Just over two weeks ago, we visited the Karmozijn – a tiny restaurant in the Gierstraat in Haarlem.
The Karmozijn is Haarlem’s famous one man band restaurant – ie the owner Ton Overbeek is the chef, sommelier and front of house at the same time. The restaurant is so small that I managed to walk past it for the 1.5 years I have been living here – and it is on my main way into town:-)
It actually is more like large dining room, very cosy and homey, and as soon as we got in Ton made us feel right at home. Ton has been running the restaurant for the last 11 years and it is pretty hard to get in unless you’ve reserved well in advance as this place really serves outstanding dishes. The cuisine is what I would call French/Dutch fusion – or a French delivery of traditional Dutch dishes. A perfect example of this was the peasoup bitterbal – both pea soup and bitterbal are very basic (ie flavourless) , quintessential Dutch dishes, but the combination served up by Ton was very flavoursome and quite delicate. The dishes were beautifully presented, and came with sides which enhanced the flavours of the main dish. All the ingredients used were in season, fresh and organic. I really struggled to choose as all the options sounded so good!!
The winelist was small but very well priced, especially when considering the quality of the restaurant. Ton has a love for French wines and I really enjoyed the discussion we had about the list. He had some fabulous Champagnes but as my friends had decided that on this cold winter night la couleur du jour was definitely red, we ordered a mid priced (32 Euro) Crozes Hermitage. It was delicate, spicy and had plenty of flavours of plums and mulberries. It worked well with the amuses and our Duck Confit starter. The presentation and flavours were exquisite, and the wine paired so well that we decided to order another bottle – but from a different producer this time.
We chose to take our time in between dishes and the wine continued to flow freely as we tasted our way down the Rhone. The Chateau Neuf du Pape (at 42 Euro’s) brought out all the flavours of my perfectly cooked Venison, it was dark spicy, with strong stewed black fruit flavours.
We finished off with a Gigondas (again a bargain at 32 Euro’s), full of spicy, smoky, blackberry and cedar flavours which worked awesomely with the delicious strong cheese selection.
It was past midnight when we left the restaurant, with full bellies and our heads in the cloud after a wonderful gastronomic night!
A trip down the Rhone River
