Any culinary lover knows: the French can cook a good meal. And let that be exactly what restaurant The French Connection serves: French dishes, with a surprising twist.
You would walk right past it, given that the restaurant, which was renewed in September, is tucked away at the Amsterdam Singel. Down stairs and you enter a cosy space that, while not surprisingly decorated (stone wall, leather chairs), is such that it creates an intimate atmosphere, also courtesy of the vaulted ceilings. Amsterdam acquaintances still know the building as Odeon, which now also houses The Supperclub. And so does the restaurant with the French touch, under the watchful culinary eye of chef Jef van den Hout.
What the menu offers? Dishes with a link to the favourite holiday country of the Dutch, of course. Named also after well-known regions: Normandy (beef tartare with sour cream and oyster emulsion with salad of samphire and oyster leaf), Provence (red gurnard softly cooked with bouillabaise from the bones, short-fried squid and ink aioli) Champagne (Bellini with tarragon ice cream and - of course - champagne), to name a few. They don't do starters there at the Singel: all dishes are of such a size that you can taste everything, about four dishes (at an average of 10 euros) are recommended per person.
Not to lapse into average descriptions, but it's really true: the dishes provide a true taste explosion in the mouth. With ingredients that we know from France, but with a twist: ice cream made with Moutarde de Meaux, or mustard, for example:
ÎLE-DE-FRANCE: salad of mixed tomatoes with Moutarde de Meaux ice cream.
Familiar dishes from French districts are completely taken apart and reinvented on the fly. In which the bisque of Tourteau crab with cream of coconut, lime grass and basil (they get it, in Brittany, at least, that's how the dish is named) deserves a special mention, as a true feast, thanks in part to yet another surprising touch: the sneaky dumpling. As the table-mate admittedly not too elegant but all-encompassing remarked: 'Can we get a jerry can of this to take home?'
Extra attention also went to the amuse of frozen black olive, for its unusual substance:
Also nice: after dinner you can have a nightcap at the characteristic bar, where there are tonnes of olives, cheese plates and charcuterie.
Un recommandé, in other words. Or as we simply say: highly recommended.
