De Kas

Amsterdam, June 15, 2009—

EIGHT OR NINE YEARS ago we dined in a new restaurant handsomely installed in a huge greenhouse, the reconstructiion of a 19th-century facility formerly uaed by the city of Amsterdam but long since abandoned to the inevitable weeds and rubble of urban decay over the years.

De Kas (Dutch for "the greenhouse") was a fresh and exciting concept, featuring a table d'hôte menu drawn from what was available, with lots of emphasis on vegetables and herbs grown on the premises. It reminded me of Chez Panisse, of course, though it had the advantage of an on-site garden. If you get there in daylight (not hard to do in the Dutch summer!) you can stroll among the herbs and vegetables and visit the greenhouse with its tomatoes, peppers, and basil, before sitting at table in a large, comfortable dining room also installed in a greenhouse.
On this visit, though, while the garden concept was faithful and the ingredients true, the kitchen's execution seemed to be on automatic pilot, and some of the courses erratic. We began, for example, with mackerel with stuffed squash blossoms and strongly flavored cheese crisps, flavors that didn't integrate well. We went on to a nice variation of the traditional Dutch asperges recipe, with the white asparagus hidden beneath too much celery-root remoulade and big scraps of tasty lamb ham, in a presentation that seemed to have had handfuls of nasturtiums and violas thrown at it. Then we returned to fish: poached hake with tomato, too much basil, fennel slices, olives, scattered little white blossoms of some kind, and a piping of pesto trailing through it all.
There were three cheeses, and again they didn't seem calculated to complement one anoher: a mild Edam type, a creamy Gorgonzola served in spoons, and a delicious Remeker — I've looked all over the Netherlands for that cheese, and finally found it at De Kas.
Dessert was a soft vanilla ice cream, strawberries in syrup with rose petals, and appel gebak — "Dutch apple pie," I suppose, a pastry ubiquitous in this country, and often very good indeed. And then came a plate of sweets with the check: lemon-grapefruit gelées, nougat, and canalés, of all things. So much of this was so good; so little of it seemed calculated to combine. Chef's night off, perhaps.

Moët et Chandon; Riesling (Alsace); Meursault: Clos des Meix Chavaux, 2006

De Kas, Kamerlingh Onneslaan 3, Amsterdam; tel. +31 (0)20 462 45 62