Telephone: 00 31 10 436 07 66
fax: 00 31 10 436 71 40
Last visited August 2004
Park Heuvel is in a modern
building with a partial view of the harbour.
Amuse guele consisted of toasted bread with ham, fine strips of pastry
with herbs, sticks of cucumber and some assorted nuts (6/10 really for the
amuse guele). Bread was either white or
brown sourdough, and was very pleasant (7/10).
The next amuse guele showed the first signs of real class, a delicate
gelee of pike and prawns that had superb texture and flavour (10/10). Stella had tempura of prawns with a spicy
sesame biscuit along with a canteloupe melon, a curry sauce and a drizzle of
balsamic. The prawns were dazzling and
the tempura like gossamer (10/10). I had
sardines with tuna puree, served with a salad of herbs with parsley oil. This was very nice (7/10) but was not in the
same league as the tempura.
For main course I had stunning
langoustines and a large, plump scallop of perfect freshness, served with a
lemon bouillon (10/10). Stella had
superb sole fillet topped with wild mushrooms, bak choi and both a hollandaise
and a separate pesto sauce (10/10).
Cheese was in good condition; I tried Epoisses, Reblochon, Camembert,
Comte and a goat cheese (8/10). A
dessert of crepes with orange soufflé and orange compote was excellent (9/10),
as was a lemon “tart” that was really a meringue pie with yoghurt ice cream and
lemon rind (9/10). Petit fours consisted
of an almond tuile (7/10), a lovely shortbread (10/10), a coconut puff (8/10),
a mini chocolate tart (8/10), a coffee truffle (10/10) and a chocolate fondant
with sponge topped with coffee beans (10/10).
Overall a really fine
restaurant, in a totally different league from the Librijie.
Telephone: 00 31 38 421 20 83
Fax: 00 31 38 423 23 29
Last visited August 2004
Stella started with a wing of
skate served with a little puree of smoked eel, and a small amount of
cauliflower and mango. I am unconvinced as to why this flavour combination was
supposed to be appealing, and it was cooked well enough but still only
5/10. I had fillet of turbot with an
excellent morel jus, served with a few baby morels and creamy mashed potatoes
and a superfluous twirl of crisp potato (7/10).
For main course I had roebuck, served as pieces of meat attached to
ribs, plus a shoulder of deer that was minced and wrapped with pasta. On the side were slices of beetroot steeped
in alcohol and some cold turnip that did nothing in my view (5/10). Stella had turbot with cockles and green
beans, with a ravioli of crab meat and a salad of
leaves, herbs and joujons of turbot. The fish was served with a sauce that
supposedly had lemongrass, curry and ginger, but only the lemongrass was
apparent. Pleasant enough 5/10.
Cheese was mostly French with
a couple of aged Dutch cheeses.
Unfortunately it was served straight from a fridge (“as it is a hot
night”) which stifled the flavour badly, though the Muster, Epoisses, Camembert
and Reblochon were all in good condition (5/10). For dessert Stella had soufflé of quark
(cheese) with peach compote and a lavender ice cream that was bizarrely green
in colour. I had soufflé of lime leaf
with ginger cream and a vanilla ice cream.
Neither soufflé had very good texture, and 5/10
is the best I can score these. Petit
fours consisted of a choux bun filled with lemon cream topped with coconut, an
almond macaroon, a chocolate truffle on a stick and a white chocolate truffle
(8/10). Coffee was excellent (8/10)
served with an “after eight” style chocolate with peppermint filling, and a
coffee mousee topped with a coffee gelee.
Overall, this is really a 1
star place to which someone has incomprehensibly given three stars. At EUR 344 for two it is not cheap for a 1
star place. We had Chateau Musar 1995 from the good wine list, which went from some
fair prices to some vast mark-ups in places.
In Belgium, there is Bruneau, which no longer has 3 stars (and based on my visit
there 2 stars is a fairer assessment), a very capable place called Karmeliet in Bruges with consistent food and an excellent
cheese board, and the very good Comme Chez Soi in Brussels.
Comme Chez
Soi
This is a long established
place with a cramped but pretty Belle Epoque dining
room, serving just 36 covers. A starter
of two different terrines, one goose liver and one duck liver,
was simple yet succeeded. The texture of
both was silky, with the duck liver terrine in
particular have stunning depth of flavour, with a few capers lurking in the
terrine to add a little bite. Stella’s
lobster salad was also superb (10/10).
My fillet of beef with truffles was cooked carefully, the black truffle
slices adding an extra flavour to the good quality beef, which was served with
a few potatoes, a pool of the cooking juices and some excellent flageolet beans
on the side (8/10). Cheese was in
excellent condition, and had a couple of Belgian cheeses as well as the usual
French ones such as a perfect Brie de Meaux. A chocolate soufflé was stunning both in
taste and lightness, though the addition of a few slices of pear at the bottom
of the soufflé dish seemed unnecessary.
Coffee and nibbles were also excellent.
A very solid 3 star place.
Service was attentive.
Last visited January 2005.