Since moving to Europe, my wife and I have made it a little habit that once a year, we treat ourselves to a really nice dinner or lunch at a Michelin star restaurant to celebrate all our anniversaries/birthdays and whatever in one go! The 1 star restaurants turn out to really good food and experience for a relatively affordable price (if you don't do it too often!) if you order from the set menu. If you go up to 2 stars, it rapidly gets too expensive!

So last week, we had our little eating treat at a place in Voorburg, Central Park by Ron Blaauw. I had already posted some food photos from my alt account (@msearles), but I think I will write more in depth about the experience here!

Apologies ahead of time for the hastily shot photos, I feel so stupid taking photos of food that I tried to do them as quickly as possible! Also, neither of us are foodies of any stripe, we just eat and enjoy and not much more than that!

Location

The restaurant (and hotel?) is set in a little side park area, near where we bike past each week on the way to Little Gym. However, we never take the turn that would bring us to the restaurant, but we take the other direction to get us to where we need to go. (A metaphor for our lives?).

When you first drive up and park, it is a bit confusing as to where the restaurant is. Stupidly enough, I forgot to take a photo of the front, but it looks like one of the old manor buildings that have been converted to offices. When you look in the front windows, you see an office on one side and a conference room on the other, and the large door is closed and there is no sign that there is a restaurant there.

However, if you are brave enough to open the door, there it is... right in front, with the waiter ready to check your reservation and take you to your seats.

The menu

We always take the set menu at places like this, partly because we can't really afford to order from the real menu, and partly because we get to try lots of different things! There was an accompanying wine selection that was matched to menu, but because I had to drive we didn't take it this time. Although, my wife did have a couple of wines that were really nice (and of course, I wasn't going to photograph the bottle in the waitresses hands...)!

In this place, we had a choice of a 4/5/6 course menu. I can't really eat cheese, and so it boiled down to a choice of the 4 or 5 course. We figured we had 2 hours before needing to pick up our kids from school, and so we opted for the 5!

Pre eats

Nothing too big to report at the start, it's bread in a fashionably ruffled paper bag! Although, I have to say, the butter was pretty great (and the bread too).

The poppadom and dip were really quite nice, they had spiced the poppadom somehow, so it was quite tasty. I find it funny how they will come up and describe the food in great detail!

First Course

I have to say, this was a great start! Raw Yellowfin tuna, seared pork belly and various veggies! I would have to say, they really led with a good dish, it would be hard to top this one! The pork belly in particular was just perfect and so tasty!

... and the caramelised disc (at the top) was also especially good!

Second Course

A dish of mussels, fennel and herbs! Mussels are big in Holland, usually cooked up in a white wine sauce and eaten with chips in the warmer months. Again this was a great dish, and I was starting to notice how much care they took in presenting the food, even angling the dish properly!

Third Course

Grilled Plaice with Peach and Hazelnuts! I would never have thought of serving fish with nuts and fruit, but surprisingly enough it really works! I guess this is why these guys are famous and do it for a living!

Fourth Course

BBQ Sirloin and Amandine Potatoes in Mustard Gravy! Weirdly enough, despite the look of the photo, this was the disappointment of the menu! The meat was oddly tough and too well done for my taste, I'm not sure if it was the way it was cooked or the cut of the meat. The steaks and meat from our French neighbour's BBQ last night were much better than this!

Fifth Course

Strawberries, Orange, Basil, Almondcake and Yuzu! Again, Basil in a dessert would never have occurred to me, but again, it works! The ice-cream was a strange taste but it was nice a refreshing (citrusy?), I'm guessing it was the Yuzu, as it was the only thing I couldn't figure out!

My Thoughts

Well, it is always great to treat yourself once in a while! I love eating at normal restaurants as well, but there is something really special about going to a really classy restaurant.

I think, over the years, we have been to about six of the Michelin (1 star) restaurants, and they are quite affordable if you want to have a nice treat once in a blue moon. Definitely not something that we can do each week or even each month, but once or twice a year is okay.

In our other classy restaurant experiences, we have never had a disappointing plate, so we were both a bit surprised to find one on this menu! Oddly enough, it was the dish that most steak houses or backyard BBQ's can get right!

In the end, I did enjoy most of the things on the menu, it would have been nice if we had time to also have the matching wines. We did do that last time, and it is astounding the difference it makes!