Restaurant Aan de Poel is located in Amstelveen, the wealthy suburb of Amsterdam. It is situated and named after a small lake called “De Poel”. The terrace offers a beautiful view of the lake, but the weather wasn’t The restaurant of chef Stefan van Sprang opened in 2007, gained its first Michelin star in 2009, and the second in 2013. I had been there only once before, when it had just gained its first star. I don’t remember anything from that dinner and am not sure that I haven’t been back since because I didn’t think it was worth returning to, or because it is not easily reachable by public transport and too close to home to stay in a hotel. Probably a combination of both. It is only 8-10 kilometers (5-6 miles) from the two star restaurants in Amsterdam (Spectrum, 212, Vinkeles, Ciel Bleu, and Flore) and so this was to be the last stop in my tour of all 2 star restaurants in greater Amsterdam. But with hindsight, I do not consider Aan de Poel as part of the Amsterdam fine dining scene.

When we arrived at 7pm, the restaurant was already quite full, and by 8pm all the tables were occupied. This is quite different from Amsterdam, where most diners arrive later. (The photo doesn’t show as many occupied tables, because I try to avoid taking a photo to be placed on my blog that prominently features other guests of the restaurant and so point my camera away from people as much as I can.) I also noticed a lot of families with children, even small children, and it seemed like many guests were locals and regulars. And there were a lot of tables that were quite close together — the restaurant has space for 80 diners, compared to only 24 at Restaurant 212.

The restaurant offers a seasonal chef’s menu (5 courses for 169 euros), some à la carte options, and a signature menu with the 7 favorite dishes of the chef (239 euros). As we thought the signature menu would be the best way to get reacquainted with the chef’s cooking, we opted for the latter.

We started with a Guy Charlemagne Brut Classic Champagne, of 50% Chardonnay and 50% Pinot Noir, a mellow Champagne.

The amuse bouche started with a fake olive with green apple…

…a mandarin hoisin pancake with oyster mushroom rather than duck, a puff with truffle and mayonnaise…

…and a creation of peas and green beans. There were a lot of sweet elements in the amuses, and the mayonnaise in the puff was more prominent than the truffle.

The first wine of the pairing was a 2022 Chablis by Moreau. Nicely creamy from the malolactic conversion.

This was a pretty good pairing for the first dish of steak tartare dressed with oil and chives and topped with caviar, a pan-fried langoustine tail, and wasabi mayonnaise. The caviar was a very creamy mellow type of caviar, not very salty or ‘pop in your mouth’. Although there was generous serving on top of the tartare, it was difficult to taste the caviar. The wasabi mayonnaise only had a small amount of wasabi in it, so that was very mellow as well. The wine worked better with the tartare and caviar than with the langoustine, for which the wine was a bit too creamy.

The next wine was a 2022 Albariño from Fefiñanes in Rias Baixas, Spain. Nicely fruity and mellow.

It was a good pairing for the yellowfin tuna with foie gras and bits of jamón iberico. The tuna was nice and the foie gras was nice, but they did not complement each other in any way that was apparent to me.

We continued the wine pairing with a 2022 Toques & Clochers Clocher de la Serpent heavily oaked Chardonnay from Limoux, Languedoc, France.

It was paired with lobster with a curry syrup and macadamias. The pairing of lobster with a (Thai) curry is quite common and can be very nice, but this syrup was mostly sugar with mellow spices, and no chillies whatsoever (at least not that I could detect). The dish was mostly sweet and although this was a hefty Chardonnay, the wine still could not handle all that sugar.

The next wine was a small pour of the 2019 Château Piada Sauternes.

This was a good pairing for the signature dish within the signature menu, smoked eel lacquered with a sweet teriyaki sauce. As you can also tell from the color, this teriyaki sauce had more sugar and less soy than a regular teriyaki. This was like a mellow version of the Japanese unagi eel.

The following wine was a 2020 Domaine Pierre Boisson Monthélie, a Pinot Noir from Burgundy. It was quite rich, and dare I say mellow, for a red Burgundy.

And then nothing happened for half an hour. We were just about to alert the wait staff, when the next course did arrive.

It was a mushroom risotto with a generous serving of shaved black summer truffle. When I first tasted it, I thought the rice was missing. But then when I looked, I could see there were in fact grains of rice in the risotto. They were however completely soft, not al dente at all. We complained about this to the waitress, who apologized and asked if we wanted to get the same dish again. We didn’t feel like that, so instead suggested they could make up for it by upgrading the next wine. At that time I thought it was a mistake that the rice was overcooked, but now that I am writing this review, I am curious whether it was in fact a mistake, or that the chef intended the rice to be cooked to mush, as that seems to fit with his cooking style? The risotto did have a nice mushroom flavor.

The ‘upgraded’ wine was a 2011 Valpolicella Ripasso “10 anni” by Cà dei Maghi from Veneto, Italy. It was nicely aged and well, mellow.

This was a good pairing for the Wagyu A5 strip steak with a nice jus. The wagyu was very tender and the garnishes were nice.

The palate cleanser was a sorbet with lemon bits frozen with liquid nitrogen.

The final wine was a Riesling Trockenbeeren Auslese by Kracher, a botrytis wine from Austria.

It was only just rich enough for the Tarte Tatin with extra caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream. The vanilla ice cream had an excellent flavor, but was melting rapidly. The extra caramel sauce made the Tatin cloyingly sweet and creamy. The crust of the tart was soft rather than crispy.

The meal was concluded with some nice friandises.

During the drive to the restaurant, my neighbor Cees and I discussed that with Michelin starred restaurants the quality can be expected to be high, but whether you love it or not has more to do with whether you like the chef’s style or not. This chef has a very clear style of sweet, mellow and soft, with very little contrast, edges, or strong spices. It is not surprising there were so many families with children, because children love this kind of food. The signature menu has all the luxury ingredients one can think of (lobster, caviar, foie gras, wagyu beef, truffle).

Aan de Poel clearly differs from the 2 Michelin star restaurants in Amsterdam. It is more a family restaurant (for families who can afford it) with crowd pleasing dishes, than a temple to fine dining like the other places. When I write “temple” I do not mean those restaurants are formal, which they are not at all (except Ciel Bleu perhaps). But the ambiance is completely different and seems to cater to a more international clientele. The distance is only 8 to 10 kilometers (5 to 6 miles), but they seem different worlds.

I am curious whether the seasonal chef’s menu is less sweet and mellow, but I’m not sure if I am curious enough to go and find out.