De Kas
The good news
We had lunch at De Kas and it was pretty, preeeetttyyy, amazing. I’m gonna give you that spoiler.
The bad news
Unfortunately, it was one of the last lunches we had with our best friends before their move to Paris. Sigh.
Our amazing friend Juan turned “the big 40”, and took Hayden and I out for lunch at De Kas. They’ve been talking about this place since…we met them? So I was pretty excited to finally figure out what’s up with De Kas. Really that good? Overrated? Super expensive?
The restaurant’s tagline is “harvested in the morning, on your plate in the afternoon”. They grow all the vegetables, fruits and herbs that they use in their dishes. A small part are actually grown on the site of the restaurant, so you can have a walk around the greenhouses and inspect whatever’s about to be on your plate soon. De Kas is a “veggie first” spot, but you’ll also find meats or seafood in your dishes (unless you don’t want to, of course).
Moving on! The moment you sit down, you get tapioca crackers with a celery dip. “Celery?”. Yeah, I hear you – but somehow they managed to make it delicious. Creamy, light, tangy…beautiful.
To kick things off, we’ve ordered some oysters (and that would be Hayden’s 2nd oyster! it’s happening, y’all). I stuck to the basics, but the boys got all fancy and had tartare oysters. Loved the thought of the combination.
Our 4 course lunch at De Kas started with a couple of amuse-bouche(s). One of them, pictured below, was a beautiful gazpacho. And I’m a sucker for a gazpacho on a summer day, so consider me happy.
I was pretty excited for the 1st course, because I just heard a woman at the other table go “This tomato is amazing!”. I love tomatoes as much as the next girl (probably a bit more); but what makes a tomato amazing?! The 1st course did not disappoint and that tomato was damn tasty. I’d say the biggest influence in terms of flavour was the tarragon. It’s not an herb I use often, not even one I taste often, so it was a pleasant surprise – something different. The sweetness of the plums and grapes complimented the dish, and the gingery sauce balanced it. Not gonna lie, a whole lot more than what I expected from a veggie, simple dish.
Our 2nd course was built around green peas, trout eggs and lettuce. The flavours were influenced by using vadouvan and oysters. This was absolutely delicious, and again, a flavour bomb. I look at the dish, I expect something, and then it’s just…a lot more than that.
The 3rd course was the one that impressed me the most. Anyhow, it’s hard to pick a favorite. I absolutely mean it when I say that every single thing I’ve tasted was a success in my book. But I have no idea how they made this mussel based dish taste the way it did. The 2nd protein used here was sobrassada (a raw, cured sausage from Spain), and the mix between these was simply divine. With every bite I kept wondering more and more – how does this taste like this? And how the hell can I make it?
P.S.: I definitely can’t. Impressed 12/10.
Final course. Time for dessert! All of us were feeling a little full, so slightly worried that dessert may be too much. But De Kas probably knows exactly at what level people are at this point, so they made sure to offer a light dessert, finishing in style. Pictured below is something made with raspberry, fig leaf, coconut and lemon. Besides the flavours combo, the textures were impressive too. From soft foam, to a creamy layer, all the way to a crumbly base – it had it all.
We finished off our 3 hour lunch at De Kas with a delicious Espresso Martini. I left extremely happy with the whole experience and I know I’ll return to try their other seasonal menus. If I have one criticism, it’s that most of the sauces accompanying the dishes were over-salted.
In other words…just go, try it out if you haven’t.
Value for money: 10
Food Quality: 10
Location: 7 (Kamerlingh Onneslaan 3)
Service: 9
Website: https://restaurantdekas.com/
