Went on a Friday night, 7 course dinner. We arrived at a beautiful villa and were greeted right as you step out of the car. You are first guided to the salon for an aperitive (100% chardonnay grand cru champagne) accompanied by a couple of bites. Well made and kind service.
Near the end, the sommelier comes to discuss the desired for wine. The hostess asks if you are interested in an additional course with caviar.
Are one point, everyone present in the salon is invited to go into the kitchen and have a final amuse, based on the local produce Zeeland is famous for. (Potatoes and onion). Jeroen Achttien took his time to welcome us, explain his vision and show us around the kitchen, especially touching on his dry aged sea bass. (Extremely delicious as it turns out)
You are then taken to your table, which are cosy, private round tables with view on the garden. Very relaxing atmosphere.
The dinner starts with some shellfish, of which the fried shrimp she'll was a great crispy addition to the meal. Seaweed was a melange of local seaweeds from the waters. A nice fresh wine was served alongside.
Next was a dish with beetroot and duckliver. Accompanied by a gewurztraminer from the Elzas, a tasty dish with strong flavors.
The langoustine dish came next, split into a warm dish and a cold one, in an icecone style presentation. Smooth and balanced flavours.
The sea bass dish was by far our favourite. With a buckwheat sauce, white asparagus and buttersmooth sea bass, this was a great dish. A South African buttery chardonnay accompanied the dish, with nice smoothness and finesse. The wine a bit 'saline' which was very fitting.
To transition from fish to meat, you are offered a refreshment in the form of a Thai basil sorbet with the basil seeds cooked in passion fruit as a topping. Very nice.
To get you warmed up for the main course, a small piece of stewd deerneck was provided. Tasty again.
The main course was slightly disappointing for us. The dear was cooked great, the flavours were good, but the 'cohesion' was less and the balance and finesse from before went a bit out of the window. Still tasty, just out of the 'trend'. Delicious Austrian pinot noir paired great though.
Desert number one is the chef's signature. Frisian sugarbread, with banana and frozen blue cheese gratin. A blueberry crisp on top. Great balance, nice flavour layering, nice presentation. Paired with a delicious not to sweet sauternes.
We went for additional cheese, had a selection of goat, soft cheese, red culture, hard cow, blue culture cheese. Very nice selection, paired with an strengthened wine from Belgium. Nice surprise there!
Final desert was a free representation of crêpe Suzette. Coupled with blood oranges, great tastes. The wine paired was a auslese riesling, which added a nice tone of freshness.
After the dinner, we were guided back to the salon to enjoy a coffee and some delicious pastries (Friandises). No pictures, but chose a small Paris Brest, macaron, chocolate with seaweed and another chocolate.
All in all, a very nice experience. There is no 'firework' with smoke, nitrogen or whatever, but everything revolves on elegance, textures, mouthfeel and balance. They succeeded in this.
At this point in time, they have no stars, since the previous owner quit. Price might be a bit on the high side, but it's been some time since our previous fine dining experience, due to pregnancy etc, so not really aware of prices at this moment.
In the end we did feel like we spent our money well. Would recommend.
by Aggressive_Sky1676