Restaurant Heimat in Utrecht has just opened. In fact, I was there for the first regular night, after a trial week. My main purpose to be there was to catch up with a dear friend, who lives around the corner from the restaurant. I wasn’t planning to do a review as the evening was to be focused on our conversation rather than food and wine. But I decided to do a review after all.

The name “Heimat” is German for “home country” and refers to the local ingredients used in the dishes. The young chef Niels van Zijl has worked at Librije*** in Zwolle (Netherlands) and Kadeau** in Copenhagen (Denmark), and the influence of nordic cuisine is clear. There is no à la carte, only an 8 course chef’s menu (meat&fish or vegan) for 79 euros. There is an alcoholic beverage pairing or a pretty decent wine list to choose from.

We started with a glass of sparkling Vouvray, made from Chenin, brut nature, and aged 9 months on the lees. I am familiar with Crément de Loire, but don’t remember a sparkling Appellation Vouvray Contrôlée. A fine mouse and a nicely fruity.

The amuses bouches consisted of three parts. The first part was a plâteau de crudité (raw vegetables and fruits) with a smoked cashew dip. It was a nice selection, but the cashew dip didn’t taste smoky and not very much like cashew.

The second and third part were a tartlet with cheese, lovage, and horseradish, and asparagus soup with grapefruit. I didn’t care for the grapefruit in the asparagus soup, not sure what it added.

The sommelier Bas Janssen suggested a white wine would go well with the first four courses, so I decided to order a nice bottle of Meursault rather than going with the beverage pairing. With Meursault you don’t really know what to expect if you don’t know the producer, but Bas was very good at describing the wine exactly as it was: not too rich and very balanced, with a nice minerality.

The first course of the chef’s menu was smoked trout with chiogga beets, rhubarb, and seaweed. The rhubarb didn’t really stand out, but I consider that a good thing. The trout was very nice.

The second course was vegan ‘foie gras’ with roasted/dried carrots, and buckthorn sorbet. The vegan foie gras was very nice and made from mushrooms and nuts, with a texture very much like actual foie gras. The sorbet was quite strongly flavored and took away the attention from the lovely foie, but it was still a nice dish.

Next was a bread course of rye bread and layered brioche with caramelized seeds and whipped goat butter. The brioche feuilleté was like a croissant and must be a lot of work to make. I liked the seeds.

The fourth course and final course we enjoyed with the Meursault was barbecued white asparagus with caremelized witlof (endives), ajo blanco, and kiwi berry. The white asparagus had been barbecued without peeling them, and then peeled to serve. This removes the barbecue flavor, and on a few pieces that still had some of the charring, it tasted more burnt than smoky. The asparagus without charring were fine, but hadn’t really benefited from the barbecue. The caramelized witlof was sweetened with sugar. According to the wait staff, the sugar was added because during the trial week guests had complained about the bitterness of the witlof. It was still bitter with the sugar, and too strong a flavor to go with the elegant flavor of the asparagus. This was our least favorite dish of the menu.

For the meat course we had a glass from the regular wine pairing, a Garnacha from DO Méntrida in Spain. The Meursault was a tough act to follow.

The main course was three different prepations of lamb: loin, belly, and kebab with green sauce. The belly was perfectly cooked and very flavorful. The kebab with the sauce was delicious, and the best pairing with the Garnacha.

The wine pairing for dessert was a sparkling Souvignier Gris from the South of France. It was presented to us as a sparkling Gewurztraminer, but I could not detect any of the characteristic aromas. According to the website of the producer it is a Souvignier Gris, which makes more sense. It is like a lighter version (less fruity, less sweet) of a Moscato d’Asti.

This was a good pairing for the sheep yogurt sorbet with cress. I liked the sorbet, but there was too much cress; it tasted ‘too green’ for my liking.

Coffee or tea was accompanied by a doughnut in an unfortunate shape with a pumpkin and bearclaw dip. The doughnut was just a doughnut, and the dip didn’t taste as interesting as it sounds (and didn’t stick well to the doughnut).

We’ve had a very enjoyable evening. It was not noticeable at all that the restaurant had been open for a week only. The best part was the service, which was excellent. Very attentive and paced just right. We mentioned we wanted to drink the Meursault over four courses, and it was poured in exactly the right pace for that. The sommelier definitely knows his wines (it was not the sommelier who announced the sparkling dessert wine as Gewurztraminer). The chef is very creative and has a lot of potential; he definitely knows how to cook. As with many young chefs, he yet has to learn that “less is more”. I think the dishes would benefit from using fewer ingredients and fewer techniques. Why go to the trouble of smoking cashews if you can’t taste smoke in the result anyway? And if the restaurant is all about making the ingredients shine, then why add caramelized witlof that overpowers the asparagus, or a sorbet that outshines the wonderful vegan foie gras? I’m curious to see how this restaurant will develop.