Dining at Hennequin & To

Champagne and classic French food are at the heart of Hennequin & To on Amsterdam’s Ferdinand Bolstraat.

It all started with the Hennequin champagne from the family of one of the owners, Pascal Hennequin. Together with Toby Mensink, he brought the wine to Amsterdam. Champagne is central to their establishment, accompanied by classic French dishes.

Stylish
The restaurant is stylishly furnished with lots of wood and a large skylight at the back of the space. We first take a seat at the brick bar and eat an arncini and Gruyere balls there. A good start.

Champagne
We go for the four-course menu, in which you have three choices per course. You can also opt for three courses or order à la carte. We start with a glass of Hennequin champagne, which is very tasty, and then switch to the wine pairing. The steak tartare to start is well-seasoned and comes with crispy toast and an egg yolk on top.

As an intermediate course, we share the sweetbreads and frog leg. Bold dishes to put on the menu, but when asked, it turns out that the sweetbreads in particular are selling like hot cakes. The absolute favorite is the frog leg. Served whole with perfectly cooked polenta and a fresh salsa verde. The dish has wonderfully bright acidity and the meat is tender.

The endive served with the sweetbreads is perfectly prepared and simply cut in half and served, without any frills. Nice. The whisky glaze on the meat is flavorful, though after a few bites it is somewhat on the sweet side. We question the doneness of the meat: both of us have eaten a lot of sweetbreads in our lives, and this one seems a little too rare. We are assured that this is how it should be, but we still do not finish it entirely.

Venison steak
For the main course, we share the ravioli and venison steak. The ravioli tastes good, is filled with ricotta and comes with beurre noisette and crispy sage. The flavor is there, but it would be even better with thinner pasta dough. The venison steak is perfectly cooked and crispy and salty on the outside; the chanterelles served with it are excellent. The bacon and red wine sauce (which has more the consistency of apple butter) that accompany it are, in our opinion, not even necessary, because the meat and mushrooms are good enough on their own.

The desserts: pear with sabayon made from the house champagne and speculaas crème brûlée. The half pear is rather awkwardly served in a glass; the flavor is good, but it is difficult to eat. The crème brûlée comes with speculaas spices, vanilla ice cream and a crispy almond topping. I usually get annoyed by extra things with my crème brûlée, but the ice cream is so good that I immediately forget about that.

Pay a visit
Toby’s service is fantastic all evening; we immediately feel at home. He talks passionately about the restaurant and helps us choose from the menu (without him, we would never have ordered that delicious frog leg). There are still a few things that could be improved when it comes to the food, but the foundation is there. If you are in the area and fancy a good glass of champagne and a frog leg, you should definitely stop by.

Hennequin & To
Ferdinand Bolstraat 26
Amsterdam