One of the great joys of the seasons is the variety of food they bring to the table. Strawberries are best in May/June, but the autumn also has its delicious treats; Truffles. Once a year, one restaurant in the small town of Linschoten (Holland) dedicates a whole menu to this one ingredient. By popular demand, for the first time ‘Restaurant De Burgemeester’ had the truffle menu for an entire week, where previous years this was only a weekend.
The restaurant is based in a nice building in the center of a small town. As you drive to the restaurants, you will notice narrow streets and lovely old homes. When you look up the restaurant on for example Tripadvisor, please disregard the photos of the interior as they are not really representative. Although not all of the interior design choices would have gotten my vote, in real life the restaurant does look nice. Seats are comfortable and the tables are nicely spaces. The only thing is that the table next to the “wine cellar” may be a bit chilly from time to time.
On the menu this week, we had a total of five courses plus dessert. Each of the five courses had truffle in it or on top of it. Because of bad growing conditions, there isn’t exactly an abundance of truffle available. The result is that prices have gone up significantly. A waiter told us that the price of white truffle sky-rocketed to almost twice the normal price, where normally this is already thousands of euros per kilo. Even though prices of truffle have gone through the roof this year, the restaurant was all but stingy with both white and black truffle.
The menu starts off with a scallop dish with Jersey yogurt, celeriac and white truffle. Where the delicate flavours of the scallop go really well with the somewhat acidic yogurt and somewhat sweet celeriac, it is easily overpowered by truffle. Moderation is key and you can trust the waiters with that. As said before, they are all but stingy but they also make sure the strong flavours of the truffle isn’t all you can taste. It wasn’t a big dish, but very well executed in terms of flavour. Presentation was also very well done, with the white of the scallop popping out of the pitch black plate it was being served on.
A pretty classic dish was up next; Steak tartar. Served on a nice white plate, the hand-cut beef was not too cold nor too warm and topped with a runny egg yolk. Contrary to the usual way, the egg was fried but runny instead of completely raw or (semi-) cooked. At the table, the waiter shaved some black truffle over the dish. The earthy tones of the truffle are an excellent addition to one of my favourite starters. The steak itself had a nice dressing that brought a nice hint of acidity. In between the meat and the egg was some cepes (porcini mushrooms). The mushrooms did add some nice texture to the dish, where the texture is normally exactly the thing I do not like about them. Although the egg was cold, so not fried immediately before serving, there was absolutely no sign of it drying out or anything. Only the temperature told me it had to be fried earlier. All and all an even better version of what is already a great dish without any truffle.
With the dish that followed I have to apologize for the photo, which isn’t doing the dish justice. The sea bas with salsify, beurre noisette and black truffle was very nice, even though the photo makes it look like it has been eaten before. As was the case with the scallop dish, the ingredients all worked. All delicate flavours really go together and the addition of just the right amount of the black gold sprinkled on top gave it a hint of truffle. Not much to say about this dish, not my favourite of the evening, but really tasty and nicely presented.
Another classic as up next; pasta with cream and white truffle. When the plate was being served, I immediately noticed that the dish looked small. Appearances can be deceptive as the nice glass plate was deeper that it looked at first glance. Pasta was well-cooked as you would expect and its flavours showed why this is such a classic dish. Nothing fancy (apart from the white truffle of course), just a few ingredients put together in the right way and you will finish the dish for sure.
Final course of the official ‘truffle menu’ was a bistecca with potato, purslane and black truffle. As I had never heard of bistecca, I was really curious to see what it was. Turns out to be a kind of steak and basically prime rib. For this course a little ‘show’ was put on, which was nice. The meat was brought in while it was cooking on a sizzling hot stone. The dish was plated up at the table, where the waiters handled the meat with tweezers and once again shaved just enough truffle over the dish. Not only the meat was perfectly cooked and absolutely juicy, tender and delicious, but also the potato was very nice. By now I was pretty full, so not sure I could have eaten more potatoes, but I would have loved to try. Let’s not forget, there should always be room for dessert, even when not part of the menu.
Before I go home, let’s have dessert. Chocolate, blue berry, walnut and liquorice. What a pretty picture to close off the evening. What looks like a walnut shell, really is a walnut flavoured mousse. Not sweet at all, just right. Reason for this being not too sweet could very well be that the golden “walnuts” are actually marzipan. With this being almost 50% sugar, it would put the balance of the dish off if the rest were too sweet. The liquorice ice cream had a very delicate flavour that fell away a little when eating it after some of the chocolate ganache. The blue berry-filled chocolate ganache was very nice. The richness of the chocolate and the slightly acidic berry filling were a match made in heaven. This I easily could have eaten more of. Forget about the (delicious) walnut mousse and liquorice ice cream, next time I will ask for more of the berry-filled ganache.
As is the case with most other restaurants that have a set menu, this restaurant offers a wine pairing with the meal. For those who don’t drink wine, it would be nice if the restaurant offers a non-alcoholic beverage pairing. When I was there, I did ask the waiter for a drink that goes well with each dish. At approx. EUR 13 per course, it is rather expensive but I cannot blame the restaurant for it as I never asked for the price. Although not designed to go with dishes as was the case some time ago at HKK in London (now permanently closed), they did make an effort to find something nice.
To summarize, the restaurant serves excellent food with nice drinks. The staff is very friendly and they work in a relaxed but classy environment. During the truffle week, you’ll spend approx. EUR 120 excluding drinks but including dessert. Where this may sound like a lot of money (which it is), you will get a really special treat. Not only is that in terms of exclusive ingredients being used, but also the preparation, presentation and service is op notch. Outside truffle week, you are likely to spend a little less, as the menu excl. drinks is approx. EUR 65-80 for the same amount of courses. It is well worth it and I would send anyone to this restaurant. The only downside to this restaurant could be that it isn’t really close to any large city and public transport is really not an option. If you do not have the possession of a car, going by taxi from the nearest station may be worth considering.
Restaurant location: View on Google Maps
Restaurant website: http://www.deburgemeester.nl