Hotspot: rooftop restaurant The Kitchen Garden
In September, 78 metres sky-high, The Kitchen Garden, the restaurant by Juniper & Kin, opens in Amsterdam. Fine dining at great heights: we went to sample it in advance.
We walked in
And went straight into a spaceship lit with pink-red LEDs and full of high-tech gadgets. In the rooftop greenhouse of hotel QO Amsterdam , the Rolls-Royce of greenhouses, cresses, herbs, tomatoes, strawberries and flowers are pampered with the ideal light and the right temperature. How is that possible? Because the roof opens and closes automatically. Hi-tech urban farming, in short.
What’s new?
Directly beneath the greenhouse was already an incredible cocktail bar with a view: Juniper & Kin. In September, a fine-dining restaurant will be added: The Kitchen Garden. Many ingredients are grown in the greenhouse or cultivated from plants developed there by a local farmer in Osdorp.
The menu?
We had an advance taste and were blown away by the smoked watermelon with daikon (a relative of the radish and white radish), which looked like two drops of soy sauce on sashimi. And by the ‘Oosterschelde’: sustainable Zeeland yellowtail, oyster and briny vegetables, washed down with incredible Dutch wines from Schouwen-Duiveland.
What’s special?
One of the dishes is a salad made exclusively with incredibly fresh ingredients from the greenhouse, such as champagne leaf and oyster leaf, plus colourful flowers that you cannot get anywhere else this fresh. All ingredients are prepared at a maximum temperature of 41 degrees. This preserves their flavour and vitamins. It requires considerable creativity in a kitchen without a stove, because nothing is cooked here: ingredients are cold-smoked, fermented, dried and juiced.
We’ll be back, then?
Absolutely. We’re looking forward to this restaurant arriving at a height of 78 metres. The sunset is included in the price, by the way, and for meat lovers who want to escape the green fiddling for a moment, one of the courses is a guilty pleasure.
Amstelvlietstraat 4, Amsterdam
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