Rijsttafel in Amsterdam

Sama Sebo Restaurant

When in Amsterdam, it is essential to try Indonesian food. I found Sama Sebo restaurant through the Fodor's guidebook. 

Reservations are highly recommended for rijsttafel (an Indonesian banquet) dinners. A traditional rijsttafel meal consists of a plate of rice with a variety of side dishes to accompany it. These dishes can be noodles, stew, various meats, vegetables, and egg rolls. Basically anything that has different flavors, sauces, and textures to create a meal out of the rice plate.

We did not have reservations for dinner and were lucky to secure the last two seats in the house (at the bar) at Sama Sebo. We were seated around 9:30 PM. The couple next to us in line were told that the kitchen had closed. I couldn't believe we arrived at the restaurant just in time. We were this close to drinking beer and eating peanuts for dinner. It was a rainy night, late, and all the decent restaurants were packed.

Bar scene at Same Sebo

The rijsttafel we had originally come for was 31.50 euro per person. After going over the menu and realizing we wouldn't care for half of the options, I went a la carte and ordered a few dishes to build our own custom rijsttafel. My menu reading skills served us wisely and what we ordered turned out to be the perfect amount and the right combination of food for us. We had a little bit of everything from beef and pork to goat and tofu. We ate everything with noodles and had the obligatory vegetable dish (which turned out to be really good). All of the flavors and sauces were fantastic. We had crunchy textures, savory meat, sweet sides and a topping that just went well on everything! Coconut! Our meal turned out to be half the price of the tasting menu since each dish ranged in price from as low as 3 euro to as high as 8 euro. 

Our rijsttafel spread

Custom Rijsttafel at Sama Sebo:

Serundeng (fried coconut)
Bami (Noodles)
Pisang goring (fried bananas)
babi sateh (pork skewers)
Kambing sateh (goat skewers)
Gado-Gado  (vegetables)
Daging Madura (meat in madura sauce)
Tahu Goreng (fried tofu)

Sama Sebo
P.C. Hooftstraat 27
1071 BL Amsterdam