Best English-language bookstores in Amsterdam
17 November 2025
Image from Oksana Kuklina
Best specialty stores in Amsterdam
Updated 10 November 2025 at 13:25Written by Karin Engelbrecht
Don’t you love those charming rabbit holes where you wander in thinking you’ll have a quick browse and emerge hours later clutching treasures you didn’t even know you wanted? Of course, Amsterdam has no shortage of vinyl havens, cheese emporiums, bakeries and vintage stores, but it’s also home to a dazzling array of niche, one-of-a-kind shops you won’t find anywhere else. With rising rents threatening their survival, now’s the time to discover and support these retail rarities.
STATIONERY, CRAFS & CURIO SHOPS
De Knopenwinkel
Image from De Knopenwinkel
At this cabinet of curiosities disguised as a haberdashery, even the doorknob is a button. Step inside and you’ll find walls gleaming with thousands more: glass, wood, bone, mother-of-pearl, even vintage rarities that look fit for museum cases. Owner Thea de Boer, who has run the shop for decades, knows her collection like old friends. Beyond buttons, you’ll stumble across odd treasures, including retro accessories, art and vintage clothing.
DE KNOPENWINKEL | Herengracht 383-389 | City Centre
De Posthumuswinkel
Walk through its leaded-glass doorway and you’re back in 1865, when letters bore weight and wax. This family-run shop still practises the old arts of sealing, stamping and embossing, its shelves stacked with quills, wax sticks and an encyclopaedia of stamps for paper, leather, even chocolate and ice. It feels like Diagon Alley in miniature – a place where handwriting becomes performance, and where even crazed touchscreen tappers may crave ink and parchment.
DE POSTHUMUSWINKEL | Sint Luciënsteeg 25 | City Centre
Terra Incognita
True to its name – Latin for “unknown land” – this shop turns curiosity into cartography. Shelves brim with minerals, meteorites, fossils and gemstones, each a fragment of Earth’s hidden corners. Decorative geodes sit alongside crystal skulls, and jewellery hints at natural magic. Not just for the mystical crystal crowd: amateur geologists and tactile explorers are welcome, too.
TERRA INCOGNITA | Van Baerlestraat 77-HS | Oud-Zuid
FOOD & DRINK
De Pindakaaswinkel
Image from Pindakaaswinkel
In the Netherlands, peanut butter is savoury, nut-forward and a lunchtime staple, not a sugar bomb. It’s so beloved, there’s a whole boutique dedicated to it. Here, pindakaas gets the gourmet treatment: handmade, palm oil-free, and anything but basic. Flavours range from coconut & sea salt to apple pie and chilli & lemongrass, with a few twists for good measure.
DE PINDAKAASWINKEL | | Sint Luciënsteeg 20 | Old Centre
Het Oud-Hollandsch Snoepwinkeltje
Sure, Amsterdam has more candy shops than canals, but this one deals in the good stuff: traditional Dutch sweets with proper old-school flair. Shelves groan with classics like zoute ruiten (salty diamonds), scheepsknopen (liquorice ship’s knots), kaneelstokjes (cinnamon sticks) and perendrups (chewy pear drops with a tangy sugar coat). Love it or loathe it, drop (liquorice) reigns supreme. Sweet tooth or daredevil, you'll find your fix here.
HET OUD-HOLLANDSCH SNOEPWINKELTJE | Tweede Egelantiersdwarsstraat 2 | Jordaan
Hartog’s Volkoren Bakkerij en Maalderij
Image from Marie-Charlotte Pezé
Amsterdam’s OG of whole wheat milling and baking since 1896. Their nutty, dense and nutritious whole wheat loaves are practically a food group, but don’t sleep on the buttery gevulde koeken (almond paste-filled cookies), spicy speculaas or seasonal oliebollen. No frills, no fluff, just freshly milled flour, tradition and a line out the door. Crowned Best Specialty Store 2024 by the readers of Ons Amsterdam magazine, and rightly so.
HARTOG’S VOLKOREN | Wibautstraat 77 | Oost
Formocha Premium Tea
The owner of this boutique grew up steeped in Chinese tea culture and knows her leaves. Sourced from China, Taiwan and Japan, Formocha’s tins are filled with loose-leaf treasures that make supermarket bags look like sock dust. Curious about terroir, tannins or the art of gong fu brewing? You’re in the right place.
Need a cuppa on the spot? Moychay offers tastings, shelves of rare teas and a serious collection of Gong Fu Cha teaware. Or duck into Het Kleinste Huis, a twee tearoom inside Amsterdam’s so-called smallest house, for fragrant blends, including a house special in a tin worthy of suitcase space. You’ll also find a stellar selection of teas at the old-school apothecary Jacob Hooy, which has been trading herbs and spices since 1743.
FORMOCHA PREMIUM TEA | Brouwersgracht 282 | Jordaan
BOOKS & COMICS
Het Muizenhuis
Image from Muizenhuis
What began as a cardboard set for a children’s book by Dutch designer Karina Schaapman is now a two-story mouse metropolis, complete with a harbour, circus, school, and snack bar. Every room is handmade, every detail obsessively crafted. Part museum, part playhouse and bookshop, it’s a treat for kids and design lovers alike. Still feeling playful? Pop into Lambiek, Europe’s oldest comic shop for graphic novels, rarities and underground classics.
HET MUIZENHUIS | Muntplein 8 | City Centre
De Kookboekhandel
Image from De Kookboekwinkel
If a bookshop could simmer, sizzle and serve, it would look like this. Equal parts inspiration, instruction and indulgence, ‘The Cookbook Shop’ has a towering selection of domestic and foreign titles on food, baking, wine, herbs and everything edible – a must‑visit for anyone who treats their kitchen like a lab. For readers with an antiquarian interest, Antiquariaat Kok offers 1,500 m² of books on art, science, architecture, and more, including maps and prints you may not have known you needed.
DE KOOKBOEKHANDEL | Haarlemmerdijk 133 | City Centre
For more bookstores, check out our article on the Best English-language bookstores in Amsterdam.
HOMEWARES, DECOR & PLANTS
Wildernis
Image from Wildernis
Forget your sad fern and leaning monstera. At this urban jungle boutique, your fingers might finally get a fighting chance to turn green. Wildernis stocks houseplants, ceramic pots, botanical prints, hanging planters, seeds, compost and clever tools to rescue even the most wayward home greenery. Meanwhile, hands-on workshops show you how not to kill your succulents. Put it on your list if you’d like your place transformed from a plant precarious to a TikTok-worthy jungle, one pot at a time.
WILDERNIS | Bilderdijkstraat 165 | Oud-West
Anouk Beerents
Step into a skylit atelier that feels like a Hall of Mirrors redux. Since 1994, Anouk Beerents has sourced and restored 18th- and 19th-century French and Italian mirrors, gilded with gold or silver leaf, for local clients and international icons, including Ralph Lauren and the Waldorf Astoria. Museum-quality mirrors crowd the walls, some with provenance dating back to the Palace of Versailles. Visits are by appointment only, but every mirror invites you to see your reflection in history. Antique lovers should also swing by Affaire d'Eau, featuring claw-foot tubs, nickel-plated taps and sinkware straight from the Belle Époque.
ANOUK BEERENTS ANTIEKE SPIEGELS | Prinsengracht 467 | 9 Streets
t Japanse Winkeltje
Create an authentic tokonoma (decorative alcove) at home with handmade ceramics, lacquerware and Okinawa glass from this Japan specialist, which has celebrated the subtle beauty of modern Japanese design since 1976. Kimono, ukiyo-e (woodblock prints) and sake sets reflect seasonal rhythms and meticulous detail. Workshops in origami, matcha making and calligraphy enable visitors to delve into the craft behind these objects. Or, for a playful dive into Japan’s past, visit the nearby antiques store Van Hier Tot Tokio (Prinsengracht 262).
T JAPANSE WINKELTJE | Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 177 | City Centre
Gastronomie Nostalgie
Image from mokumista
A shrine to the golden age of gastronomy, this antique emporium deals in serious culinary swagger. Think silver-plated serving sets, porcelain terrines, crystal decanters and glassware that whisper secrets from grand hotels and posh dining rooms past. Prefer 21st-century mod-cons over old-world opulence? Duikelman, a beloved, family-run foodie’s paradise, is packed with pro-grade kitchen gear for chefs, home cooks and serial dinner party hosts alike.
GASTRONOMIE NOSTALGIE | Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 304 | City Centre
ODDLY SPECIFIC
De Condomerie
Image from mokumista
Some shops sell products. Others sell expertise. And then there’s De Condomerie, the world’s most cheerful safe-sex boutique, open since 1987 in the heart of the Red Light District. Behind the colourful windows you’ll find allergy-friendly, fair-trade, made-to-measure and glow-in-the-dark condoms, plus a staff who know their latex from their lambskin.
DE CONDOMERIE | Warmoesstraat 141 | City Centre
Van Stapele & more
Image from Maarten Willemstein
Yes, Amsterdam excels at the art of retail hyperfocus. Nothing’s too niche. There’s De Badjassenwinkel, a robe-only boutique where terry, waffle and satin hang like royalty. Aurora Kontakt has every light bulb you thought no longer existed, while Muco Modelbouw offers model planes, boats and cars, as well as the glue, paint and parts needed to build anything you can imagine. Add traditional Dutch pickles and preserves from the likes of Kesbeke and Thull's, alcohol-free drinks from World of Nix or a single warm chocolate cookie from Van Stapele Koekmakerij, and you’ve officially shopped the oddball spectrum.
Looking for locally made gifts? Check out our Made in Amsterdam Souvenirs article.
