a chic restaurant at the top of the okura hotel with a superb contemporary decor, and fascinating urban panorama. experience stylish service, delicious creative cuisine with exotic touches, a fine wine list and sunset views from the lounge.
the website says it's a 10 minute walk from the Amsterdam RAI train station which is 10 minutes if that via train from schipol. it might be 10 minutes if you're a speed walker, but not if you're just taking a normal pace. it was closer to 20. as we skirted RAI (it looked like a new convention center/arena being built) i see this tall building towering over the 3-4 story structures and tell matt 'i bet that's it. the place is on the 23rd floor and that building's further than 10 minutes away'. sure enough, that was it.
most of the buildings in amsterdam are like all the others - shared walls, squished buildings 4 or 5 stories tall, but as you get further out of town's center buildings get taller, more modern, built in the 70s or later. hotel okura is definitely newer and really towers over everything nearby. when you walk through the lobby to the elevator one is struck by the clash of periods. there were a few people waiting for an elevator as we got there, but i noticed a sign on the far wall for ciel bleu and the lounge with an unlit up button. i headed over and pushed it. when the doors opened a minute later we went in and i expected to see 1 or 2 buttons only for the top couple of floors, but there was a button for every floor there. maybe it was the only lift to go all the way to the top but it wasn't an express. the others waiting started to get in but someone said what i was thinking and they hopped off so we had the lift to ourselves.
when the doors opened onto the 23rd floor we were greeted by a young man who was centered in our view and who welcomed us to ciel bleu. he took my jacket and directed me to the ladies' while matt was led to the table.
as i was directed in the direction of our table, which wasn't hard to find as there were only about 12-15 tables and only 1 or 2 were occupied, there was a server waiting for me to help me with the chair; which i must say these were tied for comfort with kai. i was barely scooted up to the table when i noticed a little ottoman being brought out around me. as i sat down i switched hands my purse was in and the ottoman quickly shifted course and ended up on my right, just beside the chair, for my purse so i wouldn't have to place it on the floor or share a chair with it. classy.
sit back, relax, and enjoy the 8 course tasting menu. we did.
our amuse-bouche
a blood orange, carrot and lychee soup
served slightly cool this was really good. starting 8+ courses with a "wow" really bodes well. i would love to make this at home. i'm not a huge carrot fan but i couldn't taste it. the lychee sweetened the slight acidity of the blood orange.
served before and with the amuse we had a glass of the roderer rose champagne
amuse #2
caprese tomato on a cookie with pesto and a lobster roll with a vanilla mayo
the tomato was really good but the lobster roll, wow. notice the little syringe -looking thing just to the left of the roll? that's the sauce. you poke it into the roll and squeeze. they say it's a dutch specialty. if this is dutch food i'm going to enjoy amsterdam!
notice the interesting plating: the food is placed on the opening of a clear plastic tray which is placed over a bowl with rocks in the bottom.
the breads. yes, those are crackers sticking up from a rock.
we were also served both salted and non-salted butters
amuse #3
languostine 'tentacles' with an ouzo marshmallow, mango and a little bit of gold leaf.
ok, not my favorite. the marshmallow reminded me of a gooey blob. and those of you who know me know i have a thing about heads/feet on my food. you would've been proud of me. i managed to pick it up and shove it into my mouth in almost 1 bite. it was pretty good but i must impress that it was only the tentacles. there was no head or body or any of the 'stuff' that's found inside of those parts.
Manzanilla Pasada, Delgado Zuleta, Spain, NV
oyster and passion fruit: poached royal cabanon oyster with horseradish cream, froth of passion fruit and powder of lavendar.
there's a bachelor's button flower and a bit of white sherry in the bottom of the bowl.
yes, we've already had 3 courses + bread, but this is the 1st course listed on the menu. and something we noticed at chez mathilde was the scallops had the siphon attached, and the oyster here does, too.
the flavor of the oyster was ok, but i still didn't care for the texture. i've now had oysters at a number of very high quality restaurants and i think i can honestly say i really don't care for them. if you serve one to me expect me to pass it on to matt. he likes them. but the rest of the dish was just fine.
i noticed up front that there was a limited number of silver on the table. forks were presented tines down. each course a gloved waiter brought new silver outon a tray. in fact everything was served by gloved
hands. "why?" you may ask; to eliminate any
fingerprints on the plates/glasses and spoiling the presentation. this is the 1st restaurant we've dined in that has done this. i say keep it up! it's a very simple and very elegant touch.
the pics are 2 views of amsterdam we had from our table. a little hard to see in the pics but there are construction cranes everywhere. if a building wasn't under scaffolding for renovation or cleaning it appeared it was under scaffolding for structural support.
Bianco Rovere, Merlot, Guido Brivio, Tessin, Switzerland, 2008
course #2
bass & caviar: bass tatar style with perle caviar and ice cream of burre blanc, crunch of rye bread and prawn crackers.
the crispy thing is made from algae. overall this was pretty good. it surprised me. i guess the taste for beef tartar or carne crudo is starting to expand my taste buds?
Cuvee Toques et Clochers, Chardonnay, Sieur d'Arques, Limeux, France, 2008
an interlude: pistachio and scallop cannelloni, served on the rocks.
and when they told us what it is they said st jacques. how they get scallop from that i'll never figure out.
boy were these tasty! i could've eaten an entire plate of these, just like the lobster rolls. but then i wouldn't have had the space for some of these other fantastic dishes. the dough was perfectly crispy, just like a spring roll. i'm not sure if they purchase these or make them, but either way... and the filling was creamy and mild. i'm amazed at them in general and want to know how many get broken in the process of dinner before they have enough to serve!
course #3
sccallop and truffle: grilled scallop with summer truffle and veal cheek, cream of celeriac and white chocolate
i think it's a nasturtium leaf. the chocolate was blended into the celeriac cream if you're looking for it. the veal cheek was hidden in the photo.
at this point in the meal we were brought new napkins. which gives me the opportunity to add a few other service notes. every time i returned from the ladies there was someone who was at my chair to hold and help me back to the table. add to that each time i returned a new and folded napkin at my plate. the only other place that we've been to supply a new napkin every time someone left the table is the herbfarm. but what i noticed is that the new napkins were delivered to the table with silver tongs.
Belondrade Y Lurton, Verdejo, Rueda, Spain, 2008
course #4Sole & French Beans: grilled sole with jus of french beans and sweet-and-sour of pears
the sole had spanish ham wrapped inside, and the thing on the left was a creamy pea squishy thing. not sure what it's called, but it's covered in edible copper. it was pretty squishy. a very odd texture on the tongue if you've never tried it. this dish is served chilled, not hot.
ok, this was probably my least favorite dish. it looks great, and presentation was fantastic, but for me i just didn't care for any of it. matt said it was good and had the comment "it smells like a phish concert". i've never been so i can't comment on that. i did have a couple bites of it before we switched plates.
one of the servers saw us juggling the plates and ran over to help. when he realized we were swapping plates he of course became concerned. we didn't mention the fact that i didn't care so much for this dish but did let him know that if i ate everything i wouldn't be able to eat everything! so i guess the fact that i have a limited belly helped me a little bit. but if anyone from ciel bleu is reading this now i guess the cat's out of the bag. however considering how much we ate that night i think it's pretty good that this was really the only dish i really didn't like.
"La Grola" Allegrini, IGT Veronese Italy 2006
course #5
Pigeon & Foie gras: lightly smoked anjou pigeon breast with melted foie gras, gnocchi's raz el hanout and gravy morels.
they smoked the bird 1st, then roasted it in the oven on a real low temp.
you could really taste the smoke in the gnocchi.
this was really good. i mean *really* good.
we were poured this tawny port but then the som realized we were supposed to get a different wine with the next course.Aulese, Riesling, Frey, Essinger Rossberg, Pfalz, Germany, 2007 is the wine for our next course, but of course they didn't take the port away from us.
that's a way cool cheese wheel holder. it allowed our server to shave the thinnest slices of cheese off for our plates.
.
course # 6
Rhubarb and Celery: structures of preserved rhubarb and celery with freshly shaved Old Nobility cheese from Marienwaerdt
we actually had an Oude Adel. it was one of the best cheeses i've had. we must find a way to get some here.
nearing sunset, looking westward
course #7
Peche Melbe: peach melba "prepared in our own way"
it came on the slate tile in a box (above left) and then we each got a test tube (above right) with raspberry, almond and yogurt crunchies.
the pic isn't too good but it's the best i could get. lots of white. there's also chantilly on top. it was pretty darn good.
Symphonie de Novembre, Domaine Cauhape, Jurancon, France, 2006
course #8
Aloe vera & Vervain: marinated seasonal fruits with aloe vera cream and kalamansi sorbet, served with souffle of vervain and vanilla
aloe vera cream didn't have much taste to me.
and it's vervain, or lemon verbena foam
wow. i think this was the best souffle i've ever had. it was the perfect souffle. it just dissolved on the tongue.
notice the absence of any sauce poured into it. bravo!
mignardise
there are 17 choices on this cart that was rolled over to us. coffee or tea of course was provided.
by this time i had no room in my belly for anything more, but i did select 1 of these - how could i not?
matt allowed our server to put together a nice little selection. he ended up with 2 plates! LOL
my choice - blood orange marshmallows. they were pretty impressive
matt's selections: raspberry macaroon with a hint of mint, blueberry marshmallow, peanut bar, dark chocolate lollipop, white chocolate and tea bar, marengue, vanilla madelline, passion fruit bit, pomegranate jelly.
while we were enjoy these last morsels the table next to us had some boxes brought over. they looked like humidors and we thought they were being offered cigars. it wouldn't surprise us if it had been. as it turns out that was the house specialty dessert. but not having ordered it or having a menu i can't tell you what it really was. but it looked great on presentation!
we had booked in at 7pm. matt was thinking we'd not get to see the sunset which was almost 10pm. i think i mentioned above there were 12-15 tables in the place (unless there were more around the corner out of sight but still less than 30 tables in the place). there was a table for 1 behind us. the table of 4 which looked like a biz dinner, and a couple other tables i know for sure were filled. mostly they were empty. but you wouldn't really know it because of the wonderful spacing of furniture. they could easily triple the tabletops in that place if they wanted to. i hope they don't. i think the space they have around each table allows the diners to feel like they are the only table in the place. something else i noted, the party of 4 was seated at a normal 6-top. we were seated at a normal 4-top. the seating arrangements at all tables also took advantage to space. we were never crowded with plates or glasses.
by the night's end most of the servers knew i write this blog and asked for the address. i hope they find it. they were all very nice. in fact near the start of the meal when i was scribbling stuff down 1 guy offered to write down what it was we had, including the wines. "as long as it's no trouble". but i wanted to scribble stuff anyway, as i've learned i like to have a few notes and sometimes they leave something off the menu that makes it onto the plates. towards the end our main server asked if i'd like the chef to autograph the menu he printed up for us. sure, why not? i thought that was a nice offer. when i opened it later i saw chef had written a little note.
"food is art. culinary greetings. team ciel bleu"i must say ciel bleu won the presentation award. and the service award. i'll leave you to draw your own conclusion to the rest. :-P would i go back? most definitely. will i go back? i sure hope so.
a little note if you plan on dining here. taxis in amsterdam are so not worth the money (7+ on the meter right off the bat) it's a 20 minute walk to RAI station, then for us was 10 minutes to schipol by train, once we were on the train. then a 10 minute shuttle ride to the hotel, once we were on the shuttle which picked up every 30 minutes. so a minimum of an hour. as it turned out we would miss the last hotel shuttle and need a cab anyway so we decided to pay for the cab from the restaurant - which dropped us off at the hotel dorint at schipol east in 20 minutes for about 40 euro. we were in our room in the amount of time or less than it would've taken us to get on the train at RAI.
