Café Bern

After reading rave reviews, we tried going there two nights in a row (at 10pm and 6pm), but couldn’t get a table or even a seat at the bar. We couldn’t make a reservation either, because they were already booked full for the next couple of days. Big disappointment. So if you wanna try this place, make sure to call at least 3 days in advance!

We got their specials… Fondue and Entrecôte… and both were amazing. For 3 people we got one Fondue and 2 Entrecôte. We also did salads. It was perfect. Go to this restaurant.

Das Café Bern ist mehr eine Kneipe mit guter Küche, einer übersichtlichen Karte und ausgewählten Weinen. Bis auf die Tagessuppe hat sich hier seit 1978 nicht viel verändert.
Das Fondue ist so legendär wie das Entrecôte und all den anderen Bern Klassiker. Wir entschieden uns für das Käsefondue und das Entrecôte, dazu wurde ein grüner Salat serviert.
Das Fleisch wurde nur ganz kurz in der Küche angebraten und angeschnitten. Die Platte mit einer Art Kräuterbutter-​Crème wurde wie das Käsefondue auf eine befeuerte Platte gestellt um so das Fleisch nach seinen Wünschen in der Soße zu garen. Eine fantastische und unglaublich leckere Idee!
Abschließend teilten wir uns noch das Mousse au chocolat mit einer ordentlichen Portion Sahne.
Solltet ihr wie ich ziemlich verrückt nach gutem Käse und Käsefondue sein, dann seit ihr hier genau richtig! Sinnvoll wäre es nur, vorab zu reservieren, da das Lokal wirklich extrem gut besucht ist. Abgesehen davon sollte man keine Scheu vor enge und nähe haben, denn man sitzt hier ziemlich nah beieinander. Die Lautstärke ist ebenfalls relativ hoch, was dem ganzen aber wirklich keinen Abbruch tut.
Lecker!

A must while in Amsterdam. The food, friendly staff couldn’t be anymore enjoyable. Fondue meats were delicious. A very small menu but what is offered is simply the best. The restaurant only has one seating per night so be sure to make a reservation. Never visit Amsterdam without giving this place a try. You will not be disappointed.

Fondue, fondue, fondue. Cheesy deliciousness, and meat cooked in a butter-​herb sauce as well.

Rude staff. My friend and I went to have dinner and entered the restaurant as three parties were leaving. We were told that the tables were reservation only and that we should come back in two hours (yup TWO HOURS) to eat at the bar. There was space at the bar, but I guess we weren’t welcome to eat at the bar at that time either. The host was loud and made us feel like we were to blame for them supposedly not having any space for us.
One of the worst experiences we had whilst visiting Amsterdam. I advise anyone who wishes to eat here to think twice.

Happines! Great food. Two choices. Cheese fondue and Meat with garlic. Delicious. Always crowded and Great fun.

Came here on a Saturday night and all the tables were filled by customers with reservations (so make reservations!). Luckily, the bar was completely open so we opted to sit there.
There are two things this restaurant specializes in: Fondue and Entrecôte.
Fondue: This was the best fondue I’ve ever had in my life. It was delicious from start to end and I couldn’t get enough of it. Usually, a fondue has me sick of the flavor by the 5^th bite, but this simply wasn’t the case. Creamy, gooey, flavorful… the dutch got this baby right.
Entrecôte: The concept for this dish is that you cook the meat yourself, which is just part of the fun. The quality of the meat was good and who doesn’t love a pesto sauce flavored by butter, garlic, and herbs?
As our last meal in Amsterdam, my wife and I wished it would’ve been our first so that we could’ve returned and had more.
They also serve a few beers AND wine on tap, which was pretty awesome. They serve the wine in ¼, ½, and full caraffe’s and check this, by volume, it’s cheaper than beer.
5 stars all the way.

The best fondue experience I’ve had. I eaten here a few times and have never been disappointed. It’s a little pricey but the Gruyère cheese fondue and meat pesto fondue are delicious and well worth the extra money.

SUMMARY: Recommended by a local as their favorite fondue place — where he goes for his birthday every year. Went with my SO during a trip to Amsterdam and LOVED the food. The service was mixed — one really awesome server and one extremely rude server. The ambiance was nice — like a pub with great outdoor seating (where we sat outside for a few hours before the kitchen opened and had a drink — then had to move inside for dinner). Would definitely go back. 5 stars for food + 3 stars for service + 4 stars for ambiance so average of 4 stars.
WHAT I TRIED: 1 order of fondue + 1 order of entrecôte
— — — — — — -MORE DETAIL — — — — — — -
FOOD: AMAZING: The fondue was DELICIOUS, but the entrecôte was incredible. I’ve never had anything quite like it before. It’s raw steak that you cook in this herb, butter, cheese sauce like you would fondue. I was dipping my bread in it though and could have eaten forever it was so good. I’m dreaming about this. Definitely not healthy, but it either came with or we ordered a small salad so that balanced it out a bit.
SERVICE: OK bordering BAD: The bartender was awesome. We didn’t have a reservation and didn’t realize we couldn’t eat outside and he was super patient and explained a lot. Gave us great tips on drinks and what to order + let us order just 1 portions of each (which I don’t think is technically «allowed.») Our waiter, however, was awful. My SO was on a business call, so once our table was ready, we had to wait about 5 minutes and the waiter was irritated. When we started eating, the waiter mumbled something about «don’t let it get too hot» so when the cheese started burning, I used a little metal cover they had on the pot to cover the flame (which was stupid of me because it put out the flame), but the waiter came over and chewed me out about how I was stupid for doing that and shouldn’t have. Usually with meh service I still give a rating based solely on food, but this server really made the whole dinner a bad experience as if I was getting chastised and punished for putting out the flame on the fondue. Worst service experience ever.
AMBIANCE: Like a small pub — dark and musky on the inside with nice outdoor seating, but the outdoor seating is only for drinks — not food. They have mood lighting and it gets really crowded. Did I mention the food is amazing?

Yummy food and friendly staff. Interior could be better however, and the salads are unusual, but not really a revelation.
Nonetheless, the fondue is great of course!

So… what could be better than hanging out in a beautiful square in Amsterdam, drinking cold beer and dunking bread cubes into a vat of molten cheese? Not much!
Great service & tasty food. Next time, I will order another salad… kinda felt like we needed to balance the cheese a little more…

Just attempted to have dinner at this place. The fondue came highly recommended. Quickly however, it devolved into what probably is my worst dining experience to date. We sat down at the bar of this small dining establishment, several other people were having dinner at the bar too. The bartender seemed nice enough, a tall fellow in a blue collared shirt (later i learned he goes by Meijnders). Boy was i wrong. After ignoring my request for water, which i can forgive, he stated i could get it from the tap in the bathroom. Haha right. He was serious. We relocated to a more central part of the bar, hoping to make his life easier. He briskly asked us whether we would be having dinner. We said yes, we were looking forward to that fondue. He asked if we wanted a table. We replied, jokingly, «what, are you trying to get rid of us?» At which point he replied, «yes, as a matter of fact, why dont you go somewhere else». He snatched our menu’s away, and asked us to leave. We were ASTOUNDED. Wtf just happened? I asked him why he was asking us to leave, just to triple check he wasnt fucking around. He was not. «Go find a place more suitable to your needs». Probably the look on my face was so utterly perplexed that I drew in a waitress. She was nice, and apologetically said that we could grab a table to eat. Apparently this wasnt the first time something like this had happened. I politely thanked her, but I’ll take my business someplace else. I calmy directed my now teary-​eyed girlfriend towards the exit, promising her we would never, ever, return to Café Bern on the Nieuwmarkt.

Excellent food. Place is small and a local scene. Garlic salad was great, but the tomato salad was even better… I really like tomatoes. Steak was not the best cut, but hard to find good beef in northern EU. Make a reservation is my real advice!

The Cheese fondue and entrecôte are amazing! This place is very popular, better to take a reservation in advance.

Insanely crowded, boring fondue that took an entire hour to arrive. They have people waiting for your seat, I don’t know why, so they don’t really care if you are happy, they seem to just want you to pay — your expensive bill, and leave.

Amazing Cheese fondue with freshly baked bread! Also the steak is great quality, (entrecôte) which you cook yourself in an awesome herb garlic sauce! Also, I highly recommend the salad with the garlic dressing!
Reservations are recommended. (it is better to make reservations even if the restaurant does not seem busy.

Amazing place to have fondue. The place is tiny so do make reservations ahead of time. If you have never had melted cheese before to dip with bread, then this is the place you must go! This ties for the best melted cheese i’ve ever had which was in Austria.

I don’t understand the super ratings. It’s an adequate place for cheese.
If you are dying for melted cheese, this is a place to go to. But, not much more. The fondue is served only with bread. So, that’s a bit dull, in my opinion. Rolls upon rolls of bread with melted cheese. One can only have so much bread and cheese. The garlic salad that everyone speaks of is a big serving of crazy garlic sauce on wilted lettuce.
So, overall, I don’t think you’ll get food poisoning or eat anything terrible. But, I can’t imagine any reason I’d ever return. It’s one of those … «Meh…» dining experiences.

Freaking delicious. I just wish I could tell you in Dutch what we had!
Started with the spicy salad of chopped carrots, pepper, coriander, cucumber, and onion. Super good and light, although I was hoping for bigger veggies to dip in the fondue.
Fondue was just… sigh…cheesy, rich, gooey, stinky perfection. I want more NOW.
Husband’s pepper steak was also quite good, although I could have done with less sauce. The steak itself was really tender and juicy.
I loved the hole in the wall feel of this darkly lit bar. I appreciated our waitress translating the menu for us non Dutch speakers as well. A must go!

Café Bern is located conveniently by the Nieuwmarkt metro station and is a standard «brown café» which means they have a bar with small selection of food and the inside is generally brown; these are usually great places for socializing and meeting up with friends. They didn’t have a large dinner menu but it was tasty and a great place to get a drink. Their drink menu is standard for most bars. We came here to try the cheese fondue for the first time.
Food: ³⁄₅
The cheese fondue, entrecôte and garlic salad were highly recommended by other Unilocalers so we tried those. The cheese fondue had a salty, winey taste to it; it was a very good cheese but a bit too salty for my taste. It came with bread, which you dipped in the cheese but I really wish they also included some other things, like maybe carrots or something crunchy.
The entrecôte was very tasty! They have this herb butter sauce that you cook the beef in, and it is super buttery and delicious. This was a big winner!
The garlic salad (knoflook sla) was tasty but I wished the salad came in a bowl which would have made mixing the dressing a bit easier. Instead I ended up with mouthfuls of garlic and sometimes no garlic. It is very garlicky and may not be for everyone.
Overall, the food was good and satisfying. I’m not sure if I’d ever have cheese fondue again but the entrecôte was super tasty.
Service: ⁴⁄₅
Definitely make a reservation as it gets packed! The staff is very polite and attentive, even though the menu is in Dutch, they are patient in explaining what they have. You might have trouble getting their attention again after you initially order, but you can just go to the bar and let them know and they will get back to you.
Atmosphere: ⁵⁄₅
This place is very «gezellig»! There is a lot of chatting and people are really enjoying themselves. I overheard people at the bar making new friends! The space is small and everyone does sort of squeeze in there but it makes for a very warm and cosy atmosphere. This is a great place to go to with friends or by yourself!
Value: ⁵⁄₅
The total for 2 «mains», 1 salad, 2 coffee and 2 drinks was 50 euros which isn’t bad at all, making it a 25 euro/​person dinner; reasonable price given the location.

Ohne reservierung geht gar nichts. Das Ambiente ist wie in einem 60 jahre Lokal in Berlin, die Bedienungen alle irgendwie schrullig aber sehr nett. Die Auswahl beschränkt sich auf Käsefondue und Fleischfondue (welches auf einer heoßen Eisenplatte in Kräuterbutter gebraten wird). Die Qualität ist aller erste Sahne. Die Preise sehr fair, sowohl für Getränke als auch Essen. Nachteil ist, dass die Eingangstüre nicht schließt und es daher im Winter sehr kalt im Eingangsbereich wird, so dass den Gästen an den vorderen Tischen (also auch uns) decken ausgeteilt werden und wir haben sie wirklich gebraucht, trotz offenem Feuer auf dem Tisch!