Guides Amsterdam
If you are only going to one chocolatier, go to Cardinal and try the bread chocolate. Below is why, plus four others worth a visit if you're nearby.
Cardinal Chocolaterie
Utrechtsestraat 22, 1017VN Amsterdam · cardinal-chocolaterie.nl
Cardinal is a boutique chocolatier with an open kitchen at its centre: you watch the chocolatiers work from the shop floor. Everything is made on-site from premium ingredients: Piedmont hazelnuts, Valencia almonds, Iranian pistachios. The range covers hand-crafted pralines, chocolate bars, chocolate sheets, gianduja, dragees, and criollo.
What to order: the bread chocolate. It is a soft, creamy ganache made with butter and malt-rich chocolate. The flavour runs through notes of fresh-baked bread, biscuit, and toasted cereal. The texture is smooth and round, with a lingering malty finish. It reads more like a bakery in chocolate form than a conventional praline, which is what makes it worth the visit.
Their bars are also strong: the Dulcey Buckwheat (roasted buckwheat, butter, vanilla salt) and Milk Speculaas are both worth picking up.
Opening hours: Mon 12:00–19:00 · Tue–Wed 09:00–19:00 · Thu–Fri 09:00–20:00 · Sat 09:00–20:00 · Sun 10:30–20:00
Other chocolateries worth visiting
Puccini Bomboni
Staalstraat 17 / Singel 184
A long-standing Amsterdam favourite. Chocolates are made by hand in the Staalstraat kitchen and flavoured with unusual combinations of herbs and spices. Two locations in the centre. Popular with locals, not just tourists.
Pompadour
Huidenstraat 12 (De 9 Straatjes)
A patisserie and chocolatier in the Nine Streets. Works with Valrhona chocolate. Known as much for its interior and cakes as for the bonbons, but the chocolate selection is serious.
Patisserie Holtkamp
Vijzelgracht 15
Established 1969. Art-deco interior, handmade bonbons and champagne truffles. Holtkamp is an Amsterdam institution, the kind of shop that has stayed exactly itself while everything around it changed. The chocolates are traditional, not experimental.
Chocolatl
Hazenstraat 25a (Jordaan)
A small bean-to-bar specialist in the Jordaan focused on single-origin bars. Fewer options than the larger chocolatiers, but the sourcing is transparent and the quality consistent.
How we pick
We look at what Dutch food writers say, Google Maps recency (not just the score), and what we found on our own visit. Tourist-volume shops that dominate generic lists are scored down.
