A quick dinner at Bridges, Amsterdam

                                                    About ten years ago this former City Hall and iconic Amsterdam building, which is located in one of the oldest parts of the city's historic centre and bordering the infamous Red Light District, was transformed into hotel The Grand. The world famous Roux brothers were hired to set up the brasserie. Their dishes were, as you would expect from a French brasserie, quite rich and old school-ish . A couple of months ago The Grand finished the latest renovations and fortunately the brasserie has gone and made way to a new, may we say more 'hip', loungy restaurant. Although the lounge-concept has been around for as many as ten or fifteen years, it's still a major  improvement.

The food of Bridges restaurant can best be described as modernized brasserie food. After our amuse of Dutch herring (above) we were served a tartare of Yellowfin tuna with pont neuf potatoes. When there are only two or three components on your plate, you want them to be perfect and well they were not. The pont neuf potatoes were a bit soggy and the tartare very chunky, which made this main course a bit of a chewy situation. Hard to digest, especially since this dish will set you back € 26. Our wine to go with our main course was a Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand. Forgot the name of the wine farm but it was a smooth, dry and flavorsome wine. The desserts fortunately made up for former mistakes. The chocolate fondant was cooked to perfection and the (melted) champagne sorbet had a subtle taste. Loved the little chocolate tree! The raspberry dessert, with white chocolate ice cream and meringue had a nice crunch and was a nice and refreshing end to this dinner. All in all we felt that they might need some more time to get into their groove. The service was good though and the friendly waiters took good care of us. We applaud The Grand's glamourous makeover and though the food wasn't quite there yet, we certainly will be back because every one deserves a second chance.

Bridges Restaurant at The Grand,
Oudezijds Voorburgwal 197, Amsterdam.
www.bridgesrestaurant.nl

Van Vlaanderen, Amsterdam

We went for lunch at restaurant Van Vlaanderen, located near the iconic Heineken beer brewery. This restaurant used to have one Michelin star but lost it a couple of years ago due to inconsistent quality of the food and service. I haven't been here for years, although I loved their food. Let's just say that the service wasn't always up to par, especially when one of the owners was managing the front of the house. So I was happy to hear that Van Vlaanderen changed owners. The newbies opened their doors just 4 days ago. The terrace at the back, overlooking the Lijnbaansgracht, has been enlarged and fits 4 tables now. We decided for the lunch menu and our wine was a New Zealand Pinot Noir from Marlborough, which was bursting of flavor and a perfect companion for our dishes. The sun was shining, the food was great, the service impeccable and the bill very reasonable. And the best thing is that Van Vlaanderen is only a stiff 4 minute walk from our house. We'll be back for more....Our amuse was a steamed egg, garnished with fresh truffle, foam of Parmesan cheese en crispy potato crumble. The flavors came together wonderfully and the potato crumble was a nice and unexpected touch.


The starter was wilde sea bass with pata negra, tomato coulis, zucchini and truffle vinaigrette. The combination of the pata negra and the bass was good, though it would have been even better if the ham would have been crisped up a tad. The presentation of this dish was pure and sophisticated.

Our main was entrecote of Irish beef, tender pork belly, shii take mushrooms, caramelized onions and a red wine sauce. This was a good dish and especially the pork belly was succulent and packed with flavour.


Restaurant Van Vlaanderen, Weteringschans 175, 020-6228292.

Hakata Senpachi, Amsterdam

This Japanese yakitori restaurant is still a reasonably undiscovered little gem in Amsterdam. Located in a residential area, it is virtual invisible for passersby since it totally blends into the dark brown brick apartment blocks. The decor somehow has this seventies dark saloon-like aura. But when the very friendly staff starts serving their amazing yakitori dishes -involving every part of the chicken, from the innards to the delicious skin- you quickly forget about the gloomy decor. It can be quite busy with groups of Japanese business people but i guess in this case that's a good thing. My favorites are the grilled chicken skin skewers and the grilled chicken wings!

Hakata Senpachi, Wielingenstraat 16H, Amsterdam, +31 (0)20-6625823.

Hutong restaurant, Hong Kong

This Aqua chain restaurant has some spectacular views of the famous Hong Kong skyline and serves some of the most amazing (Northern) Chinese dishes. The obscure decor is equally stunning and cleverly done, so the emphasis is on the food and the views. Some of the dishes we had were 'Drunken crab', razor clams with ginger and spring onions and two of their signature dishes, 'Red Lantern' crispy soft shell crab with Sechuan red pepper and crispy, boneless duck, which both were outstanding! .

Jean-Georges, New York

On our last day in New York, we decided to have dinner at Jean-Georges. One of the first cookbooks I bought was one from this French chef. I don't remember the title of his book but what I do remember was the fact that he was one of the first "fusion" chefs in the fine dining scene worldwide. The food we had that night was very sophisticated without being too pretentious and the presentation of the dishes was quite simple. All dishes were bursting of flavor and very well executed but my favorite of the night was his signature dish of scallops with caramelized cauliflower and a caper and raisin sauce (above). The combination of flavors was amazing!

www.jean-georges.com