Please note that since writing this blog post, The Colour Kitchen has closed down
I’ve never really got why it’s called Good Friday – I mean, what’s good about being crucified? The only good part I could salvage from the whole sorry business was the Last Supper – only I just googled that and apparently it happened on Thursday. Nope, it’s a mystery to me.
Still, not being one to let a holiday pass without some sort of celebration, I went out for dinner and drinks with one of my best friends to mark the start of the long Easter weekend. (I’m sure that’s what Jesus would do.) I’d read about The Colour Kitchen in Time Out last month, and booked it in a hurry the day before without first checking the address. Imagine the shock of my Amsterdammer’s mentality when I looked it up on the map to discover it was – unbelievably – outside the A10! Good lord – who knew there were restaurants out there?
We both set off well in advance, thinking it was going to take us about an hour to find the other end of the Jan Evertsenstraat, only to arrive 20 minutes later and (for possibly the first time ever) early for our reservation. Luckily the restaurant wasn’t busy (probably because every other Amsterdammer has a deep distrust of life outside the A10 as well) and our table was ready and waiting for us. Our nearest neighbours were a few tables away so, despite the cavernous warehouse-sized space and lack of soft furnishings, noise was minimal and we didn’t feel overheard. I’m sure there must be some kind of clever acoustic design going on, but it wasn’t apparent to me how they managed to make such a large space feel so gezellig.
We started with a glass of prosecco to celebrate the weekend, and – in a similar vein – decided to order the three-course ‘teaser’ menu so that we could try a bit of everything. I should backtrack a little here and explain the concept: according to the blurb in the front of the menu, The Colour Kitchen employs professionals and trainees from a variety of different countries and cultures. It’s funded by Stichting The Colour Kitchen (a kind of diversity-promoting social project, from what I could make out), and gives education and employment opportunities to immigrants, while the restaurant’s customers get the chance to taste dishes from its chefs’ native countries. Sounded like a win-win situation to me.
There was a lot of food. The starters comprised four dishes to share, the first of which was a surinamese soup called ‘saoto’ – a refreshing broth containing noodles, beansprouts, eggs and herbs. We also had a salmon and swordfish carpaccio, falafel balls with red cabbage and sherry, and homemade veal pastrami filled with a bulgar wheat and pomegranate salad. We wolfed the lot.
When the four main courses arrived, we weren’t sure how we were going to finish all the food – but we remained undefeated. We ate dorade with lightly curried risotto, which was a little heavy for me, and another white fish with roasted vegetables. The vegetable curry was light and coconut-y, in contrast with a seared ribeye steak with a rich dark sauce and cassava chips. The food wasn’t faultless (the chips were on the dry side, and the outside of the meat over-charred) but it nevertheless left a good impression.
Dessert comprised a slice of chocolate tart that tasted slightly minty, a scoop of tangy lemon sorbet, a glass of fruit compote (I tasted apples and pears) with a biscuit crumb, and some kind of cheesecake that was too gelatinous for me. Still, three out of four isn’t bad.
We were the last people in the restaurant, having lingered over a bottle of the house red wine for a good hour after the end of the meal. The service was perfect: there when you needed it and not when you didn’t. Prices were reasonable at €40 for the three-course teaser menu (we could easily have spent less had we opted for the simpler daily menu or gone a la carte) plus around €20 for the wine.
The Colour Kitchen cooked up probably one of the best meals I’ve had in Amsterdam so far this year. And, if I can be persuaded to venture out of the comfort zone that is the A10 again, I’m pretty sure it won’t be the last supper I have there.
