Review of lunch place De Bakkerswinkel (Warmoesstraat), Amsterdam

(12-08-2007) De Bakkerswinkel has a few locations throughout Amsterdam, but until now I had never been here. The one I went to today is rather well hidden in the Warmoesstraat close to the Red Light district. You would walk just past it if you didn’t know it was there, but that would be a pity, because it’s a very nice place to come. When you come inside De Bakkerswinkel you have the store part where you can buy pastries and other things to go. Further down are the seating areas which are divided by the kitchen area, so you can see everything being prepared. We sat down in the back part, which looked a bit industrial.

The menu is pretty extensive, different kinds of sandwiches, cakes, and tea platters. Because I had just had breakfast at home I only ordered a cafe latte and a scone. The coffee and the scone arrived very quickly, although the place was quite busy, because it took me a bit to get the attention of the waitress to order. When the scone arrived it was still warm. With the scone came jam, some kind of citrus marmalade and clotted cream. The jam and marmalade came in big open jars which go to different customers I guess. I could be a bit unhygienic, since you don’t know what the person before you did with it. Not thinking about that I dug into my scone and it was delicious. The warm scone with the marmalade and the clotted cream was the best I ever had in Holland and I enjoyed every bite of it. The coffee was also of good quality.

I had come just in time, because behind me the place filled up with people. Being in the Red Light district a lot of tourists also come here and it was nice to see that one of the waitresses could speak Spanish to some Spanish tourists that were there. She also translated a newspaper article about Real Madrid for them. That shows you how friendly they are here.

De Bakkerswinkel is a great place to come to enjoy a pastry and a coffee

update: Recently I visited De Bakkerswinkel in the Warmoesstraat again and I had a worse experience compared to my first visit. This time I had a seat close to the kitchen space so I could observe everything quite well. First of all it took about fifteen minutes before somebody finally came to take our order. Secondly the service looked very chaotic. The waitresses have to make the orders they take, except for the sandwiches and soups, so it takes some time and they touch everything they serve. For instance I saw one waitress take a bunch of pastries, put them one by one into the microwave by hand and then after they were heated take them out again with her hands. I just hope her hands were clean. But the worst is the way they serve the jam and marmalade. You get big jars, like you find in the supermarket, so they get used by more than one customer. Now a few tables from us were some women who had the jam and some scones. Now one of them took the spoon from the jam jar, put the jam on her scone, then lick the spoon and put it back. I don’t know about you, but for me this is not very hygienic and I wouldn’t like to get that jar of jam after her. These experiences force me to lower my grading of De Bakkerwinkel.