Many good chefs operate more than one restaurant. Heston Blumenthal has The Fat Duck (three stars) in Bray, and about 30 miles down the road his two-star restaurant “Dinner by Heston”. In Holland, we have Francois Geurts who operates his “FG Bistro” plus his one star “FG Food Labs” as well as his ‘flagship’ two Michelin star “FG Restaurant”. The interesting thing is that they are literally neighbours. For this visit, we start at the top: FG Restaurant.

When mentioning two Michelin stars to people, they often think it is based on the food alone. Where I know it is based on more than that, this really is a restaurant where you notice it. We were pleasantly surprised by the relaxed atmosphere in the restaurant. There really is a sense of calm with the restaurant staff and anyone can tell that they know what to do and work like a well-oiled machine. Whether you want to wear a tuxedo or jeans with trainers, you are more than welcome. Enter the restaurant and you will meet the young, but friendly and professional restaurant staff. One of them will escort you to the big and comfortable chairs. As is the case with the guests, there are very few staff members wearing suits or other formal clothing. They were definitely properly dressed, but the attire matched the relaxed atmosphere.

The meal was kicked-off by an amuse that was an ice cream cone made of tomato with a piccalilli, and yes, next to it a glass of Champagne. As second amuse, there was a playing card of white chocolate with a (generous) dollop of caviar; a nice combination of sweet “chocolate” with the slight saltiness of the caviar. For the last of the amuses we had a mousseline of potato with a puree of peas. This could have been a first dish and was almost like a little salad.

Now it is time for the real meal to start. Name of the first dish was ‘black beauty’ which referred to the blackened celeriac with a beurre blanc containing no less than 43 spices. As a result, we ate a beautifully soft celeriac and a sauce that had a wonderfully deep curry flavour.

Asparagus were up next, accompanied by morels and peas. The asparagus itself were just perfect: Packed with flavour and with a little bit of a bite. The mushrooms were tasty, but it should be noted that we are still not a fan of the structure of mushrooms. Peas are best when nice and soft. Here they were a little underdone to our liking. The dish was presented in a nice plate, where we have to note that it was just that little bit too deep to scoop everything out.

Following this was a fish dish: Brill with smoked eel, a foam of eel, lentils, a creme of watercress and some truffle. As you can tell from the photo, the fish was nicely caramelized (and perfectly cooked). As is to be expected with a restaurant like this, all the flavours went really well together. The eel was luke-warm but delicious. The truffle was preserved winter truffle, which made it a bit chewy and less flavoursome. Despite that, it was a delicious dish.

The last dish before dessert was pigeon. It as served with artichoke and gravy. On the breast filet, there is a crispy layer of black olive. Normally, we are not a big fan of olive, but this was just delicious. The gravy was really rich and deep flavours, made from the pigeon itself. The vegetables were in a puree, but there was a ‘breadstick’ for some crunch. Th slight bitterness in the vegetables went really well with the ‘woody’ and almost smokey flavours of the pigeon. This dish was without a doubt my favourite of the meal.

Only dessert was left now. Dessert proved to be a piece of art made by someone with tremendous skill and patience. Look at the photo and you’ll immediately notice the care with which the red dots (cherry gel) have been placed. These dots surround a yellow circle consisting of a galette of Napoleon Bonbon (a lemon flavoured hard candy). Underneath this galette is a sorbet of apple, come nougat and olive. What surprised me about this dish was the level of sweetness. Where I do like sweet, it is best in moderation. Here they got it just right: great balance of flavours. Nothing was too dominant and the sweet and acidity were in perfect harmony.

Restaurant location: View on Google Maps
Restaurant website: http://www.fgrestaurant.nl