Delivery review: Gebroeders Hartering’s takeaway meal
During this crazy coronavirus period, restaurants are closed, so we’re enjoying eating out at home. Luckily, many new and unique delivery and takeaway restaurants have opened. And we’re going to test them for you. That way, we can keep eating well while supporting the hospitality industry. Today: Gebroeders Hartering in Amsterdam.
If you want to give foreign guests a real Amsterdam experience, take them to Gebroeders Hartering in summer and ask for a spot on the boat moored outside in the canal. Before coronavirus, you could sit here at a communal table with strangers while delicious dishes were handed through the window and boats passed by. Niek and Paul always make it a party with top-quality ingredients and delicious flavours. Whatever the kitchen serves is the credo. Even now, when they’re continuing to cook up a storm.
The takeaway
After all those lazy delivery dinners, it’s wonderful to walk out and pick up a meal again—and burn off all those delivery calories. The city is quiet; outside, residents sit with a glass of wine, within the safe boundaries of their own pavement. The door of the restaurant on Peperstraat is open, but the chairs outside are empty. Inside, a takeaway counter has been improvised using several tables pushed together. Yellow-and-white bags waiting to be collected sit on other tables. The restaurant is dead; long live the restaurant.
What are we ordering?
The takeaway menu is available to view and is clearly laid out: baguette with Kef farm butter, Parma ham, two cold and four hot dishes, including the famous rib eye. I have such good memories of it, but it’s less suitable for a one-person household. Veal cheek is also on the menu. I order two starters: the burrata, beetroot with pickled lemon and purslane, and vitello tonnato with Ortiz tuna. My order is repeated loudly while the chef listens in from a distance of 1.5 metres. I’ve ended up in a comedy sketch.
Once, twice
When I unpack the takeaway bag at home, my heart sinks. Two identical salad containers, two identical containers labelled ‘dressing’, a container of tuna with another kind of dressing, and then another container with the beetroot, a container of burrata, a container of pickles and a bag of roasted pine nuts. Help. It’s a thousand-piece puzzle. Where do I start? ‘Who’s bidding on dressing number 1?’ I call through the living room. ‘Dressing number 1, ladies and gentlemen.’
Just like with an Ikea cabinet, I’m left with several components after assembling the meal. When I taste the vitello tonnato, I detect a strong lemon flavour that, in hindsight, may have belonged with the beetroot and burrata. Nevertheless, both dishes look beautifully presented and taste rich.
Can Gebroeders Hartering join us at the table more often?
The quality of the food is unquestionably good, so I’d happily head out again to pick up food from Gebroeders Hartering. They could, however, package the dishes in a slightly more foolproof way or provide a small hint. The prices are very reasonable for what you get. Cold dishes €15, hot dishes €15 or €20, and the rib eye to share 49 euros.
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