Health store with an attached raw food cafe, also known as Centrum voor Energieregie. Serves breakfast, wraps, salads, raw vegan ice cream, sorbet, tea and coffee. Retail area sells organic and raw products including snacks, chocos-macrones, take-away food, smoothies and juices, dried berries, and more Open Mon 10:00-22:00, Tue-Thu 10:00-19:00, Fri 10:00-22:00, Sat-Sun 10:00-19:00.
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Overtoom 409 (at Schoolstraat corner), Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1054 JP
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- Outdoor seating
- Accepts credit cards
- Free Wi-Fi
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Last update on 16 Feb 2024 by DennisLaursen
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68 Reviews
First Review by Poliartes
HappyCouple
Points +43
Good smoothies, but limited options - Edit
After walking almost all morning, my boyfriend and I were really looking forward to drink a nice, healthy smoothie and eating soms snacks. The place looked cosy, clean and very 'natural', the guy who worked there was friendly. Unfortunately, we had limited options when choosing the ingredients for our smoothies, because most of it seemed to be out. There was also a weird and expensive system for charging the ingredients and the fruit bars we asked for, weren't made yet. We saw some other people ordening food and it looked fine, but the portions looked small and not worth the money. We would not recommend to go here when you're hungry, but it's OK to have some healthy snacks and drinks.
Read moreUpdated from previous review on Saturday April 12, 2014
Updated from previous review on 2014-04-12
Pros: Healthy, Fine, clean place
Cons: Expensive, Food was out
Guest
DavidO'Donnell
Points +19
Lovely breakfast - Edit
Had a lovely breakfast on a rainy early June morning. The breakfast plate had a tasty coconut yogurt and a great vegan granola. Unusual and beautifully prepared. The smoothie of the day was strawberry pineapple and very good, not overly sweet. The vegan quiche and pumpkin bread were more on the vinegar-y end of the taste spectrum (fermented?) which I liked but my 13yr old did not. Nice small charming place—more on the raw food trip, so friends who are not vegan might not be as enthused. Very welcoming and casual and a great cozy room with a scrabble set. Perfect place to start the day before heading out to see the sights in the drizzle.
Read moreGuest
nicosoto
Points +640
Perfect portions - Edit
Tasty Raw vegan food! Try the cakes and smoothies! Rainbow salad was perfect. Nice music and atmosphere. Free WiFi and good prices! @drnicosoto
Read morePros: Good prices, Wifi
Guest
nonnawood
Points +41
Great raw vegan food - Edit
Best acaï bowls and ice cream, lovely atmosphere!
Read morePros: Vegan, wholefood, raw
Guest
LizMurphy
Points +259
Nice raw food but small portions - Edit
Ate breakfast here and ordered the breakfast platter and my friend ordered sunflower bread with pesto cream cheese. Couldn’t fault the flavours - the ‘cheese’ especially was delicious however the portions were very small for the prices. The bread was a really tiny single slice which wouldn’t fill anyone. Very friendly place however with a nice atmosphere.
Read morePros: Great Flavours, Friendly Staff
Cons: Very small portions
Guest
arisberna
Points +166
Almost really good... just... - Edit
Alchemist is a good restaurant for vegetarian and vegan, no doubt about that.
Read moreUnfortunately I was expecting a bit more in term of flavours and type of dishes. However we had a great experience and we did not get hungry, which is most important :)
The service was great and ambience nice.
Pros: Service, ambience
Cons: needed more flavours
Guest
Astr0z0mbie
Points +61
Delicious raw vegan food, great vibes & kind souls - Edit
This place was great. Tried four main dishes with my brother and they were all wonderful - the burger, the quiche and the raw dog were great - smallish portions (I am American), but well done and full of flavor. Went well with their lovely bottle of Bordeaux.
Read morePies for dessert were all great! Tried Carrot, Chocolate and banana/ apple. Our favorites were the Carrot pie and the chocolate pie.
Chef/ Restauranteur is open to feedback, so please give them any tips you can. Very nice people.
Pros: Chill insode or outside., Nice bottlea of wine., Amazing desserts.
Cons: A work in progress - give feedback and support the
Guest
Alexandra_Sunshine
Points +154
Raw-vegan place - Edit
It was an interesting experience to try raw-vegan food here.
Read morePortions are a bit small perhaps but this way you can try several dishes :)
Guest
chb-pbfp
Points +10641
Very bad experience - Edit
A raw food place anywhere in the world should for me personally always deserve 5 star's, now it's of course not the goal of a review, it should provide some more objective inside for future visitors.
Read moreI'm quite often in Amsterdam for work, always looking for good restaurants, ideally raw and open in the evening.
Finding the Alchemist Garden, open in the evening and seeing online the card, I was very excited about it.A colleague decided to join me in this experience.When I made the reservation by phone, there was a very young, energetic guy on the phone that would have his birthday on the day we would be over. It sounded very promising.
When we arrived, the place looked wonderful, now the only person in the restaurant was not the young energetic guy we had on the phone. The guy was very strange, shy, maybe, sweating very hard all over the face and I could not tell if he understood Dutch or English or any other language. We were at 19h the only people in the restaurant.
With my colleague, we decided not to judge yet and nevertheless give it a try.We ordered smoothies, juices, lasagna, rainbow plate, crackers... and even some dessert.Only 45 minutes later, we received 1 lasagnas, other thing we did not ask, we never received the smoothies, juices, rainbow plate... which we tried to explain, now he looked not at all understanding it.
So we went back to the counter showing something that was visible, which took again 15 minutes before serving it.
We, myself and my colleague his first raw food experience left very disappointed.
I might think it is maybe related to the guy and not a generalization, now since it is not easy to reach for me, I have not tried it again since then.
Pros: Opening hours
Cons: Not much of the card is actually available, Very bad communication, Very bad service
alec63
Hey man,
Read moreThanks for your feedback, I'm very sorry to read this.
I'll try to trace down what happened and respond to it.
Was it on (Monday) the 21st of August? Was the man alone or was their another person in the kitchen?
Thanks for your cooperation.
Alec Boswijk
Owner
chb-pbfp
Hi Alec, I don't know the exact date, it was on the birthday of one of the employees that I had on the phone for the reservation...it was just a man alone. Cheers
Read moreGuest
cityboyjake
Points +20
should be a 1 🌟 - Edit
This has all the potential but unfortunately did not meet our expectations. The service was very slow even though we only ordered the breakfast plate and the pumpkin bread (which was forgotten) we waited about 40 - 50 minutes. The atmosphere was not particularly friendly either and the food was overpriced for what it was.
Read morePros: nice look inside and out
Cons: expensive, food is not great, service is slow
Guest
GuyLaine
Points +185
Worst experience in Amsterdam - Edit
When we first ordered a lot of items from the menu where not available... after ordering we went to sit; the table outside was not clean at all. It took about 15 minutes to receive our smoothie. The taste was okay. 30 minutes later we received the veggie chips. They had a bad texture and next to no taste. It looked like they just threw a bunch of dry kale and beets on a white plate. We continued waiting for about another 30 minutes. While looking inside the restaurant we saw the staff were taking pictures of food... It felt very disrespectful so one of us went into the restaurant to ask how much more time it would take. They said only a few more minutes, it looked like they had only started our plates. A few minutes later we received our plates: a fruit bowl which was basically grapefruit and a few blueberrys, the pesto pasta were good, more like a snack then a meal. We had to ask to have a fork and a knife. We had to go get some napkins ourselves. It felt ridiculous to have waited more than an hour for this. The owner came outside to apologize saying that he was understaffed ( they were 3) and that sometimes when they had two orders at the same time it was very difficult. The restaurant was almost empty: only us and two other people. Overall, very bad experience!
Read moreToo many good vegan restaurants in amsterdam to waste your time and money at the Alchemist garden.
Cons: Waiting time to receive the food, Service, Not worth the money...
Guest
jbien
Points +102
Best Gluten Free Raw Veg Food! - Edit
100% gluten free, sugar free, raw vegan menu. Absolutely amazing and service was great. Very reasonably priced as well. Got 2 large smoothies, club sandwich and chocolate pie for about 23 euros. Everything is organic and they put out great vibes. New go-to place in Amsterdam.
Read morePros: 100% Raw Vegan, 100% Gluten Free, Reasonably Priced
Guest
technoveg
Points +117
Lovely tasty food - Edit
Firstly, the food was really good. At first impression it would be easy to see the food as being expensive (as this was my own impression) but when you learn that the owner specifically makes dishes made from ingredients that are sourced locally (which is more costly) then you can understand why. If he was all about making profit then he could easily use cheaper products that come from further afield and thus offer cheaper prices but kudos to him for sticking to what he believes in. If you are not very wealthy then be prepared for a big bill if you're having a full meal or go to this place with the intention of having a snack. A single person would probably need to order 3 or 4 dishes them self for a full meal.
Read morePros: Really lovely food, Locally sourced ingredients, Free WiFi
Cons: Portion sizes are small
Guest
CarolinCristael
Points +17
Lekker, maar niet voor een normale of grote honger - Edit
Het eten was zeker niet slecht, maar de porties waren heel erg klein. Eerder een voorgerechtje dan een volwaardig hoofdgerecht.
Read moreCons: kleine porties
Guest
NatalieDowelMcIntosh
Points +350
Authentic Healthy Food - Edit
We enjoyed our experience at Alchemist Garden. The food is the real thing. These people know about health and the techniques of fermenting. We felt so nourished & satiated after eating here. Yes it's a little more expensive but it's organic and everything is prepared from scratch so we don't mind paying a bit extra for the healthiest food that they provide. We really enjoyed the Red & Green Salad Plate as well as the Raw Blueberry Pie, as it was light and not too heavy or full of coconut oil like most raw desserts. The only thing we would have liked more is for the smoothies to be colder, perhaps with a little ice. But overall we loved it and congratulate them for providing such nourishing food. They even organized an Electric car Taxi for us.
Read moreGuest
fogue
Points +28
the crumbs - Edit
the restaurant appears to be comfortable and calm. despite that, the courses were meager: the quantity of vegan cheese was less than one thumb big, served with two little little peaces of bread (ridicoulous). we took an apple cake that was delicious but, again, small compared to its price. To be sated in this place it is necessary to be a wealthy family.
Read morePros: comfortable and calm place, good cake, you will never gain weight with that prices
Cons: really too expencive comparing to prices, ridicoulous quantity
Guest
VickyMan
Points +176
terrible!! - Edit
oh my god. what a terrible experience.
Read morethe food is so overpriced and it tasted so very bad.
there was some vegan lasagna which was so bitter that we couldnt even eat it. the sushi thingy was horrible too.
The mushroom portobello was the only edible thing.
portion size is so small, and at the end of our "lunch", we went to lunch again at another restaurant.
The staff forgot to make the smoothie we ordered and when we followed up, we were asked "do you want it?",,, HELLO????
Guest
rogaux
Points +70
warning: includes enchantment - Edit
Wow. So I can get a hand chakra massage and my tarot cards laid, while having (surely enlightening) raw vegan food. I had breakfast there and, yes, the portions are small, yet as any raw food very filling. the ingredients for all plates and drinks are freshly processed so the higher prices are just reasonable.
Read moreAnyways, (like in many vegan locations in Amsterdam in general), what I as a soulless vegan atheist without the slightest inch of kharma am missing is a "No-BS-veganism-as-political-choice"-DIY attitude. tasty though.
Pros: high quality raw vegan food and drinks
Cons: higher price segment , esoteric flair
Guest
jennyc32
Points +4064
Underwhelming - Edit
I went for breakfast whilst on holiday in Amsterdam and, despite being the only two customers, service was very slow. We ordered the breakfast plate, and both drinks arrived well in advance of the food, meaning that we struggled to make them last. The smoothie was excellent! Everything else was pretty underwhelming. They didn't have any granola, which was what we'd most been looking forward to, so instead we got fruit salad. For the price we paid, we really got very little. I'd sooner have spent the money on a pot of yoghurt and my own fruit of choice from the supermarket. The yoghurt tasted quite sour too. It was a shame because the pies at the counter looked really tempting - perhaps we were just unlucky.
Read morePros: Nice bright space, Friendly service
Cons: Expensive, No granola for breakfast
Guest
lucyblack74
Points +459
Fantastic 100% raw vegan place - Edit
This is a fantastic place - a small cafe and health food shop. The cafe is 100% raw vegan and has a good choice of food.
Read moreThe day I was there, I had the green smoothie of the house which was soursop, greens, apple and lime, and also a slice of raw cacao cake. Both were delicious and so nutritious that they sufficient for my lunch that day.
They have a range of smoothies, juices, nut mylks and teas, as well as water kefir. They also sell coconuts, coconut yoghurt, seed breads, crackers, as well as various raw toppings. They also have soup, sandwiches, various salads, and raw pastas - tagliatella, lasagna, and sunflower burger.
It's a very impressive place if you enjoy raw vegan food. The shop part also sells superfoods like cacao, cacao bars, and various other treats, as well as herbs.
I loved it here, I would heartily recommend a visit.
Pros: 100% raw vegan, good range of choices, friendly staff
Guest
tatjanabanana
Points +84
good - Edit
This place was a little expensive especially since the club sandwich I ordered was tiny and didn't full me up. But it was delicious none the less as well as my chocolate smoothie I got there. They have a great little set up and sell some little things inside.
Read morePros: all vegan, heaps of seats, good service
Cons: small serving , expensive
Guest
Kyttiara
Points +1160
Really enjoyed the atmosphere - Edit
I went to this place with my brother and my BF.
Read moreThis was maybe the most expensive breakfast I've had BUT!
I had a raw vegan homemade granola with minute-made raw cashew milk and it was good to start the day. I went there almost a year ago but I can remember the poor lady who's got the shop was sick, so I gave her some of my homeopathic medicine.
The place is so calm and relaxing... Give it a try on a lazy afternoon! She's got so many stuff in her shop, it's really nice...
Pros: raw and GF Ayurvedic foods, delicious mostly homemade food, nice lady
Cons: expensive , don't have salads/sandwich on mornings
Guest
Chnanis
Points +8124
Alchemist Garden - for some snacks in a slow day. - Edit
The food was fresh and tasted good, but the portion was quite small, so it's quite expensive when compare to the price. The chef (who might be one of the owners) is attentive to his cooking and his customers.
Read moreIn my opinion, here can be a good place to have some smoothie and snacks in a slow day. Not very recommend for a full meal and if you are in hurry.
Pros: Fresh food, Friendly staff
Cons: Small portions, Quite high price
Guest
Gudrun
Points +4903
Nice place, great raw vegan crème brûlée - Edit
This is one of the few places in the Netherlands where you can get vegan raw food. I like the place and find the main courses I had so far quite OK (although they did now "wow" me like he food I had in some raw food restaurants abroad).
Read moreThe one thing I truly love is their vegan "crème brûlée". It is deep-frozen so at times they can't defreeze it while you are there, but in that case it's even nice to eat half-frozen, like ice-cream. It can also happen that it is served in plastic because they did not put it on a plate while it was frozen and they can't put it on a plate after it is unfrozen. The other dishes are freshly made so it can take some time until they get served. They have nice juices and smoothies and fresh coconut milk.
The staff is friendly and helpful.
Pros: fresh raw food, friendly staff
Guest
JonJon
Points +20720
Good raw food but small portions - Edit
I'm usually not really fond of raw food but I've found this one particularly tasty. We had dinner here and were not very hungry. We took the spaghetti al pesto, the lasagna and the raw plate composed of crackers, veganaise, avocado, beetroot, sprouts and green salad. I like every dish, tasty and well balanced. However, portions are very small. If we were really hungry, it would have not been sufficient. As a dessert, we took their two cakes: one chocolate and one avocado-lime. Both were really amazing!
Read moreWe also ordered two smoothies. The one of the day was good but the other one (orange and mango) was a little basic and mostly tasted the orange. Generally, we found the choices of smoothies a bit limited on the menu.
About the place: staff was really friendly and let us finish our game even if they were theoretically closed, decoration is very nice. You feel good here!
Pros: excellent raw food, friendly staff, nice vibe and place, opening hours, games available
Cons: small portions, a little pricey, some basic smoothies
Guest
Amy1274
Points +4979
Great for a vegan breakfast - Edit
I think that this is the only vegan place open so early in Amsterdam - breakfast is available from 7, and I highly recommend it for the quality. Everything is prepared fresh, so there can be a bit of a wait, but in my opinion it is worth it. As well as all-day breakfasts, smoothies, cakes, salads and main meals are also served, with everything being completely vegan and organic, and many options raw. Staff are friendly and the shop at the same location has a good selection too.
Read morePros: vegan selection, opening hours, friendly staff
Guest
minrathous
Points +109
Nice raw food restaurant - Edit
I went here twice while in Amsterdam and was quite pleased with it. I tried the club sandwich and sunflower burger. The food had a nice presentation, it was tasty, with very fresh, crisp veggies, and the raw "breads" didn't have an odd texture/taste as some do. There was one man running the place and he was very friendly/courteous, and the wait for the food was not at all long. Also, the restaurant was a pleasant, relaxing space with a lot of natural light and plants on every table. I'll be back next time I'm in Amsterdam!
Read morePros: friendly staff, good raw food, nice vibe
Guest
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