The Best Bars in Dordrecht: Where to Drink
Every list of the best bars in Dordrecht tells you the same thing about all of them, which is that they are gezellig. That is true and it is useless. The question you are actually asking at seven on a Friday is narrower: do I want to talk, drink well, sit outside, or go out, and what is this going to cost.
So this is seven bars we drink in ourselves, sorted by what the evening is for. Where we have the receipt, the price is what we paid.
The seven best bars in Dordrecht at a glance
| Place | Address | Go for | Music? |
|---|---|---|---|
| L’Archiviste | Groenmarkt 141 | Cocktails, and an evening that means something | Quiet, conversational |
| Het Magazijn | Voorstraat 180 | A good list, and the best kitchen on this page | Yes, and busy |
| Café De Lachende Monnik | Voorstraat 426 | A proper café at the top of the Voorstraat | Yes |
| DOOR | Munt 5 | Actually going out, on the nights it is open | Yes, it is a going-out venue |
| Post | Johan de Wittstraat 128 | The cheapest good round in the centre | Yes |
| Dok Bar & Bites | Spuiboulevard 97E | A terrace, and a full menu on it | Yes |
| Café de Tijd | Voorstraat 170 | Beer list and bitterballen | Barely, and that is the point |
L’Archiviste: the cocktails, behind a bookcase
Groenmarkt 141. The entrance is a door disguised as a bookcase, which sounds like a gimmick and stops mattering about four minutes in. The cocktails are the best in Dordrecht, and the amaretto sour is the one to order. We had four between us in an evening, which is its own kind of review.
There is food, and it is worth ordering. The board with aubergine dip, witlof, comté and fuet cost EUR 16.50 on our visit and is more generous than the menu makes it sound.
This is the one for an evening that is supposed to mean something. It is in our main Dordrecht guide for the same reason.
Het Magazijn: a good list, and a serious kitchen behind it
Voorstraat 180. Het Magazijn is the one on this page where you can start with a drink and end up having one of the best dinners in the city without moving. The drinks list is good and the room is busy in the way you want a Friday to be busy.
What separates it is the kitchen. The bavette and the duck in miso soup are two of the best plates we have eaten in Dordrecht, which is why it sits near the top of the food guide as well as on this one. If the evening might turn into dinner, start here.
Café De Lachende Monnik: the proper café
Voorstraat 426. Up at the far end of the Voorstraat, and the straightforward answer when what you want is a café rather than a concept: a beer, a table, and no one hurrying you along.
It is far enough up the street to sit off the main circuit, which is most of the appeal. If you are working your way along the Voorstraat, this is the end of the walk rather than the start of it.
DOOR: the one where the evening keeps going, when it is open
Munt 5. DOOR is the going-out address rather than the sit-and-talk address. This is where you end up when the plan was one drink and it was not one drink.
Check before you go. This is an occasional venue rather than a bar that opens every evening, and we are not certain of its current status. Treat it as somewhere to look up on the night rather than somewhere to build a plan around, and have Post or Café de Tijd as the fallback.
If it is open and you want to hear the person opposite you, start at L’Archiviste and come here after.
Post: the cheapest good round in the centre, and they play music
Johan de Wittstraat 128. Post is the value answer on this page, and unusually we have the numbers. On our visits: a Corona at EUR 5, a kriek at EUR 5, a tinto de verano at EUR 6.50 and a white russian at EUR 8. Eight euros for a cocktail in a centre-of-town bar is a fair price and was worth writing down at the time.
On the white russian specifically: it is good, and you do taste the sheer quantity of cream, so order it knowing that is what you are getting. The other thing we noted sounds trivial and is not: they play music. Two places on this page differ mainly on that point.
Post is also a serious kitchen. The porchetta is one of the best plates we have eaten in Dordrecht and is covered in the food guide.
Dok Bar & Bites: a terrace, and a full menu to go with it
Spuiboulevard 97E. The name undersells it. Dok is a proper kitchen with a terrace attached, not a bar that happens to do snacks, and you can eat a full meal here rather than something to line your stomach.
The pita with spicy beef at EUR 16.50 is made with ossenhaas and eats like a main course. The nachos are the thing to share, with a good layer on them and a sauce that holds up. Everything from the grill and the kitchen is worth ordering properly rather than picking at.
Then the actual reason to pick it over the others: the terrace. On a warm afternoon this is the best seat in Dordrecht to spend three hours in.
Café de Tijd: the beer list, and the quiet
Voorstraat 170. De Tijd is the beer-list bar, and the combination that surprised us was good beer, genuinely strange and good smoothies, and vegetarian bitterballen that pass for the real thing. That last one is not a small claim and we would repeat it.
One thing to know before you go: when we were there, the music was barely audible. Whether that is a problem depends entirely on why you came. For a long conversation over a good beer it is a feature. For a Friday with a group, Post or DOOR is the better call.
Picking one, in a sentence each
- A date, or a birthday. L’Archiviste, and order the amaretto sour.
- Drinks that might become dinner. Het Magazijn.
- A café, and nothing more complicated. Café De Lachende Monnik.
- You want the night to escalate. DOOR, if it is open that night.
- You are counting. Post. Beers around EUR 5, cocktails around EUR 8.
- The sun is out and you want to eat outside. Dok Bar & Bites.
- You want to actually talk. Café de Tijd, where the quiet is the point rather than an accident.
Why we write down what a round cost
Almost no bar guide carries prices, because prices change and nobody wants to be wrong in public. The result is that every bar in a city reads as equally expensive until you are standing at one holding a receipt.
We log prices per item as we go, so the comparison is possible later: EUR 5 for a beer at Post against EUR 16.50 for a board at L’Archiviste is not a judgement about either place, it is two different evenings with two different budgets. Being able to see that is most of what a personal record gets you that a review site cannot. Our guide to keeping track of restaurants goes into the method, and a wishlist handles the bars you have not got to yet.
Frequently asked questions
Where do you get the best cocktail in Dordrecht?
L’Archiviste at Groenmarkt 141, through the door disguised as a bookcase. The amaretto sour is what to order. For a cheaper round, Post on the Johan de Wittstraat does cocktails around EUR 8, which is a fair centre-of-town price.
What does a night out in Dordrecht cost?
Less than most Randstad cities. On our own visits, Post charged EUR 5 for a Corona or a kriek, EUR 6.50 for a tinto de verano and EUR 8 for a white russian. At the other end, a shared board at L’Archiviste was EUR 16.50 and a pita with ossenhaas at Dok Bar & Bites was EUR 16.50. Those are prices we paid, not menu prices, and they move.
Which bar in Dordrecht is good for a conversation?
Café de Tijd at Voorstraat 170. When we visited the music was barely audible, which makes it the easy pick if you want to hear each other over a good beer, and the wrong pick for a Friday with a group. L’Archiviste is the other quiet option, with cocktails and a higher bill. Café De Lachende Monnik at the top of the Voorstraat is the third.
Where can you sit outside and eat in Dordrecht?
Dok Bar & Bites on the Spuiboulevard. The name undersells it: this is a proper kitchen with a terrace, so you can eat a full meal outside rather than pick at snacks. The pita with spicy beef at EUR 16.50 is made with ossenhaas and eats like a main course, and the nachos are the thing to share.
Where can you drink and eat well in the same place in Dordrecht?
Het Magazijn at Voorstraat 180, Post on the Johan de Wittstraat, and Dok Bar & Bites on the Spuiboulevard. All three have a good drinks list and a kitchen that would justify the trip on its own, so any of them works when the evening might turn into dinner. All three are in our best places to eat in Dordrecht guide or worth it on the food alone.
Why are there no ratings on this page?
Because a bar is not a dish. Everywhere else in these guides we score the individual plate, which is something you can be precise about. What makes an evening out is the room, the volume, the company and what you came out for, and a number flattens all of it. So this page says what each place is good at instead. Prices are the exception, because a price is a fact rather than a verdict.