Restaurant Niven

I think I might just be getting my head around the art of fine dining, especially since it appears as though I am making a point of eating in Michellin star restaurants. And Zagat-rated ones too, comparative ‘food police’ on the other side of the Atlantic pond.

Well, in my 2nd Michelin star outing of the year, a group of us dined at The Restaurant Niven in Delft.

The green surroundings of the Rijswijkse Golfclub offers an oasis of peace and tranquility to those who enjoy French cuisine. The interior consist exclusively out of sustainable and pure materials like oak wood, freestone and wool. Mans large abstract paintings by Jurjen de Haan (Dutch artist from The Hague) give colour to the various spaces making up Restaurant Niven. A very special setting for a perfect evening together with your friends, family or business partners.

Dinner was superb and finally I think I’m beginning to get the hang of what this exclusive group of restauranteurs is about.

So yes it is small portions, but it is also style. The house-style of the establishement. In that respect they are like you or me – we all have our style of food pairing and service, albeit not as wild as oysters on beach sand from the Scottish isles, but we are getting there .

To me, the one thing that stands is the innovation and creativity and I get a buzz from seeeing it all unfold.

Mostly it is stunning and wowing, like soup served in flower vases or caramelised olives on granite slabs. Over the top? I don’t think so. I think there are those who create an art of food – the making and the eating, focusing on the subtlties of sharing the essence of a dish. Kind of the descerning lot who know not to serve a fine Cabernet in a …glass.

For starters:

A starter of prawn cocktail, with scrambled eggs, wisps of bacon and some greens!

Followed by the previousy mentioned caramelised olives, which was nice…but weird. We had olive cakes, which seems to be popular in restaurants of this rank, judging I’ve had something like this at another M star!

We opted to be taken on the ‘Niven tour’, which we couldn’t eat through, in all its entirety because a tour of any sort requires time….as does fine dining. Unfortunately, it is rather difficult to do both when babysitters are at home tending to your loved young ‘uns…and so we had to rush through some bits. Regardless, it did nothing to detract from the food – the quality and the ‘wow’ factor. This was a big learning for me. If I plan an event, I need to focus on the really fine details and communicate that with front of house when I make a reservation. So yes, obvious things like allergies/no-eats but also specifics like the amount of time required for the dinner, versus the time the guests have to dine……

The non-seafood option to the shrimp starter was also served on stone, with the olive but was full of delicious butternut squash.

During an intermission – one of many, we were offered Gin and Tonic cubes. Too strong for me – but those who tried it said it was ‘very G&T’.

We enjoyed broths served in ‘flower vases

Langoustine, accompanied with tomatoes many ways – a jelly, a sorbet and whole fruit;

A super delicious beef main;

What I really took home from the dinner, apart from the extra calories…obviously, is how each dish was composed of one main ingredient, done a number of ways. And I’ve been seeing a lot of this on TV too. Recently, on the Great British Menu, I watched create a dessert of carrots. He made a carrot cake, with carrot puree, carrot dust, carrot caramel and a carrot sorbet. Have I missed anything? Then a few nights ago, I watched Raymond Blanc make a tomato inspired plate. He had tomoato jelly, a consomme of tomato essence, a kind of deconstructed caprese salad with mozarella and herbs, a tomato sorbet and granita (again using an essence of tomatoes which he made). Plated up on a white rectangular plate, this lady was stunned and impressed. I tell you, I know what my next experimental forays into this culinary world will be. To this end, I really want to acquire a dehydrator!

We finished off with some sweet treets.

One was a plate of apple: sorbet, chunk, layered…..it was nice and very refreshing.