J.D. William’s Whisky Bar

For our birthdays, Hayden and I do our best to escape somewhere new. This year for my sweet 24th, that place was Budapest. I was walking around with my friend while I left Hayden in a dark sports bar – he had 5 beers, 4 shots of palinka, and obviously made friends. Long story short, he met an American who also lives in Amsterdam, AND owns a bar, AND the bar has Asian food! One week later, there we were, at J.D. William’s Whisky Bar.

2024 UPDATE: the bar no longer serves food, but the cocktails and still definitely worth a visit. 

Now, if you’re a whisky lover, chances are you may be familiar with this place. I am not (or so I thought), so I had no idea about it, even though I happen to pass it daily. Turns out, plain whisky may not be for me, but whisky cocktails?! Sign me up!

Hayden told me we don’t need to eat at home, they serve food. I went there expecting…you know, Amsterdam bar food. I left amazed and longing to come back (for Taco Tuesday! will follow up). J.D. William’s Whisky Bar serves some of the best Asian-Fusion style food I have ever had.

After looking at the menu, I needed five minutes to make a decision, but my gut instinct chose Karaage Donburi (thanks, gut instinct). You have to know that I am not a fan of chicken, when there are other choices…however, the fried, crispy chicken in this Japanese dish just made me melt. Perfectly crisp on the outside, tender and soft on the inside. The rest of the dish was carefully put together to complement this main ingredient: rice, egg, red onions, scallions, nori and togarashi (aka 7 spices mix). I enjoyed every single bite of that dish, and still could not finish it – very decent sized portions for the price!

Hayden is always a sucker for home-made gnocchi and he would never say no to a good curry, thus his choice was the Red Curry and Gncochi. Unlike me, he did finish his dish and said the gnocchi go into his top 3 – however, after having what was left of my dish, he gave the Karaage chicken the ultimate trophy.

Alongside with our meals, we both had an Old Fashioned. While a bit strong for me (again, not a whisky girl), the drink was very well made. We both switched to sour cocktails, like Amsterdam Sour and New York Sour. Now, these were just my type (big fan of sour cocktails), and we ended up having more than planned. Oops! Love You Long Time was also a top choice.

All in all, we’ve had an amazing night at J.D. William’s Whisky Bar and we will definitely be back – if an Edamame Falafel Taco sounds to you as good at it sounds to me, head there on a Tuesday, and you can combine three tacos of choice for 12 EUR. I have also heard I need to try the Bourbon Glazed Pork Ribs…well, now, if I have to, guess I will!

Value for money: 8

Food Quality: 9

Location: 9 (Prinsenstraat 5)

Service: 9

Website: http://www.jdwilliamswhiskybar.com/

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