Rayleigh & Ramsay

Besides French bistros, there’s another type of restaurant popping up all over Amsterdam: wine bars! As an avid wine lover, I definitely welcome the addition. The last one we visited, Alba, was one of my favorite new finds. This time, we tried Rayleigh & Ramsay at their Westerpark location.

There are a couple of unusual things here. First, instead of just ordering your drinks, you get a card that you preload with money, and you use it to pour your own wine. You get to choose your preferred wine out of dozens of choices. They kinda look like beer drafts. You press a button once you decide on what size you’d like, swap your card, and bam – let the wine pour! Next to each option, you’ll find tasting profiles, to help you pair the wine with your food. Since I forgot to take an actual pic of the place, here’s an Insta post that shows it better.

Rayleigh & Ramsay offers what seemed like a really good deal (spoilers: it was) – a 3 course shared chef’s choice for the €30 / p.p. We paid a deposit which was already loaded onto our wine card, so we chose our first drink and waited for our 1st shared course.

We got steak tartare with onion cream, and the burrata with fennel and peach.

I am an absolute sucker for tartare, so this was right up my street. The cute little egg’s yolk melted all over the meat, adding a silky texture. The burrata dish balanced the tartare nicely, adding a fresh touch through the peach, and a licorice touch through the fennel. A beautiful start to the meal!

P.S. I recently discovered the power of fennel, and I’m slowly falling in love.

For the 2nd course, we both chose some reds to go with the “heavier” stuff. I went for a Moldovan wine that didn’t disappoint. For our main, we got the beef with mousseline, and a grilled oxheart cabbage with miso and hazelnuts.

The beef was tender and well cooked. The mousseline was soft, as it should be. Nothing to complain, but nothing to write home about.

But…the cabbage. There’s not much I don’t eat, but I’m not crazy about cabbage. This, however, was the best dish of the night, and definitely the best cabbage I’ve ever tasted. Nicely grilled, crispy from the hazelnuts, full of flavor from the miso, and balanced with pickled onions. Just a beautiful, light plate of food.

Now, on to dessert and the 4th glass of wine? We chose the small sized glasses, so we can explore as many wines as possible; rosé for this course! We got a strawberry millefeuile, and a 3-cheeses board.

I’m much more of a savory over sweet kinda ‘gal, but this was a beauuuutifullll thing. Crispy. Creamy. Fresh. Indulgent, but not too heavy. Just gorgeous.

We ended this 3-course chef’s menu with a cheese board. It was delicious, good quality cheese, which isn’t unusual in Amsterdam. But it wasn’t from Kef, for once! I forgot where it was from, though…

All in all, we loved our experience at Rayleigh & Ramsay Westerpark. Hayden said it could’ve been one of our best date nights! We were there on a Monday, so it kinda felt like we were in a big, empty living room. A great concept that assures you never have to wait for a drink refill, and lets you try loads of wines, if that’s your thing. Good food to go with it, and all for a reasonable price (food wise – the wine is a bit on the expensive side). I’d happily return; in fact, Hayden returned with some of our friends just a couple of days later.

Value for money: 9 food, 8 wine

Food Quality: 9

Location: 9 (Van Noordtstraat 28; Van Woustraat 97; Oranje-Vrijstaatkade 66)

Service: 9

Website: https://www.rr.wine/