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I never did finish writing up the holiday in Amsterdam, and now it’s been long enough that I don’t think I’m going to, but here are some quick notes on the places we ate there.
Rijks
We had the tasting menu here as my birthday treat. It was thoroughly enjoyable, and very affordable for somewhere with a michelin star, but nothing really outstanding. My favorite course was the playful “Tribute to the Dutch Bean”, a small tarte with 30 different legume varieties, including a gloriously crisp pastry made from gram flour.
Kantjil (link has autoplaying video)
I had read that one shouldn’t go to Amsterdam without sampling a Rijsttafels (Rice Table), and Kantjil was recommended as one of the best. I’m always a fan of meals that are lots of different little things to try, so it was enjoyable on that basis, but none of the dishes really blew me away. I did have a particularly nice blossoming tea to drink though, which reminded me how much I like them, and inspired Ramesh to get me some as a gift after we got home.
Jakobsz
This was one of the restaurants we tried to go to on the Monday evening but couldn’t get a table at, so I was expecting it to be pretty decent. Oh boy, was I wrong.
The services was intolerably slow - we were waiting for a good five minutes before they even brought us a menu, and it didn’t speed up. The menu was short - a choice of three dishes for each course - which again, is something I usually consider a good sign, as it means the can concentrate on getting the few dishes they have right. But no.
I had chargrilled white asparagus which had it’s lovely delicate flavour drowned in far-too-much far-too-vinegary dressing, distinctly unfresh mushy wolffish, and a main course which managed to be the best course of the savoury courses simply by being so forgettable I’m not sure what it was. The pudding was a perfectly acceptable concoction of berries and meringue, but still had nothing to excite. It remains a mystery to me how such a restaurant is still in business, let alone packed to the gills on a Monday evening.
Restaurant de Kas
This was the other restaurant that we couldn’t get a table at on Monday. In fact, we weren’t able to book a dinner table for the entire week, but we managed to find one at lunch. Surely that would mean somewhere actually good? But after the previous night’s failure I was a bit nervous.
Fortunately my nerves were entirely unnecessary, and this turned out to trump Rijks as the culinary highlight of the trip. The restaurant is situated in a large greenhouse, which meant beautiful light, despite the less than clement weather. The waiter was charmingly but unobtrusively flirtatious, and had that perfect timing that all the best waiters do, where he arrived at the table just at the moment you were about to try and get his attention.
The conceit of the food was that well, we were in a greenhouse, much of which was given over to growing food, and the majority of what made it onto our plates had not-so-much food-miles, as food-metres. It was simple food, cooked lightly or not at all, and every mouthful was a delight. The tomato salad stands out particularly in my memory, especially as after we finished eating they let me run around the growing bits of the greenhouse identifying the exciting varieties of tomato included. Highly recommended.
Rijks
We had the tasting menu here as my birthday treat. It was thoroughly enjoyable, and very affordable for somewhere with a michelin star, but nothing really outstanding. My favorite course was the playful “Tribute to the Dutch Bean”, a small tarte with 30 different legume varieties, including a gloriously crisp pastry made from gram flour.
Kantjil (link has autoplaying video)
I had read that one shouldn’t go to Amsterdam without sampling a Rijsttafels (Rice Table), and Kantjil was recommended as one of the best. I’m always a fan of meals that are lots of different little things to try, so it was enjoyable on that basis, but none of the dishes really blew me away. I did have a particularly nice blossoming tea to drink though, which reminded me how much I like them, and inspired Ramesh to get me some as a gift after we got home.
Jakobsz
This was one of the restaurants we tried to go to on the Monday evening but couldn’t get a table at, so I was expecting it to be pretty decent. Oh boy, was I wrong.
The services was intolerably slow - we were waiting for a good five minutes before they even brought us a menu, and it didn’t speed up. The menu was short - a choice of three dishes for each course - which again, is something I usually consider a good sign, as it means the can concentrate on getting the few dishes they have right. But no.
I had chargrilled white asparagus which had it’s lovely delicate flavour drowned in far-too-much far-too-vinegary dressing, distinctly unfresh mushy wolffish, and a main course which managed to be the best course of the savoury courses simply by being so forgettable I’m not sure what it was. The pudding was a perfectly acceptable concoction of berries and meringue, but still had nothing to excite. It remains a mystery to me how such a restaurant is still in business, let alone packed to the gills on a Monday evening.
Restaurant de Kas
This was the other restaurant that we couldn’t get a table at on Monday. In fact, we weren’t able to book a dinner table for the entire week, but we managed to find one at lunch. Surely that would mean somewhere actually good? But after the previous night’s failure I was a bit nervous.
Fortunately my nerves were entirely unnecessary, and this turned out to trump Rijks as the culinary highlight of the trip. The restaurant is situated in a large greenhouse, which meant beautiful light, despite the less than clement weather. The waiter was charmingly but unobtrusively flirtatious, and had that perfect timing that all the best waiters do, where he arrived at the table just at the moment you were about to try and get his attention.
The conceit of the food was that well, we were in a greenhouse, much of which was given over to growing food, and the majority of what made it onto our plates had not-so-much food-miles, as food-metres. It was simple food, cooked lightly or not at all, and every mouthful was a delight. The tomato salad stands out particularly in my memory, especially as after we finished eating they let me run around the growing bits of the greenhouse identifying the exciting varieties of tomato included. Highly recommended.
