Category Archives: Benelux – Fine Dining

De Jonkman – A Hidden Treasure in Brugge (July 2008)

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Planning a dining tour has easy and difficult parts. Well, of course the easy part is that mostly the destination is selected because there are some very good restaurants which are widely known. The difficult part is the search for some informal places to just grap a nice lunch or the treasure hunt for some rising stars. When I released that I will visit Oud Sluis and Hof van Cleve on my home forum I almost immediately had a PM which recommended “In de Wulf” and “De Jonkman”. Both having one stars I wanted to include both but In de Wulf would have been a massive detour (yes, I am not going any mile;-)) and Trine told me that she had done In de Wulf. So, for sake of some division of labour in the blogging community I opted for De Jonkman. We booked on short notice on a Friday night which was surprising as all starred restaurants in the area were fully booked.
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Oud Sluis – The Fascination Continues (July 2008)

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Another visit at Oud Sluis – even with the danger to bore you a little with my love for Oud Sluis, our menu this year was mind-blowing again and needs to be shared. The overall level was more consistent along the different courses. There are not many restaurants in the world were you encounter outstanding and perfect dishes that often.

The very good news is that Sergio is still constantly working in the kitchen in his search of the ultimate flavor combination and not opening other restaurants or being seen on TV every day. Only his former house has been renovated to give the hungry some shelter in the new guesthouse Chico Y Luna – unfortunately we got to know this too late and had already decided to stay near the beach…

As the weather was brilliant we opted for having our Champagne on the terrace. We started with some nice appetizers. First crap crackers with an aioli dip in which the garlic did not dominate topped with some puffy rice which gave the combination another textural twist as normally encountered (and thus made it interesting)…

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Oud Sluis – A Must (July 2007)

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To start with a double feature is quite some task. But I can’t write about my very recent visit at Oud Sluis without also giving some details about my first visit almost exactly one year ago (yes, you will find me in Knokke every year around July;-))

The Restaurant
Oud Sluis is a treasure in Sluis located in the south-west of the Netherlands on the border to Belgium, six kilometers from Knokke(-Het Zoute, one should add) and about 15 kilometers from Brugge. Sergio Herman’s grandfather once ran a simple restaurant and his parents served informal fish dishes. Since 1990 Sergio is in the kitchen, first supporting his parents before taking over three years later.

From the outside it is somehow unspectacular compared to other more pretentious three star restaurants. Every once in a while you can observe some strangely dressed tourists reading the menu just before the entrance (so part of the terrace), shaking their heads and immediately running away…

Oud Sluis

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