Back and have far too many review notes from New Zealand - a lot of work ahead!
Back and have far too many review notes from New Zealand - a lot of work ahead!
Member since:23.05.2007
Reviews:114
Members who trust:166
INTRODUCTION
Being stuck in a hotel on long business trips isn't nearly as much fun as it might sound. Aside from being stuck in 1 room for the duration, you also have no option to cook for yourself, and often don't even have a fridge to keep some stuff in. And so - the only thing you can do to feed yourself and stop yourself going mad staring at the TV hung up at a height which strains the neck is to eat out. Being located in Breda, which isn't a huge town, I have tried quite a few restaurants, and was on my way to one I knew when I spotted next to it a Mediterranean one with lots of seafood on the menu. On a whim, I went in - here is the result of that action.
LOCATION
El Corazon is located overlooking the newly rebuilt harbour (to cut a long story short - a stretch of water was once filled in and a car park rested on it, until someone had the idea of redeveloping it to it's former glory, and it opened to much fanfare last year - I've never seen the locals so excited, and it's pretty impressive I must say) in the town of Breda, South Netherlands.
THE RESTAURANT
There seems to be a Mediterranean theme here, and their business card claims it to be a "Mediterranean kitchen". The restaurant is long and thin is shape; as you walk in, the open plan kitchen is to the right, as is the bar, and facing this is all sorts of fancy maritime-themed ornaments. Into the restaurant seating area, and you first come to some smoking tables. The non smoking section is at the back. All in all, there appears to be room for about 30 people, with one big table for 8, several tables for 4 and the rest for 2. The fittings are
simple and yet pleasing; understatement seems the order of the day here, with low ceilings and easy listening Latino tunes piped through at an unobtrusive volume.
On the business card, it states that this was the winner of some sort of prize - restaurant wine selection.
FUN WITH BABEL FISH
From the introduction page of the website via a verbatim babel-fish translation:
"Welcome on the Internet site of restaurant ell Corazon. On three September restaurant opened ell Corazon after strong tidies up and freshens up themselves turn its doors for our guests. _In our restaurant with open kitchen, smell and taste you see Mediterranean._
We have composed a menu card in which Italy, Spain, France, Turkey, Greece and Morocco in are among other things represented for you,_ of course money this also for the wine card which has been selected with much care. Also only Mediterranean wines among other things Spain, France, Italy, but also Lebanon and Morocco._
Further we try work the as much as possible with local ingredients for example ice, the cheeses and the meerval come of farms from the surroundings of breda, _we serve of course also several season bound products, which are made by means of school schoolborden but also at you to table confessed._
Except the menu card with for this reason the Courts gone changing, we have wines also changing which with regard to character, taste and price between the house wines - Italian and Spanish - and the card wines are appropriate. _It speaks for itself that you can, think make already your diet wishes recognizable of low-salt, sugarless, melkvrij, glutenvrij, how rather we this thus know all the more we for you can do. __You take into account thus if you reserve. We gladly welcome you in our restaurant."_
THE MENU
The menu was separated into several sections - starters, soups, fish dishes, meat dishes and vegetarian. I really liked this, as my very bad Dutch might have struggled (although the waitress seemed more than happy to translate if necessary, another thumbs up). The menu was quite heavy on seafood, which was a welcome change to the usual Dutch meny heavy on cheese and bread. Starters contained Mediterranean staples such as salad and carpaccio. Fish dishes such as salmon, sardines and risotto were included. Meat dishes contained chicken, veal and lamb. Finally, vegetarian had risotto, fettuccini and a pepper stuffed with cheese.
THE EXPERIENCE
As I walked in, I was greeted with blank looks from the waitresses and chef. I was the first one in that evening, at about 6pm, and I think someone speaking English might have thrown them a bit. I did effusively smile at them all but that didn't seem to help. When the penny dropped that I actually wanted to eat, my coat was taken, and I was shown to a small table for 2 in the non smoking section at the back of the restaurant.
I had thought they had forgotten me after a waitress brought me an orange juice and no menu, and not for the first time that evening I was wrong. She came back with a board containing 2 pieces of white toast, and 2 halves of tomato and 2 garlic cloves on some sort of grating dish. This was a new one on me - what to do? I settled on crushing the garlic cloves and rubbing them on the bread, whilst scoffing
Pictures of El Corazon, Breda, Netherlands
Restaurant outside view
the tomatoes. If anyone knows what I was supposed to do please leave this as a comment! I would love to know. Anyway, so far so good - it was all a master plan.
I liked the look of the seafood from the menu, and so ordered fish soup as a starter and seafood risotto as a main. Due to the layout of the restaurant, I could see the chefs back as he cooked my soup, which was quite fun, as I could just about make out the pan he was sloshing around. When the dish arrived some time later, it was clear that the staff had regained their composure and I even teased a giggle out of my waitress when I said thank you in Dutch ("dank u " in case you wanted to know). From the point on, things improved immeasurably. The soup was quite excellent. Arriving in a deep bowl was a thin broth, mixed in with spring onions, parsley and a dab of cream splodged in the middle, laden (and I mean laden) with huge pieces of seafood; 3 big shrimps, 4 big mussels, 2 smaller mussels (the ones on the round shells, pilgrim mussels perhaps?) and some little pieces of squid and smaller prawns. At first the broth didn't appear to taste much, but after I swirled it round a bit and mixed in the cream, it was very pleasant, but the main body of flavour came from the seafood pieces. The shrimps came unpeeled, and they had also thoughtfully provided a finger bowl with 2 slices of lemon; until relatively recently I was never sure whether to use this to clean your fingers or drink it; if it is indeed the latter, again, comments required please! I was also served with 2 large chunks of the typically excellent and fresh Dutch wholemeal bread, with some cream cheese sprinkled with chopped chives accompanying it in a little dish. This was a great accompaniment for what was rapidly becoming the best fish soup I had eaten in some time.
I was quite full already by this point and was musing on the fact that, at 7.5 Euros, the soup was 10 times better than one I'd had 2 days ago for a similar price; in fact it was outstanding value for money, I would say.
When the main meal arrived, I was yet again taken aback; on an identically sized dish to the starter, lay a bed of risotto rice mixed with onions and diced red and yellow peppers. The rest somewhat resembled the starter, with little squid pieces, more unpeeled prawns, and more big and small mussels. But the piece de resistance was the 3 huge grilled, unpeeled langoustine sat atop of all of this. By my reckoning, there was more seafood than rice on this little beauty. Flipping 'eck! This was seafood risotto and then some. And that wasn't all, oh no. On the side was served an undressed salad (a great idea - vinegar and olive oil was on the table if required) with lettuce, lollo rosso, black and green olives, cherry tomatoes and what looked like homespun sundried tomatoes, teeny picked onions and cucumber cubes.
This certainly looked the part, but what of the taste? Even better than the starter; the langoustine were perfectly grilled, both tasty and crispy. The risotto was al dente, rich in flavour from its reduced stock with an excellent texture and the peppers added a slight sweetness which worked really well with the seafood. The prawns and mussels were perfectly cooked and in turn, firm and melt in the mouth. It was the best seafood risotto I've had for ages, and redefines for me what I should expect, for when I walked in I had expected little seafood chunks whizzed up with some Arborio rice. I left with an epiphany of risotto. And all of this, the salad, the risotto, was 13.5 Euros. For the quality and quantity that I got this was cheap, I'm telling you.
CONCLUSION
It hasn't been often on my travels in the Netherlands that I have been blown away by the food but it happened this time. It was, quite simply, fan-flipping-tastic; seafood at its best, simple dishes made to the highest specifications. The service, once they knew how to take me, was excellent; attentive when required, discreet when I looked engrossed in my book, and although ostensibly aloof it was clear they knew what they were doing. For 26 Euros (including 2 fresh orange juices), this was top notch cuisine on a not cheap but not rip off either budget. The chef seemed pretty chuffed when I said how great the meal was on my way out, and I departed with beams all round from the staff who had become quite chatty by the end. I will definitely be going there again!
exceptional by (20%):
very helpful by (80%):
