Next to “Aan de Poel”, chef Stefan van Sprang operates restaurant “De Kersentuin”. It is a restaurant we have been wanting to visit for a long time and now it happened. It is located in the Bilderberg Hotel in Amsterdam, which easy to find and not too far outside the city centre.

With this restaurant being owned by a two-Michelin-star chef, we were expecting everything to be run smoothly and the food to be delicious.  Where the food was not only tasting great, it also looked very good. The same could not be said for the service. Entering the restaurant, which was a little dark and smaller than we imagined it to be, we were escorted to the table. At this time already, we noticed the attitude. We received the menu and had some questions. By now, the waitress seemed (less than a bit) annoyed that she was expected to do some actual work during the lunch service. Disappointing, as it is the combination of the service and food that makes or breaks the experience…..

For starters, we had a plate with different preparations of beetroot. The plate looked really nice and the flavours were definitely there. Some pieces of beetroot were pickled, others were simply cooked. There was some mousse and come crunch in the form of a (beetroot) meringue.  The balance of the dish was very good and it was very tasty with intense beetroot flavours.

Main course was braised veal. The cooking of this piece of meat was excellent. Juicy and tender with a lovely sticky glaze of soy and jasmine. Only ‘weird’ thing about the dish as the presentation: It looked like a reindeer just ‘landed’ on my plate. Some crunchy bites came from some bok choy, which along with leeks made up for the veggies in the dish. Here too, an excellent choice when combined with the sticky meat. Nothing wrong with this course, apart from the service. It really felt like the plate was thrown onto the table from the other side of the restaurant. Only when we asked what we were about to eat was it explained to us.

As this was lunch, we arrived at the dessert already. Luckily, we also noticed a second waitress. Turned out this second waitress was a lot more interested in providing a good service/eating experience, which was nice. For dessert, we chose a Kersentuin signature dish: Tasing of chocolate. Different textures and chocolate flavours all on one plate. Very nice dish and we would have this any other day again.

To summarize, we can only conclude that the service kind of ruined the experience that we have been looking forward to. The food itself was very good though. For lunch, you can expect to pay approx.  EUR 50-60 (excluding drinks).  Would we recommend anyone to go here, well no (and for the aforementioned reason). Would we go again? Well, unlikely. Where we do think the quality of the food earns them a second chance, there are so many other good places where they do treat you as a valued guest…..

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