Eating on the water in Amsterdam runs from a bag of bitterballen from a FEBO wall on a moving boat to a three-course dinner at your own window table. Six cruises, from €26 to €128 a head, and the gap between them is not really about quality — it is about how much of an evening you want it to be. This page puts them side by side and then takes each one in turn.
How to choose
Three questions settle it faster than reading all six descriptions.
- Is this dinner, or a drink with something to eat? Only the three-course cruise is a full restaurant meal. The FEBOAT, the pizza cruise and the BBQ are proper food but informal; the cheese and wine cruise is drinks with something alongside.
- How long do you want to be on the water? An hour for the cheese and wine cruise, 75 minutes for the pancake boat, 90 minutes for the FEBOAT and the pizza cruise, two hours for the BBQ, and just over two for the dinner cruise.
- Where are you starting from? Three of the six leave from the centre, and three leave from Amsterdam-Noord or the NDSM wharf — a free ferry from Central Station, but you need to allow for it.
All food cruises compared
Every food and drink cruise we can book for you. Prices are the lowest current adult price at our booking partners, per person.
| Cruise | Duration | Departs from | What you eat and drink | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Three-course dinner cruise | 135 min | Zwanenburgwal 10, Nieuwmarkt | Prosecco on arrival, snacks and three courses at your own window table | from €128 |
| FEBOAT | 90 min | Badhuiskade, next to the A’DAM Tower | A working FEBO wall on board — croquettes, bitterballen, fries. Departs daily at 18:00 | from €26 |
| BBQ and unlimited drinks cruise | 120 min | Oosterdokskade 8, Central Station | A full barbecue and unlimited beer, wine and soft drinks; groups up to 20 | from €59,95 |
| Evening pizza and drinks cruise | 90 min | Damrak pier 4 | Pizza and drinks included, live guide, up to 40 people | from €34,50 |
| Cheese and wine cruise | 60 min | Prins Hendrikkade 33A, Central Station | Unlimited wine, beer or soft drinks with Dutch cheese | from €31,45 |
| Pancake boat | 75 min | Ms. van Riemsdijkweg 33, NDSM | All-you-can-eat pancakes with toppings; drinks paid separately | from €30,20 |
Prices checked on 1 September 2026. Food cruises fill up faster than plain sightseeing cruises, particularly at weekends — the ticket page shows the departures still available.
The six cruises
Three-course dinner cruise
This is the only one on the page that is dinner in the restaurant sense. You board on the Zwanenburgwal, five minutes from the Nieuwmarkt, get a glass of prosecco and a table by the window that stays yours for the evening, and eat three courses while the boat works its way through the canal belt and back.
The boat is a classic covered saloon boat and the guide speaks English. Two and a quarter hours, which is the right length for a meal and long enough that you stop noticing you are on a boat. At €128 it costs as much as dinner in a good Amsterdam restaurant, which is the honest comparison to make — you are paying restaurant prices and getting the canals with it.
Check availability for the three-course dinner cruise
FEBOAT — the cruise with a FEBO wall on board
A boat with a working FEBO wall in it: the yellow coin-operated hatches that Dutch people have been pulling croquettes out of since the 1960s. You open the little doors yourself, as often as you like, and eat bitterballen, kroketten and fries while Amsterdam goes past.
It is unmistakably a novelty, and it is also the single most Dutch thing you can do on the water. It leaves daily at 18:00 from the Badhuiskade next to the A’DAM Tower in Amsterdam-Noord — a free five-minute ferry from behind Central Station — and sails for an hour and a half. At €26 it is the cheapest way to eat on the canals.
Check availability for the FEBOAT
BBQ and unlimited drinks cruise
Two hours on an open boat with a barbecue going and the bar open the whole time: steak, satay, sausage, burgers, salads and bread, with unlimited beer, wine and soft drinks. It leaves from the Oosterdokskade on the east side of Central Station and takes groups of up to twenty.
This is the one to book when the point of the evening is the group rather than the view. At €59,95 with everything included it works out cheaper than a restaurant once the drinks are counted, and nobody has to look at a bill.
Check availability for the BBQ cruise
Evening pizza and drinks cruise
An hour and a half on an open boat from Damrak pier 4, just south of Central Station, with pizza and drinks — beer, wine and soft drinks — included, and a live guide on board. Up to forty people, so it has more of a party feel than the smaller boats.
Good middle ground: more of a meal than the cheese and wine cruise, considerably less formal and less expensive than the dinner cruise, and it sails in the evening when the bridges are lit.
Check availability for the pizza cruise
Cheese and wine cruise
An hour from Central Station on a covered, heated boat with a live guide, and unlimited wine, beer or soft drinks with Dutch cheese to go with them. It is the shortest and the most straightforward of the six.
Treat it as a sightseeing cruise with the drinks handled rather than as a meal — you will want dinner afterwards. That is also its strength: at €31,45 for an hour it fits into an evening instead of taking it over.
Check availability for the cheese and wine cruise
Pancake boat
Seventy-five minutes out of the NDSM wharf with unlimited Dutch pancakes and a table of toppings, plus a ball pit downstairs. Drinks are extra, and there is a water tax of €2,70 a head on top of the ticket.
It sails on the IJ rather than through the canal belt, so the view is the harbour and the skyline rather than seventeenth-century gables. With children under ten, that trade is worth making — this is the food cruise nobody has to be persuaded onto.
Check availability for the pancake boat
Practical points
- Three of the six leave from Amsterdam-Noord or NDSM. The ferries behind Central Station are free and run every few minutes, but allow fifteen minutes for the crossing and the walk.
- Tell them about allergies and diets when you book, not on the quay. Vegetarian is available on most of these, but the kitchens are small and they cook to the number of covers they were given.
- The FEBOAT has one departure a day, at 18:00. Miss it and the next one is tomorrow.
- Dutch licensing applies on the water. No alcohol under 18, and crews stop serving anyone who has had enough.
- Book food cruises further ahead than sightseeing cruises. The boats are smaller and the kitchens cap the numbers; summer weekends go days in advance.
Looking for a cruise without a meal attached? Compare all twenty boats in our guide to Amsterdam canal cruises, or read about the evening canal cruise and the open boat cruise with a bar.
Frequently asked questions
From €26 for the FEBOAT, which serves croquettes and fries from a FEBO wall on board, up to €128 per person for a three-course dinner cruise with a private window table. In between: €30,20 for the pancake boat, €31,45 for the cheese and wine cruise, €34,50 for the pizza cruise and €59,95 for the BBQ cruise with unlimited drinks.
A canal cruise with a working FEBO wall on board — the yellow coin-operated hatches that Dutch snack bars are known for. You take out croquettes, bitterballen and fries as often as you like during the cruise. It leaves daily at 18:00 from the Badhuiskade next to the A’DAM Tower and sails for 90 minutes.
The three-course dinner cruise. It is the only one of the six that is a restaurant meal: prosecco on arrival, snacks, three courses served at your own window table, and two and a quarter hours on the water.
The pancake boat. Unlimited pancakes with toppings, a ball pit on board and seventy-five minutes of sailing from the NDSM wharf. The pizza cruise also works well with older children.
Between one and two and a quarter hours. The cheese and wine cruise takes an hour, the pancake boat 75 minutes, the FEBOAT and the pizza cruise 90 minutes, the BBQ cruise two hours and the three-course dinner cruise 135 minutes.
On some. The cheese and wine cruise and the BBQ cruise both include unlimited beer, wine and soft drinks, and the pizza cruise includes drinks. On the three-course dinner cruise you get a welcome prosecco and pay for the rest; on the pancake boat drinks are extra.
Three leave from the centre — the Zwanenburgwal near the Nieuwmarkt, the Oosterdokskade beside Central Station and Damrak pier 4 — and three from across the water in Amsterdam-Noord: the Badhuiskade by the A’DAM Tower and the NDSM wharf, both a free ferry ride from behind Central Station.
Yes, more so than for a plain sightseeing cruise. The boats are smaller and the kitchens cook to the number of bookings, so summer weekends sell out days ahead. The FEBOAT has only one departure a day.
