Restaurant De Kas is one of the pioneering restaurants in the farm-to-table movement. Since 2001, they are cultivating vegetables, fruits, and herbs on their own farm just outside of Amsterdam. Hence, the strong focus on vegetables, which serve as the main ingredient in their menu. The restaurant location is an eight-metre high greenhouse in Amsterdam’s Frankendael Park and is stunning by itself. No question we had to pay this restaurant a visit during our last stay in Amsterdam.
Atmosphere.
Outside De Kas.
The restaurant is located inside the Frankendael Park. That is why you can’t drive right in front of it. You will need to park just outside of the northern end of the park and walk 5-10 min to the restaurant. The distance to the busy streets already gives a kind of calmness to the place. The restaurant is easy to recognise. Typical for a greenhouse, the outside walls and roof is fully covered in windows. You’ll be amazed by its size, it is huge. The entrance is on the left side of the building. After entering you’ll notice that actually only half of the greenhouse is used for the restaurants seating area and kitchen, in the other half the restaurant grows tomatoes, herbs and other vegetables.
Inside De Kas.
The seating area is wide open room with four rows of tables. In between tables mid-sized trees are placed in big pots giving the room structure. The tables and chairs have wooden surfaces with black legs, fitting perfectly to the black construction holding the window roof. To say it is light inside of a room that is fully covered by windows would be an understatement. The lightness and openness of the room create a relaxed atmosphere. My highlight was the half open kitchen, in the centre of the building. It is surrounded by windows, letting guests have a look at the magic happening inside.
Food.
The restaurants produce is coming either, directly from the greenhouse or from the much bigger farm outside of the city of Amsterdam in Beemster. They also have local suppliers that complement with meat and fish.
Every week they serve a different menu based on the vegetables they are harvesting that week. For example, when we visited, we received a list of produce that would be served that day, not stating the order or how they would be combined.
When we visited for lunch in beginning of July, we received the following list: “Kohlrabi, Potato, Cherries, Pickles, Sardine, Samphire, Basil, Tapioca, Beurre Blanc, Sea Lavender, Pointed Cabbage, Kingfish, Daikon, Ginger”
Starting with amuse-bouche, we were served a green vegetable curry made of zucchini, kohlrabi with sauce hollandaise and bread topped with pickles and dill. We additional choose to get Oysters, even though, it was not a month with an “R”. And we didn’t regret it, the oysters tasted super fresh and strong. Giving you the feeling, you would be sitting at the ocean.
The starter was cold sardine with tapioca, basil and flower of the zucchini. It was a very light combination of flavours. You could slightly taste the salt from the fish and the spiciness from the vegetables – very delightful.
Next, the first warm dish, potatoes, cabbage, and pickles topped with a round cheese cracker. This dish proved the exquisite cooking techniques and creativity of the chefs, creating such a tasteful vegetable dish.
The last dish was fried kingfish rolled in tiny dough strings on top of sea lavender with beurre blanc. This was my favourite dish of the day. The strong salty tasting sea lavender was such a great contrast to the subtle and buttery tasting kingfish and beurre blanc.
End.
All in all, I can say that it was such a great visit. The amazing location combined with the tasteful, vegetable based dishes, I can’t wait to visit again.
Thank you to the whole team at De Kas for such a great stay.
More information about the restaurant you can find on their website.
Last visit, July 2020.
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