FG Restaurant ** | Rotterdam (NL)
The emphasis is on new flavour and texture combinations.
A contemporary cuisine that is inventive, bold and full of character!
FG Restaurant is housed in a trendy version of a train tunnel, under the arches of a pensioned train station in the city centre of Rotterdam. No modesty on their website: “Only the very best is good enough. Everything has to be perfect, not only on the plate and in the glass, but also the atmosphere and the service as well as the acoustics and the seating comfort.” The seating is definitely different, as the restaurant is full of comfortable and spacious swivel wing-chairs. Let’s see if they can also live up to the other expectations!
Born in the southern province of Brabant into a family of Aruban heritage, Chef Patron François Geurds inherited his mother Ivy’s culinary genes.He trained in some of the top Michelin restaurants in The Netherlands, like Parkheuvel**, before moving to England. After a short period at restaurant Gordon Ramsay*** in London, François started working at The Fat Duck*** in Bray, where he became Heston Blumenthal’s Sous Chef.
After his time in England, François Geurds opened his first restaurant called Ivy in a dock area in Rotterdam in February 2009. Nine months later the restaurant was awarded with it’s first Michelin star and the second followed end 2013, when the 2014 Michelin guide was presented. A few months earlier Ivy was renamed as FG Restaurant. Obviously François Geurds’ initials, but according to the website it stands for Fabulous Gastronomy!
In 2014 a new restaurant was opened called FG Foodlabs, a “taste laboratory” clearly inspired by François’ time at Heston Blumenthal. FG Foodlabs boasts a Michelin star since the 2015 Michelin guide. In August 2016, FG Restaurant moved to it’s current location, right next door to FG Foodlabs.
FG Restaurant is open for lunch and dinner on Tuesday to Saturday. During weekdays they also serve breakfast. No à la carte pricing, but prices based on the number of courses. Starting from 5-courses at €130, then adding €20 per course to 9-courses at €210. They also offer All-in breakfast at €35 and a 3-course All-in lunch at € 77,50 (including wines, waters and coffee/tea)
We dined at FG Restaurant a day after Boxing Day and they only offered the Christmas Tasting Menu (9-courses at €225 and 7-courses at €180). So we had the 7 courses.
Surprisingly the two tables either side of us were getting another menu. But the waiter explained that those guest had a voucher from Heerlijk.nl for a special menu at a special price. This didn’t feel right. It would be better to exclude use of those vouchers on days they want to force customers to only have a certain menu.
The first amuse bouche arrived. A signature piccalilli ice cream in a little cornet of tomato and liquorice. Some popping candy in there as well to wake up the taste buds.
Sourdough bread with three kinds of butter. With and without salt and the middle one is algae butter with pink pepper. The grinder and rock of Himalaya salt are the first signs that François Geurds wants to engage the guests in process. More to follow on that.
Another amuse bouche followed. A macaron of foie with black truffle. The black truffle had been soaked in its own juices to get a real intense truffle flavour. Very nice with the rich foie gras mousse and chewy macaron. Delicious!
A box with 12 different salts arrived, for us to explore and make a selection and put on the dish on the table to use later.
Next a selection of steak knives. Apparently François Geurds collects them. You can pick to one you like and that will be the knife you will use during the whole dinner.
The final amuse was crispy rice noodles with fermented raspberry and apricot. The fermented raspberry almost tasted like pate. Some begonia flower petals, pumpkin seeds and olive oil on there as well. Tickling the senses with different tastes and textures.
And there was the pepper. Twelve varieties from across the globe again. We picked four different ones, which we grounded in the pestle and mortar that was on the table.
The first course was oyster, with oyster cream to intensify the oyster taste in a beautiful way. Love the pearl barley. Cooked just right. Caviar not just adding more extravagance, but also saltiness from the sea! Excellent dish.
Joanne had scallop instead of the oyster, together with the pearl barley and caviar. The scallops were grilled to perfection. Great dish as well.
Beautiful piece of grilled steak with its tartare on top. Some beef crumbs and a bold jus. Sliver of foie on the side. Love the simplicity of this dish. Simply delicious!
Joanne had dover sole instead of the steak, but with beef crumbs and the beef jus! Green asparagus and pickled onions. This combination worked a treat as well. Very clever and two excellent dishes!
Next was langoustine on grilled chicory, with caviar on top. Some pecorino cheese, a pumpkin crisp and langoustine jus. Chicory quite bitter on its own, but works when eating with the other elements. Don’t taste the saffron, but a lovely dish. Another nice marriage of unusual flavour combinations.
Tartlet with white beans and white Alba truffle. Sounds nice but it didn’t work. The beans were quite hard and not pleasant to eat. The tartlet was very crumbly and had a bit of an earthy taste. When eating everything together, the truffle just disappeared. Which was a shame of that beautiful truffle. Very disappointing we had to send it back after a bite or two.
To make up for the beans dish, we received a complementary dish. A long time signature of the chef. Quail jelly with coconut foam and foie gras. Herb jelly underneath with tarragon coming through nicely. Crunchy bits of black olive and gold leaf on top. Served cold, but ever so flavoursome. An extraordinary dish and a real taste explosion, playing with your taste buds. A prime example of Heston Blumenthal’s influence.
Succulent venison with a proper deep jus. Black beauty celeriac and époisse cheese. Excellent! In the little bowl the same celeriac with a vinaigrette with 40-odd spices and a beurre blanc with razor blades. Utterly delicious. And to top it off, a bonbon of chocolate with spicy kimchi. This is top notch cooking!
Bit puzzled why other tables on the same menu got 4 pieces of venison and we only got 2. Shouldn’t have complained about the beans I think….
First dessert was mille-feuille with vanilla cream and caramel ice cream. Some caramelised macadamia nuts on top. Mille-feuille not the best. Flavour of the pastry with the cream and ice cream is nice. But not very special.
Plating was very inconsistent. And the mille-feuille doesn’t look really tidy to begin with. Look at the difference between Joanne’s plate and mine. This is not a great effort after the beautiful dishes we’ve seen so far.
Waiting staff was slacking a bit at this time. Tables being left uncleared for a long time and some people were waiting for a long time to pay. Seems they’re busy doing things in the kitchen and losing sight of the guests.
Final dessert in two parts. Beetroot with fermented passionfruit and a beetroot macaron on top. Very tasty macaron with the right texture.
Under the bell glass a beetroot parfait with fermented passionfruit on chocolate soil. Slightly earthy sweetness with pungent flavours. Works like a treat. Excellent and evocative dessert!
We skipped coffee as we were quite satisfied. Instead of friandises the waiter came with an ice trolley with a choice of two different ice cream. Joanne had the forest fruit, which was more sorbet than ice cream with standard flavour. I went for the pergamon with mango and avocado. Unusual combination, but pleasant taste. Serving a large ice cream cone at the end of a 7 course menu is a bit much. The small cone we had a Ron Gastrobar* recently would have been sufficient.
Going back to the statement on the website that everything has to be perfect, I don’t think they nailed it. Seating comfort is great, atmosphere and acoustics are fine as well. Service however wasn’t perfect. Friendly enough but quite chaotic at the start, like they couldn’t cope with the number of guests coming in. After the first course it got better. But at the end they were slacking. Not good enough at this restaurant level.
What about the food then? Actually, when we forget about the bean dish and the mille-feuille dessert, it was pretty perfect. The emphasis is on new flavour and texture combinations. A contemporary cuisine that is inventive, bold and full of character. You can see the influence of his time at The Fat Duck, but François Geurds clearly created his own style. Carefully constructed dishes, that occasionally push flavours to their boundaries, but never in an experimental way.
