NU koffie & delicatessen

Coffee and homemade baking in a small Amsterdam room

Coffee first, then something homemade to go with it. That is the whole proposition at NU koffie & delicatessen, and the counter is arranged to make it easy: espresso, flat white and cappuccino at the milk-and-shot end, a matcha latte for everyone else, and a sweet side that comes down to a cinnamon bun and an apple tart which do not need a menu description to sell themselves.

It is a café and delicatessen rather than a restaurant, which keeps the format simple. You order at the counter, you take what is out that day, and the visit lasts about as long as the cup does.

A small room built for the daytime

Gezellig is the word the Dutch use for what this room is doing: small, classic and relaxed, and warmer for being tight rather than in spite of it. The old-fashioned feel is less a design decision than the absence of one, and counter service sets the pace without hurrying anybody along. It is a delicatessen as well as a café, which is why the counter carries more than coffee, and the room is built on repetition rather than occasion.

Come with daytime timing in mind. It suits a morning coffee, a mid-afternoon pause or a sweet break between errands rather than an evening plan, and the neighbourhood character of the place is easiest to see when the room is half full.

Order the flat white, then the apple tart

Start with the flat white if milk coffee is your default, or keep it shorter with an espresso or a cappuccino. The matcha latte is the option for anyone off coffee that day, and it sits on the board rather than needing to be asked for as a favour.

For something sweet, the apple tart is the first thing to consider and the cinnamon bun the obvious alternative. Either one turns a quick coffee into a proper pause, and both belong to the homemade side of the counter that gives the place its character. That is the advantage of somewhere this size: a few familiar things done properly, and no menu study before you order. Take the coffee and the tart together rather than in sequence, and the visit resolves itself into the twenty quiet minutes it was designed for.