Hello, netters.
In the beginning of June me and a colleague of mine were in Utrecht for business. We ate in many different places, and some of them deserve praises, such as Strawinsky, for example. However, one restaurant was a cut above all restaurants we visited diring this trip.
The restaurant is called Jean d'Hubert and is located on hard for me to pronounce street Vleutenseweg, number 228. It is a relatively small (8-10 tables) restaurant, upscale, but homy. The lighting is somewhat dim, tables are set far enough apart and interior is decorated just right.
Our meal consisted of:
- salmon mousse;
It was a very smooth texture mousse with intense salmon flavor;
- carpaccio from filet of beef with gooseliver;
As I understood, it was mildly corned beef filet rolled with
excellent spicy goose livers and then sliced crosswise;
- broth with various machrooms;
Very distinctive mild flavor vegetarian broth and variety of
wild mushrooms;
- filet of salmon with white dutch asparagus and saffron sauce;
I was kinda suspicious of that because I thought that salmon
does not need _any_ sauce since it has its own good subtle
flavor one does not want to kill with saffron. My opinion
was wrong. The dish turned out to have very nice balance
of flavors, was unisual and very good;
- lamb kabobs + lamb kidneys + filet of lamb in a red whine sauce with
garlic
well, I do not have much to say here. Lamb is lamb everywhere.
Cooked just right, magnificent sauce, effective presentation -
I would have it again any time.
- parfait of cinamon with poppyseeds.
another unisual for me combination. Despite I am not a cinnamon
fan, the taste of this dessert was exceptional.
- wine
we had a bottle of white and a bottle of red. I was stupid enough
not to pay attention to the labels - and now resent it. I wrote the
letter to the owner of the restaurant and hope that (s)he will reply.
The total bill for two was 257 Dutch Guilders = about US $130, not cheap for Utrecht, but it was worth every cent (or guilder). The food itself (without drinks, wine and coffee) was DG 190.00 total or about US$52.00 per person. In Boston at Maison Robert one can easily pay $180 or so for dinner for two. The food would not come even close to what we had.
Conclusion: excellent food, excellent wine, excellent service,
not cheap, but good value.
I will follow up with the wine names when I get it.Netherlands