You can eat and drink wonderfully at wine bar and restaurant Otto Volante in Amsterdam
On the Overtoom in Amsterdam, you’ll find the surprising wine bar slash gastro-bistro Otto Volante, where culinary delights in an eclectic mix of styles emerge from the kitchen in a relaxed atmosphere. The ingredients used are largely local and organic, and often even grown, picked and fermented in the restaurant’s backyard. What a discovery!
Let’s start with that special name. Otto Volante means roller coaster in Italian. But they couldn’t have imagined how fitting that name would be when they gave it to the restaurant. That roller coaster all began just after opening, but first things first. What kind of restaurant is Otto Volante, and who is behind the stove?
Chef Riccardo Russo
Italian Riccardo Russo studied oenology (in short: winegrowing) in Italy, after which he started working as a sommelier. But he loves cooking and coming up with new things even more than wine. For several years, he had his own restaurant in the artists’ village of Pietrasanta in Tuscany. He moved to the Netherlands for love, where he worked in the kitchens of Daalder*, Guts&Glory and restaurant Breda. After a few years, he opened the successful Bar Centraal with two others, the wine bar with natural wines that was known as the wine bar where you could eat wonderfully. Then he found Otto Volante (which was still called Schnitzelparadijs at the time). He fell head over heels for the large space, which you can’t see from outside), the cellar (for the wine!) and the garden.
After a six-month renovation, they opened on March 11, 2020, four days before the first lockdown. Otto Volante, there you have it.
Picked by hand
But they’ve been back on track for a while now—and how! Riccardo doesn’t cook according to a particular cuisine or style. He makes whatever comes to mind, preferably with ingredients he picks himself in or around the restaurant’s backyard. In that backyard, among the edible flowers, lush plants and shrubs, there is also a small shed where all kinds of things are fermenting. So you’ll also find that homemade kimchi, kombucha and miso in the dishes on the small menu—which includes a changing four- or five-course menu and a small à la carte selection during the week.
Amuse-bouches
The meagre score of 6 that Otto Volante recently received in Het Parool did sting for a moment, yes. But they’re carrying on. Because they know themselves: tastes differ, but what we make is simply good. And according to most regular guests, even very good. Take the amuse-bouches, which stand out in flavour, colour and balance. The tartelette with barbecued garden peas, black pepper and pecorino cream is delicious, and the cannolo, made from dried tomato and filled with a cream of tomato, basil and a little chilli, is also very flavourful.
Natural wines
The wine list, with more than 300 natural wines selected by Riccardo’s girlfriend Odile, is striking. Natural wine (vin nature) is made as naturally as possible, with as little intervention from the winemaker as possible. Think hand-picked grapes, the use of wild yeasts that occur naturally on the grape (yeast converts sugar into alcohol), and juice that is neither clarified nor filtered (which is why natural wine is often somewhat cloudy). Another characteristic of natural wines: every single one has a cool label.
Kohlrabi
After the amuse-bouches comes a dish of kohlrabi prepared in various ways. Kohlrabi with a flan made from kohlrabi, topped with a fried kohlrabi leaf, homemade miso and oxidised pine-nut sprouts, served with a lime-leaf and lemongrass sauce. The dish has multiple textures and flavours and is beautifully balanced as well. It has everything: silky smooth yet crunchy, rich in flavour yet refreshing. Delicious.
Dry-aged cod
The second dish is a piece of dry-aged cod in a roasted pine-nut sauce, topped with some herring roe and a refined sauce made with herbs from their own garden. This dish is also wonderfully flavourful. Every ingredient has been considered, and you can taste that it was prepared with so much love and attention.
Perfect guinea fowl
But the highlight is the guinea fowl with turnip greens and glazed carrot, topped with chanterelles. The guinea fowl is cooked to perfection, so juicy, with such a crisp crust and a divine sauce made from the guinea fowl bones. It comes with delicious homemade oat-milk bread for mopping up the sauce. Heavenly!
Amazake ice cream
The dessert is fantastic too: a sticky plum cake with a scoop of amazake ice cream—ice cream made from fermented rice (also known as ‘sweet sake’). Nectarine is placed on top. The dandelion oil, made from dandelions picked in Odile’s parents’ garden, is also something special. So delicious!
Otto Volante is open Wednesday through Saturday from 6:00 p.m. to midnight. You’re also welcome to enjoy a glass of wine at the bar with various small dishes from the menu. In summer, the sunny terrace is open for lunch. We’re fans!
Otto Volante, Overtoom 534H, Amsterdam
