visaandeschelde (mmmm+)

restaurant visaandeschelde
scheldeplein 48
+31(0)20 67 51 583

summary:

food: 9/10 (perfectly cooked seafood but maybe a little complicated sometimes)
service: 8/10 (we were ignored a little, but once we got service it was great)
decor: 8/10 (some acoustic tiling would be great, but other than that, very nice)

mmm rating:

mmmm+/mmmmm

comments:

We had a late reservation for 8:30 p.m. And we were hungry. We had heard so much about this restaurant and had read so many positive reviews that our expectations were quite high.

Our table was not yet ready, so our server encouraged us to relax at the bar. We had some drinks and watched the activity in the lobster tanks. One half of the tank contained the lobsters that seemed to have given themselves over to the whole experience. They were resigned to their eventual consumption. The other tank contained the feisty fighters that still believed that they had some chance of escape, attempting to scale the walls of the tank with amazing agility. As I cheered them on and contemplated assisting them, I realized that I was not going to eat lobster, despite my earlier intentions to do so.

After being entertained in this morbid way, our server directed us to our table. The restaurant was completely full, and first we just took in our surroundings, watching passing plates of carefully designed vertical food with longing. We took in the "in crowd" who knew all of the servers and who greeted other tables of people with equal familiarity. We looked hungrily at the bread and aioli on the table next to us, our stomachs growling as waiters passed with great efficiency to serve other tables.

Having lived in the Netherlands for a few years now, I can now do "the look" which says "Hi, We've been here a while, and unless you want me to start eating my napkin, and loudly calling to you 'a lazy bastard', you should come and help us now." OK, I admit it, I can't usually do the look, but in this case, I was successful. I did the look and a very friendly waiter, wearing an appropriately concerned look on his face, immediately attended to us. I was appeased.

He brought us our bread (which was lovely crispy and hot) and its accompaniments (garlicky and delicious, but this could be starvation talking at this point) and ensured that we had menus and could choose a wine.

From this point on, I would say that our service was excellent. And since I firmly believe that anticipation is half of enjoyment, I will interpret our early waiting experience as an "enhancement" to the evening. (Optimism at its finest.)

As with many restaurants, the names of the meals are rarely simple.

• Appetizers: A. had a "Lobster salad with duck liver swirls and truffle dressing" and I had the "Lemon-pepper marinated swordfish with chorizo, olive & cornichon dressing crispy prawn and aioli" and
• Main: A. had the "Pan-fried ray wing fillet with herb gnocchi, fennel and Nouilly Prat vermouth sauce and I had the "Sautéed sea bream on lime risotto with warm sage mayonnaise and grilled vegetables"
  

A.'s appetizer was fabulous. Beautiful flavours and textures. Mine was very very good, but I think that since both the swordfish and the prawn were independently fantastic (I deconstructed the salad tower and tasted everything separately), their flavours were a little lost together. Too much of good things together maybe? If you ever order this particular appetizer, I strongly recommend deconstruction.

Both main courses were fantastic. Perfect. I wouldn't change a thing. Given A.'s happy smile while eating, I will assume that he felt the same way.

For dessert A. had a chocolate mousse type thingy which looked wonderful. I had crème brule. Both were, again, faultless.

Now. All of this praise being heaped on the food, I have two small criticisms:

1. Sitting next to chain smokers is bad during any eating experience, but this is something that the restaurant can't do too much about.
2. The restaurant is loud. The acoustics are such that you have to do a fair amount of loud talking yourself in order to have a conversation, thereby contributing to the loudness. This may be a better restaurant for a big group where everyone ends up bellowing anyway, or maybe this was the function of going on a Friday night. But probably, the problem could be remedied with some acoustic tiling or white noise makers.

mmmore:

Other reviews:
iens
special bite

A recipe for lemon risotto since it is so incredible with fish. Yum!