The Vleminckx sauce guide: all 20+ sauces explained
They do not call this shop the Sausmeester for nothing. Two boards hang above the counter: the regular wall and the Belgian wall. Here is every sauce on them, what it tastes like, and how the regulars combine them.
The regular wall
Fries sauce is the lighter Dutch cousin of mayonnaise, and mayonnaise itself is the classic: cold, thick and rich against hot fries. Tomato ketchup and curry ketchup cover the sweet and the spiced. Satay sauce is the warm peanut sauce that Indonesia gave the Dutch kitchen, and the key to the oorlog. Sambal brings real heat. Joppie sauce is the cult favourite nobody can quite describe: yellow, creamy, a little curry, a little onion. Piccalilly adds sharp pickled crunch, apple sauce is the children's classic that adults secretly order too.
The mixes
The specials are double portions with a build: special curry and special ketchup come with mayonnaise and fresh chopped onions on top. And then there is the oorlog mix: mayonnaise, warm satay sauce and onions. One Tripadvisor reviewer summed up the house style: best fries in Amsterdam, but it is the sauce that wins the war.
The Belgian wall
Belgian mayonnaise is denser and yolkier than the Dutch kind. Samurai is the hothead of the wall, spicy and creamy at once. American sauce is silky and savoury, tartar brings herbs and pickle, andalouse is the Belgian bestseller of tomato and pepper. Hannibal, lightly spicy, earned its own review in Het Parool. Cocktail, garlic, mustard, spicy ketchup and barbecue finish the row. Nobody has tasted them all in one visit; the wall is a reason to come back.
How to choose
First visit: mayonnaise, the benchmark. Second: oorlog, the education. Third: joppie, the initiation. After that you are a regular, and regulars just point at the board. Sauce is charged separately, as the sign has said for decades: price not includes saus. See also how to order.