Tujuh Maret has got to be one of the best Indonesian restaurants I've ever been to in Amsterdam. Word on the street is that the best in Holland are actually in The Hague due to a high population of Indonesians. If you don't make it there, and you should try to, because it's a great city not far from the sea, you should hit Tujuh Maret in Amsterdam.

Please stay away from places in the Leidseplein area or Rembrandtsplein. You should walk up the Utrechtsestraat (which incidentally runs into the Rembrantsplein) for some great Indonesian. Utrechtsestraat takes you into a nice residential area with bodegas, flower markets (on every canal), and tons of little boutiques. Nestled in between is Tujuh Maret. The atmosphere is decent but definitely not luxurious, since it mostly is a takeout place for locals. Still, the restaurant is cozy and the wait staff is super-friendly.

If you're new to this cuisine, ordering rijstaffel (or "rice table") is a good way to taste many dishes at once. It consists of tiny portions of 10 to 20 dishes, from mild to hot. If you'd rather try one dish and you're new to Indonesian, a good choice is sate with spicy peanut sauce. It's a very safe dish, but incredibly tasty. You can get this in chicken or in pork. For those more adventurous, try the chicken roedjak, a spicy red pepper-and-coconut sauce, or beef rendang, a spicy sauce with stewed beef. Make sure to eat a lot of Krupuk (delicious shrimp chips) and a nice beer to complement the exotic flavors. Indonesian cooking is actually not too complicated, and if you choose a base meat that you're comfortable with, the sauces will not scare you off. I've been much more afraid of Chinese and Malaysian cooking!

I highly recommend trying this while in Holland, since you can't just survive off of Dutch pancakes and cheese sandwiches the entire time!

I had never eaten Indonesian food before and so when I heard that Amsterdam was famous for its great Indonesian restaurants, I thought it would be the perfect place to start.

TUJAH MARET had peaked my attention after reading other Igo guides.

Much as I want to be original, I have to admit two of my restaurant choices in Amsterdam were based on reviews I'd read from fellow IgoUgo guides' glowing reports.

So I apologize if I’m repeating the eateries with an equal amount of enthusiasm but they do say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

To back up this choice, here's another review of Tujuh from MR WONKA, and I can thank him for some wonderful meals. His Amsterdam journals steered me in the right direction for a culinary experience.

Tujuh Maret is right on Ultrechtsestraat but on arriving it looked closed. We were gutted: I had dragged 6 hung-over yanks here with promises of great cheap food and the doors were locked. There was a note on the door but I couldn’t read Dutch so I had no idea what it said…probably "gone away for the holidays or something."

Hmmmm.. But there were arrows, and I wondered what they meant. On a whim I walked a little down the street and Lo and Behold here was another Tujah Maret. There are two with a couple of Liquor stores between them, maybe all owned by the same people. Hallelujah.

It was well worth the find. The food was wonderful, and we ordered as much as we could fit on the table and got to try all kinds. The restaurant was empty but it was lunchtime New Years Eve, and the guy working there was sweet and friendly, helping us as much as the language barrier allowed and, when not, just lots of smiling and head nodding.

I ordered from the section on the menu labeled "different dishes". This seemed to be a mix of different foods to get a good sampling. For 15 Euros I got one meat dish, one chicken dish, two vegetables, and one skewer of chicken and peanut sauce, rice and prawn crackers. Quite a feast.

There are few things that make this writer smile broader than Chauncey Billups throwing a cross-court alley-oop pass to Rasheed Wallace for the slam; plate after plate after plate of vegetarian goodness, however, comes damn close.

I first experienced the pleasure of an Indonesian rijstafel—basically a ten- to fifteen-course meal, depending on where you go and how hungry you are—on my first visit to the ‘Dam. Little bowls of curried vegetables, spicy soy, coconut rice, and a variety of other palate-pleasing concoctions are the name of the rijstafel game, and Tujuh Maret certainly gets the green light to pass Go and collect $200.

Located on Utrechtsestraat near the Get Lucky! Guesthouse, this cozy little resto puts a Minahasa twist on their Tibetan and Indonesian cuisine, punching the already flavorful Indonesian fare up with even more exotic spices and seasonings. The dining area isn’t anything special; in fact, at first we weren’t sure whether we’d picked a winner for this, Trixie’s first rijstafel. Yellow walls are largely barren save for a few native sculptures here and there, though the long, thin lighting fixtures hung from the ceiling helped create a pleasant ambience with the aid of tabletop candles. Our fears soon subsided, however, when our pleasant host arrived with a smile, two glasses of cold water, and clear, concise explanations of our two-person vegetarian feast.

Most rijstafels require a heated stand on the table to keep the food warm as you work your way along the row of tiny dishes, and Tujuh Maret does indeed bring one out. Groupings of four of five dishes were brought in increments, each one seemingly tastier (and spicier) than its predecessors. Everything was amazing, especially this crunchy, soy-based topping that was so delicious we polished it off well before getting a chance to use it as garnish. Rice is, of course, served as well.

Tujuh Maret’s vegetarian rijstafel is reasonably priced at 19,50 euro per person, a bargain considering the chef’s careful attention spent on each dish. There’s no shortage of truly indulgent experiences in the ‘Dam, and feasting on an Indonesian rijstafel is one of the best of all.

For opening hours, reservations, and a full menu, please visit the Tujuh Maret website.