In the south of Holland, you’ll find the carnaval (Mardi Gras) capital of The Netherlands; Den Bosch. This town is known for carnaval and the Bossche Bollen (chocolate-covered profiterol XXXXXL), but it should be noted that we have recently learned that you have some excellent restaurants there as well. One of them is for sure Sense Restaurant (not to be confused with Senses Restaurant from Amsterdam, which we have not yet visited).Where we normally go for dinner, at Sense Restaurant we opted for a 5-course lunch. The restaurant is located in the center of Den Bosch on a tiny square, in a hotel. Enter the restaurant, you will immediately notice the stylish modern interior. Normally, I would prefer the more neutral colors and designs, but somehow I did really like the colorful and modern look. The restaurant is nice and light with brightly colored carpet and ditto art on the wall. The chairs are very comfortable and tables are for sure large enough. Due to the low visitor numbers for lunch, I cannot really comment on the noise levels, but I trust that should be no issue.
A fish course kicked off a, what turned out to be delicious, menu: Hamachi with tomato and yogurt. Wow, what a great start of the afternoon. The different preparations of tomato had a real intense flavor, but somehow went really well with the slightly seared fish. The slight sweetness of the tomato was complemented really well with just a little bit (but enough) acidity from the yogurt. For a fish dish, the presentation on an ocean blue plate was a interesting and nice choice.
Up next was my favorite dish of the meal and a (for me) unknown match made in heaven: Langoustine with basil. It came with sweet potato and kimchee, a Korean-style cabbage. The langoustine was encrusted and perfectly cooked with a crispy skin. Combine this with the basil and you have something amazing. There was a nice hint of fruity sweetness, which turned out to be passion fruit. While eating this dish, only one word came to mind: givememore 😉
More fish was up next; Lobster with bass, potato and leek. Once again a beautifully presented dish. Initially, I thought there was some scallop in the dish, but this turned out to be the (grilled) leek. The fish was lovely, but it was missing a crispy skin, because of the foam that was more or less on top of it. Visually, I really like the bright orange tail-end of the lobster, which was equally good in flavour. The green ‘blobs’ on the plate added a nice subtle hint of herbs to the dish. Needless to say that I cleaned my plate in a matter of minutes.
Veal was the only meat dish in this menu, and it was one to remember. Not so much for the meat, but intense and rich gravy/sauce was de-li-cious. As you may have read in an earlier post, I am not a big fan of mushrooms. However, the very finely chopped mushrooms were almost like a pate with nice earthy tones. Excellent addition to the well-cooked meat and gravy. Nice touch in the dish was the deep-fried kale, which normally in NL is not prepared this way. I probably would have had another meat dish and left out the previous course, but this is not more that my personal preference.
For dessert, yet another stunning-looking dish: Almond cake with apple, elder-flower and white chocolate. When this was brought to the table, the white powder immediately made me worry that it was going to be too sweet. Fortunately, I was wrong. It was a little bit sweet, but that is what I look for in a dessert. The presentation showed real skill as the green chocolate ring around the cake was really thin. The elder-flower is something people don’t normally cook with at home, so that made it something special and in a way was the “mystery” element. Cake was nice and dry and with this being an almond case, was also something slightly from the ordinary. The only thing that was missing was the nice acidic hint of the apple. There was simply too little of it on the plate. By adding either some green apple gel or even the apple itself, made the richness of the dish a little less.
Lunch at Sense Restaurant is something I’d recommend to anyone, for personal or business purposes. Considering the excellent lunch we just completed, I cannot understand why only two tables were occupied for lunch. Is the restaurant worth a trip from Amsterdam? Well, visit and decide for yourself and I think you’ll come to the conclusion it is. The 5 courses we ate costed EUR 100 including drinks, but to be honest, this was a special offer. With the normal menu you will most likely spend around the same amount though. Trust me when I say the food is worth every penny.The staff was extremely friendly and attentive, where we noticed that the sommelier (even though still in training) was very ambitious, friendly and knowledgeable. From most tables you have a view of the open kitchen, where the staff was preparing for dinner and clearly having fun doing it, without being loud or anything. Big smiles and laughter every now and then indicated the team enjoyed work and this shows in the food that comes out of the kitchen.