Restaurant La Vallade
Favorflav Sophie is dining at La Vallade, a household name in Amsterdam. The restaurant has been around for 26 years—and is still packed. On the terrace along the Ringdijk, you imagine yourself among the flowers in a village in France.
At La Vallade, you eat whatever the pot serves. There is a weekly changing five-course menu, and every Monday they serve five vegetarian courses.
The evening gets off to a good start when, after a bike ride, I settle down on the sunny terrace behind a small dike in the middle of the city. A sweet, enthusiastic woman hurries over, pours a delicious glass of wine and puts a basket of bread on the table. Exactly what you want.
Starter
When the first course arrives at the table, the celebration begins. We get antipasti. The grilled eggplant with radicchio and olive oil is delicious. The glass of gazpacho is astonishing. The thick, cold soup is perfectly seasoned. The soup is rich and contains lots of garlic. As an intermediate course, we get a salad. A very simple little salad of tomato, cucumber, arugula and endive with a good dressing. The cucumber is sliced very thinly, so it absorbs the dressing well. Utterly simple, but effective.
Main
The main course is cheese soufflé. And not the kind in a crispy jacket, but a labor-intensive oven-baked version made with egg. The soufflé is rolled around raw zucchini and ricotta. Amazing. The dish is warm and savory, yet very fresh and crunchy thanks to the raw zucchini. Next to the soufflé is fried polenta with pickled whole peppercorns. The Madeira and shallot sauce is slightly sweet, but not too sweet. The grilled half tomato completes the plate.
Cheese
The cheese board is overwhelming. So much. Large pieces of Leiden cheese with fenugreek, Brie de Meaux and Roquefort appear on the table. The board also holds pieces of date bread, grapes and walnuts that still need to be cracked open. We love cheese so much that we almost eat the entire board. Dessert is half a poached peach with passion fruit sorbet and various berries. A beautiful balance between sweet and sour. A fresh and light dessert—lovely after that cheese board.
Like a god in France
The service is friendly and relaxed. The atmosphere it creates fits the picture perfectly. Among the flowers and vases, on blue chairs, you imagine yourself on holiday in a French village. Sometimes it almost feels as though I am eating at someone’s home; that is how welcome and at ease I feel at La Vallade. The price-quality ratio is incredible. For €35.50, you get five courses, and a glass of house wine costs €4.
If you haven’t been there yet, go there. If you have been there before, just go again.
La Vallade
Ringdijk 23
Amsterdam
Open every day from 18:00 to 22:00
