Wils Café opens a neighbourhood bistro by the Amstel
Joris Bijdendijk brings French bistro dishes and Amsterdam staples to a restaurant open seven days a week.
Wils Café Amsterdam has opened on Weesperzijde as a French-Amsterdam neighbourhood bistro from chef Joris Bijdendijk.
The restaurant at number 147 began service on 8 November and opens seven days a week. I amsterdam says the intention is a place where local residents can stop for coffee and a newspaper as readily as for wine and a full meal. That is a straightforward promise; delivering it through seven days of service is less simple.
Bijdendijk is associated with RIJKS, Wils and Wils Bakery Café. Wils Café is not presented as another formal tasting-menu room. Its broader bistro card and all-day idea put it closer to a neighbourhood restaurant than a smaller copy of a Michelin-starred one.
Wils Café combines two traditions
The menu places French bistro dishes beside Amsterdam products. I amsterdam lists steak tartare, veal-ragout pastries and ossenworst from butcher De Wit with pickles from De Leeuw. The kitchen also plans a weekly special, including schnitzel cooked in beef fat or chicken with leek and tarragon.
Those dishes say more than the usual opening claim of being “accessible”. Prices, portions and consistency will decide whether Wils Café Amsterdam becomes a regular local address. Its Amstel-side location also gives it a different audience from Wils near the Olympic Stadium.
Weesperzijde adds another opening
The launch falls in a crowded month for Amsterdam hospitality. Earlier this week, Kade Noord opened in Amsterdam-Noord, with further restaurants scheduled in De Pijp and Zuidoost.
Wils Café now enters the less photogenic stage of an opening: bookings, table turns and a menu that must work on an ordinary weekday. The doors are open; whether the room becomes a genuine neighbourhood café will take longer to establish.
The menu also avoids locking the room into a large opening set menu. That gives the kitchen room to use specials and respond to neighbourhood rhythms. For a restaurant promising both coffee and dinner, the hours between lunch and evening will be the practical test of the all-day idea.
