Go: Meatcave in Rotterdam
Meat lovers, gather round, because since the beginning of March Meatcave in Rotterdam has been open. It sounds a bit like an enormous eating house, but it certainly isn’t. The chefs prepare carefully selected meat on the Big Green Egg, and they do it remarkably well.
Meatcave isn’t entirely new. The meat restaurant was previously located in a dark cellar in Leiden, but had to leave because of the municipality’s zoning plan. Fortunately, there was room for them in Rotterdam. They have tried to recreate the Leiden cellar with the robust stone wall. Apart from that, the restaurant bears no resemblance to a cellar, but the great atmosphere hasn’t disappeared because of it. With plenty of light and an open kitchen containing two gigantic Big Green Eggs, the restaurant is even more accessible and atmospheric.
Without that old cellar, Meatcave might never have existed at all. When Pim and Joëlle van de Leur (brother and sister) opened their grand café in Leiden, they knew they had to do something with the beautiful cellar beneath their premises. A chef friend came up with the idea of turning it into a Meatcave. Through Big Green Egg, they ended up working with chef Robert Lobensteijn.
No menu
Robert came up with the idea of working without a menu. You don’t choose dishes, but rather the number of courses: a minimum of three and a maximum of eight. It depends somewhat on the available meat and the chef’s inspiration. FavorFlav stopped by and opted for six courses.
As an amuse-bouche, we get a meatball made from beef and pork mince and a hot dog with jalapeño and cheddar, both served with homemade South Louisiana barbecue sauce. The meatball is perfectly firm and wonderfully juicy, while the hot dog is spicy with a deliciously crisp skin. The smoky sauce complements them well.
The starter is a board with soft Italian king olives, mild yet flavourful Spanish Iberico ham, smoky and sweet Cecina de Leon, and tender and spicy beef pastrami. The Spanish ham is the favourite: wonderfully fatty and salty.
Soft-drink pairing
Pim tells us that at Meatcave, instead of a wine pairing, you can also opt for a soft-drink pairing. With the next dish, alongside our glass of wine, naturally, we have a matching soft drink. It’s Fritz Orange, which pairs well with the pork collar from Limburg Livar pork, marinated in allspice and saffron and served with a spicy salsa brava. The meat is extremely tender with a crisp edge. The salsa is slightly sweet and deliciously spicy.
The brisket of New Zealand Ocean Beef is so tender that it brings pulled beef to mind. The sauce has something reminiscent of speculaas. Bread is served for dipping into the remaining sauce, which we do enthusiastically. The slowly cooked pork belly of The Duke of Berkshire, the oldest English pig breed, though this one comes from North Holland, is marinated in sweet kecap manis and Sriracha. Deliciously spicy, and the meat is wonderfully tender. The main course of Canadian Heritage Black Angus also doesn’t disappoint and comes with plenty of vegetables, which provide a lovely change alongside all that meat.
Dessert
The dessert consists of an American pancake with bacon, homemade stracciatella and caramel ice cream, and Oreo crumble. Salty bacon with sweet ice cream is the perfect combination to finish with. The chocolate curls in the stracciatella ice cream are exactly large enough to provide a subtle chocolate flavour, without being too hard or overpowering.
The chefs at Meatcave know exactly where to source their meat and what to do with it. It’s no coincidence that you eat almost nothing but meat there, with barely any side dishes. You can also eat vegetarian there, by the way, but then you do miss the essence of Meatcave somewhat. We’ll definitely be back, and next time for eight courses.
