Nous - Coffee Store

A short menu, a corner room in white and lilac, and a cinnamon bun on the counter. Nous is a small Amsterdam coffee store that calls itself a neighbourhood living room, with the better-known branch at Haarlemmerplein and a second out in Noord.

A short list, done properly

The coffee menu is deliberately compact: espresso, americano, cortado, cappuccino, latte, flat white, batch brew filter and iced coffee, with an extra shot if you want it. Nothing on it is unusual, which is the point, because the range is short enough that the bar makes every drink often. Matcha is not an afterthought but part of the identity, and it turns up in the lilac and lavender drinks the café is recognised for, with lemonades for anyone skipping caffeine. Food stays bakery-led rather than a menu: cinnamon buns, house-baked cookies and a lemon loaf, with pastries changing around them. This is not a lunch stop pretending to be a café.

White walls, lilac and a corner of light

The Haarlemmerplein branch occupies a corner building with sightlines towards the Haarlemmerpoort, and it uses that position properly, with large windows and clean white walls broken by lilac accents that echo the drinks. It is small, and often full; finding a seat inside at the wrong hour is luck rather than planning. The owners are frequently behind the bar themselves, which shows in how the coffee is made and how conversational the counter is. The Docklandsweg room in Noord has more space and suits a longer sit or a solo work session. Both keep the same register, calm and design-led without being precious about it.

Order the matcha latte, then the cinnamon bun

Start with the matcha latte, the drink that made matcha part of the café's public identity. If coffee is the reason you came, the flat white is the order, with cortado, cappuccino, americano, espresso and latte covering the rest of the espresso range and the batch brew filter answering for a longer black coffee. Lemonade is the straightforward alternative. From the bakes, the cinnamon bun is the first choice, house-baked cookies the easy second, particularly beside a filter coffee, and the lemon loaf a lighter third. That is the whole visit: a good drink, one sweet thing, and a corner room worth staying in.