Destinations » 

Going Dutch

Published: 27/04/2009 - Filed under: Archive » 2009 » May 2009 » Destinations » Features » Features » Destinations » Features » Destinations » Europe »

• Print
• Send

Whether you want a cosy spot to entertain a client or a fun venue for a team-building event, Amsterdam’s eateries have much to offer, says Sara Turner.

Hotel Okura

Japanese-owned Hotel Okura is one of the leading lights of the Amsterdam restaurant scene, home to three of the city’s four Michelin stars. Ciel Bleu, under avant-garde head chef Onno Kokmeijer, takes an idiosyncratic approach to French cuisine, while Yamazato, led by traditionalist Akira Oshima, serves Japan’s haute cuisine kaiseki ryori.

A good option for groups is the seven-course taster menu (€125) at Ciel Bleu, which includes poached Royal Cabanon oyster with oyster sabayon and Perlé caviar; and grilled scallop with citrus risotto, Cecina ham and saffron nage with fruits de mer en escabéche, avocado cream and a cloud of lime leaf. The charming master sommelier can choose wine to complement each course perfectly. For more intimate meetings with a twist, there is a chef’s table in the kitchen for up to nine people, where you can watch the masters at work.

A great place to entertain clients is Hotel Okura’s cocktail bar, Twenty Third, on the 23rd floor, which provides a breathtaking view of the city. With a sleek and stylish interior and friendly bar staff, one could happily attempt, and fail, to sample the 60 different cocktails on offer. The hotel also has two other restaurants – Teppanyaki Restaurant Sazanka, where chefs prepare Japanese-style food on a hot griddle right before your eyes; and Le Camelia Brasserie, serving international cuisine.

The hotel has recently announced plans to set up a cooking academy for guests to learn about the secrets behind Japanese and Western gastronomy – a fun activity for incentive groups when it’s up and running later this year.

Ferdinand Bolstraat 333; tel +31 206 787 111; okura.nl

Die Port van Cleve

In the heart of Amsterdam and within a stone’s throw of the Dam Square, Die Port van Cleve hotel is on the site of the Heineken family’s first brewery, which dated back to 1864. To one side of the entrance is the Brasserie de Poort, serving traditional Dutch cuisine such as potato-apple mash with smoked sausage and gravy, or Granny’s stew of braised beef with potato-cauliflower mash (both €17.50).

Each steak that Brasserie de Poort serves is given its own unique number, a permanent record of the amount of steaks served here since 1870 – currently it is approaching seven million. It also serves Heineken by the gallon. The restaurant can seat 120 people.

Across the lobby, and with its own street entrance, Bar-Bodega De Blauwe Parade (the Blue Parade Bar) has a cosy atmosphere ideal for quiet meetings with clients, with dimmed lights and dark wooden panels. The bar is named after a series of tiles around the room that show a train of young children, painted in the distinctive white and blue of the historic Delftware pottery.

Tasting sessions are available for small groups to try out the different types of Holland’s juniper-flavoured (and highly alcoholic) traditional tipple, jenever – the sweet bruidstranen (bridal tears), made by van Wees brewery in Amsterdam, goes down particularly smoothly.

Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 176-180; tel +31 207 189 013; dieportvancleve.com

The Dylan

Canal-side boutique hotel the Dylan is a discreet venue with plenty of corners for informal lunches and picture-perfect banquets. It’s situated in an area in the centre of the city known as the Nine Streets, where small bead-and-button shops nestle next to Amsterdam’s trademark brown cafes, the traditional pub-meets-café drinking spots.

The property has a colourful past dating back to 1612, first as a theatre and then as the headquarters of a Catholic charity for poor people, which baked bread to feed the underprivileged. The Dylan combines modern features with a strong sense of history – the lounge, for example, features contemporary low leather seating alongside a dark marble fireplace and ornate gilt frame.

The Vinkeles restaurant, which seats 48, is housed in the old bakery, with the 18th-century bread ovens still intact. At lunchtime the restaurant serves a lighter menu – highlights include comforting and creamy chicory soup with truffle and roasted scallops (€12.50) and the scrumptious sautéed duck leg with French bean salad and cumin vinaigrette (€14.50).

A member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World, the property has four rooms that would be good for private dining. The charming and intimate Josephine is painted in a vivid turquoise blue and can seat up to eight people for a meal. The funky Ariana room, seating up to 80, features an undulating wall of ripples that spread out from a central point and can be lit in any colour. The grand Regent’s room, furnished with a dark wooden table, can accommodate up to 30 people.

Keizersgracht 384; tel +31 205 302 010; dylanamsterdam.com

De Kersentuin at Bilderberg Garden Hotel

The recently renovated Bilderberg Garden Hotel was built in the 1970s as an extension to the Hilton hotel next door, but is now run by Dutch hotel group Bilderberg. While the exterior is a little concrete-centric, its restaurant, De Kersentuin (meaning “the cherry orchard”), is charming, with a Spanish tiled floor inside and a sheltered outdoor terrace.

Situated in the affluent Amsterdam South district, De Kersentuin has been a mainstay on the popular restaurants list for years – the original seventies-style bench seating is still in situ. The best table in the house, seating up to six, is right next to a large window facing the kitchen, so guests can watch their food being prepared by the young head chef, Marcel de Leeuw.

De Leeuw, a member of the Dutch National Team of Chefs, is passionate about food and careful about his sources. He runs a traditional French kitchen using locally sourced and organic ingredients where possible. On the menu is Dutch venison filet wrapped in portobello mushroom with a terrine of confited shallots, potato and Dutch bacon, served with chicory filled with goat’s cheese, honey, nuts and Jamaican piment sauce (€29.50), or de Leeuw’s signature dish, carpaccio of spiny lobster with an oxtail and sherry jelly, topped with flaked winter truffle and mature cheese (€19.50).

Dijsselhofplantsoen 7; tel +31 205 705 600; bilderberggardenhotel.com

Westergas Terras

If you have clients to impress, try the informal bar and restaurant Westergas Terras, one of the hippest new venues in Amsterdam. Located to the west of the centre in the ex-industrial Westerpark area, the building was saved from demolition and renovated before opening last year.

Within a recently redeveloped complex in a disused gas factory, the bar and restaurant are housed in the old transformer hall and buildings. This eatery suits Dutch easy living and in the summer, diners and drinkers spread out onto the waterside terrace.

With a parquet floor, old wooden tables and a few leather armchairs dotted around, in the daytime Westergas Terras exudes a relaxing vibe. Come night-time, however, the tempo rises and the venue often expands into the huge transformer hall next door, the smaller chapel-like Wester Liefde (Wester Love) and the starkly industrial Wester Unie (Wester Union) upstairs, all of which can be hired for private events.

The simple menu includes a cheese platter with three types of cheese (€9.50), bread and chutney, and organic zucchini and potato soup with Bleu d’Auvergne (€5.50), and finger foods such as fresh bread with aubergine mousse, aioli and extra virgin olive oil (€4.50). The bar serves the requisite locally brewed Heineken, as well as other draught and bottled beers, fine wines and spirits.

Klonneplein 4-6; tel +31 206 848 496; westergasterras.nl

De Odessa

If you’re after a more unusual venue, try the ship restaurant De Odessa – for a city that lives on the water, there are few better places to dine. As the story goes, the boat was sailed by a crew of Ukrainian students all the way from Odessa, hence the name. It was then discovered abandoned and the restaurant’s founders rebuilt it, adding a section to make it longer – a scrapbook of the whole process is kept behind the bar.

The boat is moored on a wide stretch of canal to the east of the city centre in the up-and-coming Eastern Docklands area. Below deck is cosy and intimate, with plush red booths and wooden tables. In the winter months the top deck is covered, but in the warmer summer months it is open to the sky. There’s also an indoor and outdoor bar area. The boat can take up to 250 people and can be hired, in part or as a whole, for private events.

The eatery serves French cuisine with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern influences, at reasonable prices. On offer are pan-fried scallops with pickled shiitake mushrooms, crispy pancetta and frothy sauce of green peas (€12.50), which is delicious, and saddle of suckling pig with a ratatouille of courgette, aubergine, scorzonera and sweet potato with star anise and cinnamon gravy (€23).

Veemkade 259; tel +31 204 193 010; de-odessa.nl

De Kookfabriek

For a more hands-on experience, De Kookfabriek lets you do the cooking. It’s a great team-building activity with the added bonus of some excellent food (if you’re a reasonable chef) and the chance to try out new recipes.

Workshops, for up to 240 people, last for four hours – 11am-3pm for lunch or 6pm-10.30pm for dinner – and start with a welcome drink in the boardroom before participants head downstairs to the 1,200 sqm production hall – a vast culinary warehouse with rows of fully stocked kitchens and dining tables. Each cooking island has a table to eat at, so guests can nip between eating and creating with ease.

Next, the food is prepared. A step-by-step guide for each recipe is shown on an LCD screen in front of the cooking islands. Each table of ten people is split into five pairs who take on a single task – amuse bouche, starter, main course, side plate or dessert. When ready, all ten sit down to eat, with each pair putting the finishing touches to their own dish at the last minute, before presenting it to the rest of the table.

The spring menu diners are preparing at the moment consists of tomato and green herb jelly lollipop, followed by homemade roll of river trout with a fresh salad of spring onion, sugar peas and radish, then fried breast of duck with a syrup of cumin and beets served with gnocchi and fried parsnip, finished with a mandarin orange soufflé with mandarin de Napoleon syllabub. The menu will change next month, but if you decide to hire the entire venue you can create your own. Sessions cost from €65 per person.

De Flinesstraat 2-4; tel +31 204 635 635; kookfabriek.nl

Visit holland.com for more information.

Read more about...

• Amsterdam

Bookmark with:

ADD A COMMENT »