I could start by saying that restaurant Stiel is not that easy to find. In the old Bergweg Station, along the De Hofbogen train viaduct that runs through the middle of Rotterdam, there is a modest, average food hall with tacos, ramen, pizza, burgers and a central beer bar for the masses. But under one of those court arches there is a wall with a door. Behind it there is peace. It is cozy, with candles and flowers on the table, a beautiful natural stone bar, modern handmade ceramics and natural wine – like a small restaurant that bravely continues to resist.
We could talk about their self-proclaimed “Polder Italian style”, which focuses on “quality and local ingredients […] as close as possible.” Or about the meaning of the name. Stiel means trade, company, profession or craft. “We strive to […] celebrating the biodiversity, crafts and possibilities of Western Europe with the Netherlands as our epicenter. We work with ceramists, greengrocers, hunters, cheesemakers, game pickers, beekeepers and winemakers, with a focus on their craft,” according to the website.
I could make a point that the homemade, dried ox sausage on the snack board is a somewhat sweet, slightly chewy beef sausage, and as such is quite tasty, but certainly not ox sausage (I say as a true Amsterdam resident – mind you).
That the house aperitif disappoints on all levels. It is the inverse of the sum of the parts, all ingredients dilute each other: no punch from the gin, no spice from ginger, no more bubbles in the sparkling water. What remains is a weak, soapy dark ‘n stormy. That the German cider is so uber-green and sleek that you can no longer even taste that it is made from apples.
That the tartare is cut in a soft way and has little taste of its own. That egg, meat, marrow and lovage mayonnaise are very delicious, that it has a lot of umami, that a twist of pepper or some lemon and a leaf of lettuce would do wonders. And that the vegetarian main course of dried, blackened carrots candied in reduced carrot juice with butter is rather the emperor’s new clothes.
I could counter that the vegetarian is the winner for the rest of the evening. With a particularly cozy bowl of French lentil stew as a warm-up on a chilly winter day, with a swirl of smoked curd that simultaneously gives something smoldering sultry and keeps it fresh, with some garlic oil for a little spice. With hay-smoked celeriac (instead of beef tartare) in measured cubes that do not have that sweet, puree quality of cooked celeriac, but rather have something fresh, without falling into the association with raw celery salad strings. That is exactly the counterbalance that the umami-rich mix of egg yolk, soy sauce and lovage mayonnaise needs (the latter has been beaten with some gravy from the tuber skins, which improves the lightness.)
That the marzipan, apricot kernel notes in the light orange vermentino color very nicely with the fig leaf oil in the beurre blanc based on the cooking liquid of the salsify. These are slowly cooked before being rolled in Chinese cabbage and sea lettuce and grilled over a light smoke of pine tops and hay. This is a particularly successful dish because the salsify is nicely cooked (not all vegetables benefit from al dente), the sea lettuce gives it a bit of saltiness, the sauce is sour enough but still creamy and all the aromas of hay, pine and fig are subtle but present.
Three courses for 48 euros is really competitively priced, because the main course comes in two serious parts. First a homemade tagliolini (very thin tagliatelle) with a sauce of Oudwijker fiore (also known as the Dutch taleggio) and XO of mushrooms and leek powder – a clever sauce that initially seems a bit Spartan, but turns out to offer a lot of depth. (The nutty satisfaction of the cheese-mushroom-leek combo only really comes into its own with some salt – the kitchen should have done that itself.) Then follows a tasty piece of Baambrugs pork belly with an intense, sticky reduction of pork bone stock (as with the tonkotsu ramen) and radicchio.
Could be… But that’s all completely uninteresting compared to the dessert!
I finally found my G-spot. The road to pleasure appears to lie between two sandwiches: a toasted sandwich made of baked brioche with crème fraîche ice cream in between, a pistachio caramel crumble and a truly divine pistachio ‘nutella’ from our own conche (see inset). It’s sweet, it’s sour, it’s fatty, it’s hot, it’s cold, it’s sticky, it’s fresh and crispy… in terms of caloric value you’d be better off eating a Big Mac, but boy is this satisfying. “Óooincredible! Óooooincredible!”, little Freek Vonkje rages in my head. I predict TikTok rows and mountains of gold for those who sell this from a food truck.
This dessert is nothing short of genius. However, that does not make Stiel a four-ball tent. But it certainly has a lot of potential. Chef Mattia Sabino Caso stood behind the stove at Vuurtoreneiland for years. Maître-sommelier Wendy Persoon comes from Renilde. In April last year they started at Bergweg Station to “get a feel for each other and explore the collaboration a bit”, in their own words. I think that experiment was basically a success. This summer they will move to a more permanent location in the same neighborhood. As long as the dessert moves with you.
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