De Kas Restaurant, Amsterdam

I am so glad we made De Kas our last stop in Amsterdam.  All the restaurants we have been to, except for one, have been on the outskirts of the city.  Areas that you would most definitely not stroll into unless you had planned on it.  It has given us a better view of the city and the community that lives there.  Da Kas is located in a beautiful park and to enter you must cross the bridge.

This is the facility that the restaurant is located in.  A portion of the building is devoted to an indoor greenhouse.  This place is all about food from the farmers.

Inside is really big and bright.  Big glass windows even on the ceiling just lets this entire room shine.

The thing to do here is go with the flow.  They have 3-4 courses every night based on what is in season with a wine pairing.  We began with a glass of champagne, olives, marinated beets and the most amazing basil oil.  Finely chopped basil mixed with a really floral olive oil.  The wait staff walked around with large plastic jars filled with this mixture and would pour more in to your bowl when you started running out.  I am most definitely making this part of our summer repertoire. 

They gave us a glass of rose and a glass of white.  We were to drink the rose with our soup.  Simple tomato gazpacho with pieces of yellow seedless watermelon and tiny shrimp.  Really good.  I liked the creaminess of the soup.  I am going to work on my gazpacho this summer.  I generally do chunky but theirs was more like the Spanish variety.

Our white was for the fish course.  Poached pieces of white fish with a pesto over the top with tiny flowers and roasted fennel.  I love roasted fennel.

Roasted eggplant with fresh zucchini flowers.  Simple.

Our main course was served with a red wine.  A few pieces of beef and a panko deep fried piece of chicken over a combo of local beans.  Kind of a funny assortment but good.

We mixed it up for dessert.  We had one of sweet, one of savory (cheese).  Basil ice cream.  Really interesting. 

The bread on the cheese plate was amazing.  Brown bread with figs and nuts. 

A place worth going to in Amsterdam