broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, Chinese cabbage, spring onion, and white cabbage

That EUR 5.95 box already contains vegetables and egg, so it is a complete meal before you add anything. Ask for it without egg if you need to.

Step 2: extras, EUR 1.55 to EUR 3.35 each

The counter advises a maximum of four extras, which is sound advice: more than that and the wok stops searing and starts steaming.

Extra	Price
Beef	EUR 3.35
Pork	EUR 3.15
Favourite of the month	EUR 3.00
Shrimp	EUR 2.85
Chicken breast	EUR 2.75
Shiitake, cashew nuts, broccoli, Chinese cabbage	EUR 2.15 each
Pepper mix	EUR 1.95
Mushrooms	EUR 1.75
Red onion	EUR 1.60
Tofu, pineapple	EUR 1.55 each

Step 3: sauce, included

Seven sauces come at no extra cost: Tokyo (teriyaki), Hong Kong (sweet and sour), Bangkok (yellow curry and coconut), Hot Asia (hot sauce), Beijing (oyster sauce), Saigon (garlic and black pepper), and Szechuan (Asian spiced red sauce). The card also invites you to ask staff about a special sauce, which is how peanut sauce turns up at some counters even though it is not printed on the current Amsterdam list. Peanut has been my order whenever it is available, and Saigon is the reliable fallback when it is not.

You can see the full current card, including allergen tables, in the Amsterdam menu PDF.

What a real order costs

• Cheapest filling meal: egg noodle base with sauce, EUR 5.95
• Standard lunch: noodle base plus chicken breast, EUR 8.70
• Bigger box: noodle base, chicken breast, broccoli, and a fried garlic topping, EUR 11.35
• Vegan build: wok vegetable base without egg, tofu, and cashew nuts, EUR 9.65
• With a drink: add EUR 3.00 to any of the above

For comparison, a single GVB tram ticket runs EUR 3.40 for an hour and a day ticket around EUR 10, so two people can eat here for roughly the cost of a day of city transport. That EUR 5.95 entry price is why the chain survives in a zone where a mediocre sit-down pasta costs three times as much. The catch is that extras add up fast: four of them turn a EUR 6 box into a EUR 14 one.

Vegan, vegetarian, and allergy notes

A vegan order is straightforward: take the wok vegetable base, ask for no egg and no soy sprouts, add tofu, mushrooms, pineapple, cashews, or extra vegetables, and choose a plant-based sauce. Beijing is oyster sauce, so it is out. Vegetarians who eat egg can take any noodle or rice base as it comes.

Allergies need more care. Wok to Walk states plainly that sesame, wheat, peanuts, soy, tree nuts, milk, eggs, fish, and shellfish are all present in its kitchens and that it cannot guarantee any recipe or drink is allergen-free, because the same woks and utensils handle every order. Rice noodles are not a safe gluten-free choice in that setting, and the soy sauce at the counter contains gluten. If you have a severe allergy, the company’s own advice is not to order. Ask to see the printed allergen sheet for anything milder.

Best time to go

Late morning and mid-afternoon are the quiet windows, and you will order in under a minute. The queue builds between roughly 12:00 and 14:00 and again from 18:00, which is when a small counter like Kolksteeg backs up onto the street. Weekend nights are busiest of all, particularly Warmoesstraat and Leidsestraat, where the kitchens run until 03:00 or 04:00 and absorb the post-bar crowd.

Seasonally it works year round, though the appeal shifts. In summer a box travels well to a canal bench or the Dam Square steps. In winter, when the wind comes off the water, a hot box eaten in a heated shelter or back at your hotel is the better plan, because none of these branches has room to linger.

Getting there

Every open branch is inside the canal ring and easiest to reach on foot. Kolksteeg is a short walk from Amsterdam Centraal through Nieuwendijk. Damstraat runs east off Dam Square. Warmoesstraat is one street over, parallel to Damrak. Leidsestraat is the shopping street linking Koningsplein to Leidseplein.

• Tram: the Dam stop serves several GVB lines, including 2, 13, 14, 17, and 24, with platforms on both the Rokin and Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal sides of the square. Damstraat and Warmoesstraat are two to four minutes away on foot. For Leidsestraat, use Koningsplein or Leidseplein.
• Metro: Rokin station on line 52 is about five minutes on foot from the Damstraat counter.
• Night transport: trams and metros stop running around 00:30. After that, 11 GVB night bus lines numbered N81 to N93 run hourly from Amsterdam Centraal between roughly 00:30 and 07:30, so the walk back to the station is part of any late plan.
• Bike: all four branches sit on or beside streets where cycling is either banned or miserable at peak hours. Park in a rack on a side street and walk the last stretch.

GVB changed its timetable on 29 March 2026, affecting tram lines 1, 3, 6, 7, 12, 24, and 25, so check gvb.nl or the 9292 app rather than an older route map. Tram lines 9, 16, and 25 that still appear in older Amsterdam guides were withdrawn in the 2018 network revision and no longer exist.

Is it worth your time in Amsterdam?

Yes, for a specific job: a hot, cheap, fast meal in the middle of a sightseeing day or after midnight, when the alternatives in the centre are pizza slices and kebab. It is also one of the few places that handles vegan diners and big appetites at the same price.

Skip it if you want a table, a quiet room, or regionally authentic Asian cooking. Amsterdam has Chinatown around Zeedijk, Indonesian rijsttafel, and Surinamese-Javanese kitchens that all do more interesting work for a few euros more. Wok to Walk competes on speed, price, and being open when almost nothing else is.

Frequently asked questions