Coffee and Jazz

Offering spicy Indonesian food with a mellow soundtrack, Coffee and Jazz, a small café and restaurant on Utrechtsestraat, is a dining establishment with character.

Opened a decade ago by eccentric Dutchman Rene Volker, Coffee and Jazz combines the owner’s three passions: good coffee, Indonesian food and jazz music. His wife Peggy, who is Indonesian, runs the kitchen; while Volker, originally trained as a graphic designer and still displaying the slightly dishevelled look of a creative, waits tables. He is liable to strike up conversations with his guests, and is regularly described on Dutch dining sites as a 'rare snijboon', a lovely expression that literally translates as 'a strange string bean’.

Volker's eccentricity doesn't seem to put too many people off, however (although the chatting does tend to slow down the service), and a loyal base of customers keeps coming back for the excellent satay ayam - grilled strips of chicken on skewers served with a peanut sauce - as well as the soto soup and fruit shakes.

Coffee and Jazz is small and narrow, with room for only a handful of tables, so it's advisable to book in advance to avoid disappointment.