The greater Amsterdam area is full of decent and good restaurants. Some with experienced and slightly older chefs, but some with younger talented chefs. Examples are The White Room, but definitely also Restaurant Jaimie van Heije. The latter is located in Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, a small village right next to Amsterdam.
The restaurant looks deceptively small, but once inside it turns out to have plenty of room. Because of some interior walls, you will feel like you’re in a cosy and small place. Walls are decorated with art; A pike with a hat was on the wall in front of me. Nice but not something I would hang up at home.
For dinner the choice was the set menu, where we only needed to choose between 5, 6 or 7 courses. We opted for the 5-course menu, which started with a sushi-like cone of (what I assume is) nori with diced salmon and wasabi. The only thing missing was the rice ;-). Where I normally avoid salmon, this really was delicious. The herbal cream on top really complemented the salmon in a way and the wasabi gave it some nice heat. It was presented beautifully in some nice black “sand”.
Following this excellent amuse was smoked trout. As was the case with the amuse, was beautifully presented and included yoghurt, horseradish, herbs from the restaurant’s garden and Indian cress (nasturium ). The dish looks really simple, with a ‘sashimi’ of smoked trout in a thin layer of yoghurt. Around it was a sauce/dressing of herbs and it was all topped of with the Indian cress. The fish was delicious; meaty yet tender and eatable with a spoon, no knife needed. It had just enough smokiness and combined with the slight acidity of the yogurt as well as the sharpness of a tiny bit of horseradish was excellent. A little crunch would have been nice, but even without the dish was very good.
Where steak tartar is a pretty classic dish, many make an attempt to modernize it with varying success. When the waiter explained what the dish was, I have to admit that I had my doubts about this one. Boy, was I wrong…. The beef was cut by hand and really fine without it becoming a paste and excellent in temperature (I hate very cold tartar). It was served with baby carrots cooked in passion fruit juice. This is the part that made me doubt, as carrots are already a bit sweet and I was expecting the passion fruit to make it too sweet. Well, it did make it a bit more sweet, but not to the point where you feel like it is a dessert. It was a minimal amount, yet the carrots did pick up the passion fruit flavor. An unusual but really nice combination and it did deliver a flavorsome crunch to the tartar.
Whenever I prepare chicken at home, it does (remotely) taste like chicken but the flavors are nowhere near as intense as in some good restaurants. Best chicken I have ever has so far was at Angelina in Paris. The chicken served here at Jamie van Heije was very close though. It was a chicken breast with bbq celeriac, bearnaise sauce, vinaigrette and a chicken hatosi. A rich sauce with nice vinaigrette luckily did not overpower the beautifully cooked and moist chicken. What I will remember most about the dish is probably the chicken hatosi. Normally made out of shrimp, here this small cookie-like crunchy disc was made of chicken and packed with flavors of chicken and sesame seeds.
Last dish before dessert is beef dashi. Basically a petite tender (i.e. very tender steak) with shii-take mushroom and a beef bouillon. Typically, beef is served with some mash of celeriac or potato and a bit of sauce. Not so much the case here. Underneath some garnish was a perfectly cooked steak. Instead of a sauce, there was a rich and nicely seasoned bouillon. Two grilled mushrooms and the dish was complete. Just like with some of the other dishes, this one too did not have many components. Even more praise to the chef(s) as there is no way to hide any ‘mistakes’.
To close the meal there is always dessert. Here too, “simplicity” rules and by that I mean maximum flavor out of a minimal amount of components. For the final dish of the evening, this meant pickled blue berries with yogurt ice cream, sorrel and an oil of vervain. Never heard of vervain? Well, neither did I, but now I know it is a citrus-sy herb. The wonderful fruity flavor of the berries and the stone-cold and somewhat sour yogurt ice cream were a wonderful closing of a delicious meal. The oil I did not really get, but even then I very much enjoyed the dish.
This restaurant may not have a Michelin Star of its own, but I surely rank it in the same category as some of the Michelin Star places that I recently visited. Staff is friendly and the restaurant looks really good on the inside and out. Parking is not an issue in any way and it is very close to Amsterdam, so there is no reason to not visit this restaurant. Depending on the number of courses you order, you’ll spend anywhere between EUR 52,50 and EUR 75 (excluding drinks). The food you’ll get is well worth the money.
Restaurant location: View on Google Maps
Restaurant website: http://www.jaimievanheije.nl