The phone book lists 14 African restaurants, 19 Argentine, 1 Balkan, 3 Belgian, 2 Brazilian, 2 Carribean, 161 Chinese, 1 Colombian, 2 Croatian, 202 Dutch, 1 English, 6 Egyptian, 121 French, 24 Greek, 41 Indian, 52 Indonesian, 1 Irish, 161 Italian, 35 Japanese, 2 Korean, 2 Lebanese, 1 Malaysian, 5 Moroccan, 21 Mexican, 3 Pakistani, 1 Persian, 1 Peruvian, 5 Portuguese, 1 Polish, 1 Russian, 2 Scottish, 26 Spanish, 29 Surinamese, 36 Thai, 4 Tibetan/Nepalese, 26 Turkish and 1 Vietnamese. And that's not counting all the pannekoeken houses, shoarma/falafel joints, fast food places, and 200 or so "eetcafés".
Even in nice friendly places — of which there are many — be aware that the approach is not what you might be accustomed to. In the US for example, it's common for your server to stop by and ask how is everything, can they get you anything, do you need another drink? That would be seen as intrusive here. The attitude is more like leave em alone, they're dining. So get used to that. If you want something, you have to summon the person, and therefore it's not really rude to wave at them when you need attention. Once they perceive that you've finished eating, your server will eventually come and clear away the dishes, and then ask you how the meal was — and maybe offer you dessert or coffee. They will absolutely not bring you your bill (the rekening) until you expressly ask for it. That would be grossly inhospitable, like they're trying to get rid of you. What sometimes works from across the room is to get your server's attention and make a quick little writing gesture — pantomime scribbling on a notepad. I don't know if that's rude or not, but people do it.
But let's not be too coddling about this. There is in Amsterdam a degree of pure big-city arrogance whose business consequences are well earned. A report from Horeca Nederland recently attributed a severe downturn in revenue to Amsterdam's arrogantie. Even my Dutch friends think service here kinda sucks. There are famously snooty places like Sluizer or Café Dante where the staff really, honestly don't care if you ever come back. Your presence only makes work for them, after all. It's not like they particularly enjoy having a job. If they get fired, they'll just go on unemployment like everybody else. Some of this has to do with the way economics works in the Netherlands. Nobody is allowed to starve to death in Holland — they had enough of that in 1945. So if you do have a legal full time job, it's legally very difficult to get fired. And that's why so many people can't get a full time job in the first place: hiring somebody is too much like marrying them. For the average working stiff there is a slight economic advantage to doing a great job, but not a life-or-death imperative.
In my experience there are three kinds of places where service is good. [1] Small places where the owners have a personal stake in service. [2] Places where you just get lucky and meet nice conscientious people. [3] Places where the staff are illegal and really don't wanna lose their jobs. There are quite a few of those, and the immigration authorities generally turn a blind eye to them. Tourism is down already; the Amsterdam horeca doesn't need any more economic woes.
If you're planning to pay by credit card, find out whether the restaurant takes credit cards before you go there. Some places don't, period. Many that take Visa or Mastercard will not take Amex.
In general people don't tip very much here — possibly because in general they think service sucks. I've seen folks leaving a five percent tip or even less, just rounding up to the next euro or something. Of course I can't bring myself to do that, it feels barbaric. Coming from the US I'm used to 20 percent tipping, so I leave about 10 percent and feel like I'm getting away with murder. One benefit is that if I come back again the staff may even seem pleased to see me. But my Dutch friends are always telling me "Now Giles, we need to have a serious talk about this."
Culture and cuisine. Indonesian cuisine is very popular here, in part because for a few hundred years Indonesia was a Dutch colony — known then as Oostindië or the East Indies. A lot of Dutch people are of Indonesian descent. The Indonesian rijsttafel (literally "rice-table") is a spread of lots of little yummy things to eat, usually for at least two people. Because of that colonial connection, rijsttafel is also considered a Dutch food. Go figure. Suriname also used to be a Dutch territory, and thus there are a reasonable number of Surinamese restaurants. By contrast the Turkish and Moroccan presence has nothing to do with past colonialism. The large Turkish and Moroccan populations are descended from "guest workers" invited to move here a generation ago.
The ethnic cuisine of a restaurant does not always map to the national origin of the folks who operate it. Last time I checked, Rama Thai was run by a guy from Bangladesh and the waiter I know there is Indonesian. Pizzeria Torino, like a lot of nominally Italian joints, is run by some nice guys from Turkey.
About Dutch food. First of all, no, you are not required to try Dutch cuisine just because you're in Amsterdam. You are in particular not required to try the haring. And if anyone tries to insist otherwise, check to see if he's big and Polish. I know this guy, don't listen to him. But in case you do want to, here are some trad Dutch meals and snacks.
Snert. That's slang for erwtensoep (sounds kinda like "AIR-ta-soup") or pea soup. I do recommend this — and would go so far as urging you to book a flight to Amsterdam just to try it. The Dutch generally do soup quite well, but in my opinion the pea soup is brilliant.
Two Dutch things kinda fall in the "comfort food" category. One is hutspot which is a kind of stew; the other is stampot which will tend to have veggies and meat mixed with mashed potatoes. Some folks swear by the stuff.
A pannekoek (sounds like "pun-a-kook") is a big pancake, but not like American style breakfast pancakes. It's more like a big fat crepe. There are different kinds of pannekoeken with different ingredients. Potentially yummy.
An uitsmijter is a big open-faced sandwich of fried eggs, sometimes with other things like cheese or ham. I like them.
You'll also see the occasional fish stand, for example on the Rokin and on the Spui. Kibbeling is little bits of fried fish, not bad. A broodje paling is a little sandwich of sliced eel — which may sound kinda scary but it's really very good, smooth and kinda almost buttery to the taste. I just had one this afternoon, sitting on a bench in the Spui watching the sunset over the silhouetted gables. Haring means herring, often pickled or raw herring. For some reason herring is of great cultural significance to the Dutch. Pass. I hate it.
Then there are the ubiquitous tostis (sounds like "toasties"). Tostis are cool, they're basically just little grilled sandwiches. A tosti ham-kaas is my fave, a grilled-ham-and-cheese sandwich. Or you can get a tosti kass-tomaat with cheese and tomato.
Eetcafés. An eetcafé is literally an eat-café, ie the Dutch equivalent of a pub. Amsterdam is awash with them. You can just drink there, but they also offer a limited choice of simpler, cheaper, sometimes delicious food. They are more likely to be open at lunchtime; many real restaurants only open for dinner. A lot of bars that don't qualify as eetcafés do offer bar snacks (hapjes or little bites) including, for example, bitterballen. I haven't yet been able to discover what the hell is in bitterballen, but the ones I tried at the Groene Olifant were freakin delicious.
Hot zones. There are some traditional uitgaanscentra (going-out centers) in town, with high densities of restaurants and bars.
The area adjacent to Leidseplein is probably the most intense of these hot zones. Its narrow pedestrian cross-streets (dwarsstraten) are thick with eateries, some pretty good, none magnificent. Tourists are supposed to go there browsing for a meal, and many places even post a greeter outside the door to entice you in. A gourmet would probably not be caught dead there, but I have found some quite decent meals, particularly on the Lange Leidsedwarsstraat at Rama Thai, Café Stoop & Stoop, and Bojo Indonesian — and on Leidsekruisstraat at the pizzeria Piccolino and the Chinese Tong-Ah. In the warm weather a lot of these places also put tables outdoors, where you'll be serenaded by itinerant musicians passing the hat. The single weirdest thing about the area is that from one spot on the Korte Leidsedwarsstraat, you can look around and see three places named Rancho Steakhouse. They're all owned by the same guy, all have the same menu, and they're all within sight of each other on one street. Heaven help those who make a date to meet at the Rancho — they may never find each other. (At the one I tried, the steak was okay, the hospitality almost okay, the prices steep.)
Both Rembrandtplein and the Damrak have high concentrations of eating spots too. But I don't get a warm fuzzy feeling for them. Rembrandtplein is really a nightclub area, with a few sad stripjoints in adjacent Thorbeckeplein. The clientele are expected to be hypersuggestible, so prices tend to be high and quality marginal. The Damrak on the other hand, being the strip nearest the train station, is usually thronged with lost or desperate people and those who hope to get something from them. If there are good eats on the Damrak I haven't found them, just because I don't like being on the Damrak. Whenever I'm getting an attack of Damrakophobia I just turn off into one of the little side-streets, and the mood instantly grows calmer. There are some nice little sandwich shops (belegde broodjes) and bakeries in those streets.
A nice street with lots of going-out opportunities is Reguliersdwarsstraat, especially the stretch between Muntplein and Koningsplein running parallel to the flower market on the Singel. There are lots of restaurants to try there, but my favorite so far is Rose's Cantina — a big Mexican place with outdoor dining in the back garden during summertime. Their cat sat on my lap once while I ate, but didn't seem interested in my Quesadilla. For some reason their waitresses tend to be very cute and very tall. (By the way, Reguliersdwarsstraat is home to a lot of gay-owned establishments, so if you're homophobic you might get creeped out; but then again if you don't like gay people you really have no business being in Amsterdam.)
One more going-out area to consider is the Spui, a pleasant little square between Kalverstraat, NZ Voorburgwal and Spuistraat. This was the epicenter of the furious "Provo" demonstrations in the 1960s, but things are more peaceful now. It's right on tram lines 1, 2 and 5 and easily walkable from the Dam, Muntplein and the flower market. Restaurant Haesje Claes is located nearby (sounds like "hahsha-klahss" (gezondheid!) between Spuistraat and Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal. It's big but cozy, classy without being intimidating. The front door squeaks and always has. The cuisine there is basically Dutch and general European. I usually get the ossenhaas which is kind of a filet mignon thing.
I'm just now mouring the loss of het Begijntje, a very fine little restaurant on an alley called Begijnensteeg near the Spui. Begijntje was one of my favorite restaurants on the planet, but alas they've vanished as of September 2004.
Off center. In my experience, some of the better eats are not in any of these concentrated going-out centers, but just sprinkled across the city. You will find them by wandering. For example if you take a walk through the Jordaan, especially on the Prinsengracht side, you'll encounter occasional cozy cafés with good food.
A visiting friend who happens to love cheese turned me on to the Kaas-restaurant Crignon on Gravenstraat, behind the Nieuwe Kerk on the Dam. This is an unusual place with a dining room up a very steep staircase, offering a variety of pretty intense cheese fondue dishes. It's a taste sensation if you can make it 
up the stairs. Restaurant In de Waag is a pretty high-class restaurant lit entirely by candles, inside the medieval Waag (weighing house) in the square at Nieuwmarkt. The building is what's left of the original St Antoniespoort, a gate to the city in the old city wall. I've only eaten there once but I enjoyed it a lot. Other restaurants worth a try: the greek restaurant Dionysus on the Overtoom (tram 1) just west of Eerste Constantijn Huygensstraat. Kapitein Zeppo's in a little alley called Gebed Zonder End. And de Boemerang on Weteringschans near Vijzelstraat.
In case you happen to be over on the east side of town, one surprisingly good place to eat is eetcafé Marebela in Weesperplein on the corner of Valckenierstraat. It may even be worth a crosstown trip, because it's right at the Weesperplein Metro stop. A good friend of mine lives nearby, so I've been going to the Marebela since the mid 1980s — but only recently discovered their Sate Marebela haas, skewers of beef smothered in delicious gooey sate sauce, sharing a plate with a decent salad.
Also not far from Weesperstraat, the theoretically-Italian restaurant Torino is at the corner of Roetersstraat and Nieuwe Achtergracht. Because it's off the beaten path tourist-wise they do not have a menu in English — but the Italian dishes will sound familiar. The owners are real nice, which is why I keep going back. I like the pizzas there, but they also offer some good Turkish dishes.
Real good Thai food at real good prices: Thaaise Snackbar Bird on the Zeedijk (at the edge of the main red light district). Their Tom Kha Kai soup is worth a trip to Amsterdam. This place is tiny so you usually have to wait for a seat. Be patient, or try the actual restaurant Thai Bird opposite on the Zeedjik — the food's just as good but there's more seating. Anna and I actually met Mr Bird recently, he's kind of a cool guy.
One of my Mulligan's friends introduced me to the snackbar Ekhnaton on Amstelstraat, between Rembrandtplein and the Blauw Brug. It's one of hundreds of shoarma/falafel "grillrooms" in the city, and this one is run by a real nice Egyptian guy named Basem. They're open late, so after a bit of carousing I'll go there for their above-average broodje falafel with particularly yummy knoflooksaus (garlic sauce). Shoarma, if you haven't tried it, is a kind of shaved beef with a special blend of spices, normally served in pita bread.
Frites. Okay we do need to talk about frites. I'm not sure if they can be called Dutch per se, cuz they seem to be originally vlaams or Flemish. What they are is fried potatoes, sliced like thick "french fries" and usually served in a paper cone with mayonnaise sauce on top. There are other sauces too, including sate sauce or even, omigod, ketchup. But an experienced frite-eater just walks up and asks for "'n kleine patat met," or "a small potato, with" — by which they mean "with" regular mayonnaisesaus. Even if you're quite hungry, a small one is usually enough to fill you up. Frites are really street food, you buy them at a stand and just walk down the street eating them and enjoying the scenery. The charm does wear off when you've been here for a few months, but when you first come to Amsterdam they seem mind-bogglingly delicious. I would try Dolores, a tiny little house in the triangle on the NZ Voorburgwal south of the Dam. De Belg is another good frites place at the edge of Rembrandtplein on Reguliersbreestraat. But then frites are hard to fuck up, they're pretty good in most places.
In the soft-target lunch category you will find McDonald's and Burger King regularly spaced across Amsterdam's more touristed zones. The Burger King overlooking Leidseplein has a series of neon strips flashing to give a sense of continuous movement into the entryway, as if the BK is ingesting you. These places usually have upstairs seating. 
Nowadays the upstairs at BK Leidseplein almost seems like an overly bright nightclub. The music is pretty loud and alternates between yummy house and insipid love anthems. The TV monitors flash music video clips and long psychedelic Coca-Cola ads. An actual good juicy hamburger is kinda hard to find. You can try the Hard Rock Café in Max Eeuwplein, a commercial plaza tucked away between Leidseplein and Stadhouderskade, next to the Holland Casino. The Hard Rock's burgers are pretty good, if you can stand their choice of music and the waiters repeatedly shouting "rock and roll!" They're actually not trying to annoy you; one of them explained to me (in a whisper) that company regulations require them to shout "rock and roll!" whenever they leave the kitchen.
The latest innovation in Amsterdam snack food is hot dog stands. You'll see them now on the Dam and the Spui and Stationplein. There are more of them in tourist season. As usual with street dogs, there's no knowing if the meat is anything you'd really wanna think about. But if you're not too picky they make a handy quick snack, and, well, they do smell good. The dog I got the other day from a grumpy fellow with a stand at St Anthoniessluis even tasted good too.
In the worst case, there's always FEBO. And FEBO is pretty much worst case. It's a food automat. You stick money in a slot, open a little door, stick your hand in the cubby and take out something resembling uh, food. There are FEBOs on Leidsestraat, Damrak, Rembrandtplein, and probably several others I'm just in denial about.
What food is called. If you are at all adventurous you may well end up someplace that has no English menu. For that eventuality I'm gonna lay down a quick glossary of a few Dutch food words. Maybe you never touch varkensvlees or you're deadly allergic to aardbeien? I'll skip those words for which the Dutch looks a lot like the English (ham, tomaat, wijn, bier). It's not a complete list, but it might help.
Voorgerecht = starter or appetizer
Hoofdgerecht = main dish
Daghap = special ("day-bite")
Menu = a fixed price multi-course meal thingy
Schotel = dish (eg, visschotel = fish dish)
Eet smakelijk ("eight smuckalick") = enjoy your meal!
Rekening = the bill
Mag ik afrekenen? ("mukh ick UFF raykenneh?") = May I pay my bill?
Aardappel = potato (literally "earth apple")
Aardbeien = strawberries (literally "earth berries")
Bloemkool = cauliflower
Brood = bread
Broodje = sandwich (sounds like "broatcha")
Deeggerecht = pasta dish (literally "dough-dish")
Ei = egg
Garnalen = shrimp
Gebakken = pan-fried
Gehaakt = minced (meat)
Gekookt = boiled
Gember = ginger
Gerookt = smoked
Groenten = vegetables
Inktvis = squid (literally "ink fish")
Kaas = cheese
Kabeljauw = cod fish
Kalkoen = turkey
Kerie = curry
Kersen = cherries
Kip = chicken
Knoflook = garlic
Komkommer = cucumber
Kool = cabbage
Ossehaas = steak filet (aka Tournedos)
Peper = pepper
Pinda = peanut
Room = cream (romig = creamy)
Rundvlees = beef
Ui = onion
Varkensvlees = pork (literally "pigs' meat")
Vis = fish
Vlees = meat
Witlof = endive or chicory
Zout = salt
Bestek = silverware
Lepel = spoon
Mes = knife
Serviette = napkin
Stoel = chair
Tafel = table
Vork = fork
Somebody stop me.
There is no such thing as a complete guide to eating out in Amsterdam. Think about it: anybody who tried to sample the main dishes at 1000 eateries in one year would be dead now. The best anyone can do is tell you which places they liked and why, and wish good luck to your travelling taste buds. So just explore. Your experience will be, and should be, very different from mine.
