Pub quiz nights in Amsterdam: where to play

Ask a Dutch local about "pubquiz" and, unlike a lot of English terms, you won't get a blank look. It's a genuine loanword here, and plenty of Amsterdammers play in Dutch-language quizzes every week. But an English-language quiz night is still mostly an expat and international thing, built around the city's brewery bars, Irish-style pubs and neighbourhood cafés that have leaned into serving the huge international population rather than just the locals. We looked at both English and Dutch listings to find it, and what follows is what we could actually stand behind after checking each venue's own site.

A quick note before you head out: quiz nights are one of the more fragile fixtures in hospitality. Hosts move on, bars change hands, and a night that ran every week for years can quietly stop without the website ever saying so. We checked each of the following against the venue's own page (or, in one case, cross-referenced a detail against a listings site), but that's a snapshot from publishing day, not a guarantee. Reserve ahead where a venue asks for it, and it's worth a quick call or a look at the bar's Instagram before you commit an evening to a quiz, especially if you're crossing the city for it.

Brouwerij Troost, Westergas

Troost's Westergas location, a big brewery bar in the old gasworks site in Westerpark, runs its English-language pubquiz every Monday at 20:00, finishing around 22:30. Entry is €4.50 a head, teams run from two up to five people, and the format covers general knowledge plus a music round and a picture round. It's a proper brewpub rather than a themed bar, so you can eat and drink your way through the questions rather than just showing up for the quiz itself.

Source: Brouwerij Troost, English Pubquiz Westergas

Brouwerij Troost, De Pijp

Troost's other Amsterdam site, on Cornelis Troostplein in De Pijp, runs the same English-language format on Tuesdays at 20:00 for the same €4.50 entry. It's a separate room with its own regular crowd rather than an overflow from Westergas, so if Monday doesn't suit, Tuesday in De Pijp is a straightforward alternative with an identical setup.

Source: Brouwerij Troost, pubquiz

Gebrouwen door Vrouwen, Oud-West

This small brewer's bar on Jan Pieter Heijestraat runs a dedicated English Pub Quiz on the third Monday of each month, from 20:00 to around 22:30. Entry is €5 per person, which includes a beer-tasting round, and teams are capped at five. It only runs monthly rather than weekly, and the venue's own page notes there can be occasional exceptions to the schedule, so it's worth emailing ahead (bar@gebrouwendoorvrouwen.nl) to register a team and confirm the date is still on.

Source: Gebrouwen door Vrouwen, English Pubquiz Amsterdam

If your own local doesn't run anything like this, it's worth a word with whoever's behind the bar: a quiz night costs a venue almost nothing to try and it's an easy way to fill a quiet weeknight. Or skip the bar altogether and build your own with our free quiz creator, no reservation required.

Café Lust, De Pijp

Café Lust, a neighbourhood eetcafé on Cornelis Trooststraat, runs a pub quiz every Tuesday evening that the venue's own site describes as presented in both English and Dutch, with prizes for the winning team. The venue's page confirms the day and the bilingual format but doesn't list an exact start time or price; a Dutch quiz-listings site puts it at 20:30 for €3.50 to €4.50 a head, so treat those two details as good estimates rather than confirmed, and check with the café directly (info@eetcafelust.nl) if you want it locked down before you go.

Source: Café Lust, pub quiz

House of Watt, Oost

House of Watt, a bar and events space on James Wattstraat, hosts a monthly English-language pub quiz on the last Wednesday of the month, run by an outside quiz outfit called Quizitive. It starts at 19:00 and runs to around 22:00, teams can be up to five people (solo players are welcome too, matched up on the night), and it's explicitly aimed at newcomers, expats and students rather than assuming everyone's a long-time local. The winning team gets €50 off their bill. Both the venue's own site and the organiser's site confirm the details, which gave us more confidence in this one than most.

Source: House of Watt, monthly pubquiz and Quizitive, House of Watt event

Five venues isn't a full map of Amsterdam's quiz scene, and there are Dutch-language nights all over the city we've left out because they're not really built for an English-speaking team. We also looked at a couple of well-known Irish pubs that keep coming up in quiz searches, but couldn't confirm a currently-running night from their own sites or social pages, so we've left them out rather than send you somewhere on the strength of an old listing. If nothing here fits your week, there's no need to wait around for a bar to sort one out: put together your own set of questions with our quiz creator and run a quiz wherever suits you. We've also written a full guide on how to run a great pub quiz if you want help with pacing, round structure and keeping a mixed-nationality room engaged for a couple of hours.