Cuisine: European
Michelin Stars: 2
Location: Maalse Steenweg 438, 8310 Brugge, Belgium
Telephone Number: +32 50 36 07 67
Website: www.dejonkman.be/en
Date Visited: Dinner on Weekday (July 2014)
Many people think that Brussels is the only city worth visiting in Belgium, but if you are a food lover like us, Brugge is must-go city if you are in the area. It is only a one hour drive West of Brussels, so it would be perfect for a day trip. It is commonly known as the ‘Venice of Belgium’ because many canals run through the city. In terms of eating good food, it actually has more michelin stars than Brussels, which is really quite impressive considering its population and size. For a city with a population of only 116,000, having 6 michelin stars is extremely impressive and puts them in rank 6 for most michelin stars in a city in proportion to population size. We were hoping to try at least one of the two michelin three starred restaurants, Hertog Jan and De Karmeliet, especially Hertog Jan because it had only recently earned its third michelin star, but unfortunately, they were both closed for renovation/vacation. Therefore, we ended up picking one of the two michelin starred restaurants, De Jonkman. Instead of picking a restaurant downtown, we chose to try this one, which was a bit longer of a drive, because it had only recently earned its second michelin star. Restaurants that have recently acquired michelin stars really catch our attention because it shows signs of improvement and possible greater potential, so we tend to draw ourselves to those restaurants.
We ordered the 8 course degustation menu, which was 120 EUR per person. It seemed reasonable, but after the eighth amuse bouche, we decided it was probably one of the most value for money restaurants of 2014. We usually don’t put too much emphasis on the amuse bouches and would rate all of them as one whole dish, however, De Jonkman had such special and refined amuse bouches that we decided they deserved more attention.
The first amuse bouche was a raw marine fish with a sourdough biscuit and yoghurt sauce. Given that Brugge is so close to the ocean, we had expected very fresh fish, and we were not disappointed. The fish was very fresh the biscuit provided a nice crunch and the yoghurt brought nice acidity to compliment the fish. 8/10
The next amuse buche wasn’t quite as good as our first one, so we were a bit disappointed. It was a carrot cannelloni with hazelnut and just wasn’t that great. 6.5/10
Bloody mary watermelon. We’re not sure what they did nor how they did it. But it was cool. And yummy. 7/10
This next amuse bouche was probably our favorite. It was a raw smoked herring on a piece of irish bread with cauliflower and radish. For those of you who don’t know, raw herring is very popular in Belgium (and nearby countries), but only eaten plain from May to July because it is only fresh enough during these months. In other months it is often pickled or heavily seasoned to mask the fishy taste. We had had raw herring a few days before at a local seafood market and was already very impressed. But this raw herring at De Jonkman exceeded our expectations and is a dish we won’t forget. 10/10
Next was a snail with potato cream. It was like a typical escargot dish but without the sauce. It was good but wasn’t great, partially because the snail was so small it was almost nonexistent. 7/10
When we were served our next amuse bouche, it looked like a croquette of some sort, but it was actually a deep fried quail egg. While perfecting the temperature of the egg inside and maintaining a liquid egg yolk, the breadcrumb coating was also very special because the chef had added mushrooms to it, which we don’t commonly see. 9/10
By the time we were served this amuse bouche, we were already appalled at how many there had already been and were starting worry about how many more there are to come. That said, we were also excited because they were all delicious and we wanted to try what else the chef would offer. It was a fish (tbh we don’t remember what fish exactly XD) with a fennel salad and celery puree. 7.5/10
Although I’m not a huge fan of lamb kidney and was quite hesitant to try it, when I actually managed to put it in my mouth, I found it to actually be quite good. It was very well marinated with black pepper and had a charcoal flavor to it, which was quite pleasant. 7.5/10
We don’t usually talk about bread, but since we’re on a ‘break the rules’ roll, we might as well. And also because it was kind of delicious. At fine dining restaurants, we are usually served individual servings of bread, so we were surprised to see a whole loaf of bread placed in front of us to share. It looked quite regular so we weren’t too excited, but the waiter introduced it as a multigrain bread with caramelized malt, which I (as a bread lover) found quite intriguing. It actually turned out to be super good, especially with the sea salt butter, because it was really crispy on the outside yet still super pillowy soft on the inside. (I died and went to heaven)
Finally, the streak of amuse bouches was over, and we were served our appetizers. It was a beef tartar, which might seem very plain and boring, but, trust me when we say that this was far from boring. It was served with a peeled cherry tomato, horseradish sorbet, peeled celery, a curry (?) emulsion, and a parsley and chive sauce. It was like fireworks on my palette. No joke. 8.5/10
As we mentioned before, Calvin doesn’t eat beef, so he had a shrimp course instead. It was baby shrimps paired with avocado (match made in heaven) and sour cream. The shrimp was prepared perfectly and well seasoned. 8/10
The second appetizer seemed very Asian/Japanese inspired to us because it was a raw haddock which was torched on the surface. The fish itself was very fresh and for those Chinese readers out there, very 爽口彈牙. Torching the surface gave it a contrast between two textures of the slightly cooked and raw fish. It also gave a really nice flavor along with the citrus that it was marinated in. On the side, there was some thinly sliced cucumber, pickled cucumber, julienned cucumber, grilled cucumber (cucumber partaaay~~), white cheese, and sourdough bread. Our favorite sushi of all time is actually torched angawa (fluke fin) and this dish really resembled that sushi for us (BONUS POINTS!) The dish itself was very delicious and all components worked very well together. 9/10
The next dish looked simple and average, but was really impressive. It was a very creative play on a seafood pasta. The “pasta” was long cuts of julienned eggplant and zucchini, which were marinated and only slightly cooked, giving it an “al dente” texture (HOW IN THE WORLD DID THEY DO THAT? needless to say we were impressed) which really amazed us. The “sauce” was a light crustacean based broth with bits of shrimp, which was flavorful but not overpowering of the veggies. 9.5/10
Unfortunately, the place filet that followed was slightly underwhelming. It was cooked in butter with tarragon and served with avocado, grilled cucumber, pickles and statice (sea lavender leaf-a family of seaweed). The dish was generally cooked well but wasn’t extremely impressive, the fish itself has a relatively tough texture, so it wasn’t our favorite dish. 7.5/10
Honestly, seeing chicken as the main course was kind of disappointing at first because we expected something more extravagant from a michelin two star restaurant, but at this point in the meal, while we were waiting for it’s grand entrance, we started to get excited because we had faith that the chef must’ve had a pretty darn good chicken dish if it could be the star of the meal. We are glad to say that we were not wrong and were totally blown away with this dish. It was a slow cooked chicken breast and thigh with barbeque sauce (yes it sounds super american weekend barbeque but trust us on this one), parsnips, pickled carrots, chanterelle mushrooms, potatoes, and artichokes. It also had a jus parfumed with ingredient x (which to this day we cannot identify) which worked really well with the chicken. The chicken was slow cooked, then seared until the skin was super crispy. What really impressed us was that the chicken breast was actually more tender than the chicken thigh, which was a first for us. As Asians, dark meat is always the first choice, and when the white meat can be cooked to be better than the dark meat, they’re doing something right. It was just in general super impressive and mind-boggling. Despite its super generous portion considering it is a tasting menu, we were still desperate for more (which says a lot when you have already eaten 13 dishes prior). 9.5/10
The dessert was not quite to par in our opinion, at least relative to the rest of the dishes. It was a marinated apricot with a white chocolate mousse, elderflower, lime custard, and apricot jam. It worked but didn’t impress us. 7.5/10
The second dessert was slightly better in the sense that it had more complicated components which worked well together. It was a cheesecake mousse-ish thing with cherry sherbet, lime sherbet, biscuit crumbs, and a really frickin good cherry. They even took the time to remove the pit of the cherry, which was the literal cherry on top of our meal. 8/10
Price Value:
Number of diners: 4
Total price (EUR): 770
Price per head:
EUR: 190
HKD: $2000
USD: $260
Although we spent close to 200 euros per head, that includes wine and aperitifs, and the actual tasting menu itself only costed 120 euros. We think that this is extremely worth it considering that it consisted of 8 dishes, and let’s not forget that it also included 8 amuse buches (!!!). The ingredients weren’t super luxurious and the location wasn’t in the heart of the city, so the 120 euros was mostly for the technique and finesse of the kitchen team (which was still super worth it).
4.5/5
Taste:
Overall this restaurant really brought some spectacular dishes to the table and impressed us in more ways than one. Although there were a few let downs (honestly even the let downs were still decent, none of them struck us as bad), there were so many impressive, mind-blowing moments that the minor flaws were irrelevant. Also, one of the specialities of this restaurant that we really appreciated was the fact that all the ingredients were from local producers, like all the seafood was taken from local Brugge fishermen and the chicken was raised by a farmer just nearby.
14/15
Service:
The ground team unfortunately was not up to par with the kitchen. The waiters were all quite young, and their lack of confidence and experience showed through their performance. They were really rushed and honestly (sorry) kind of looked like chickens running around a field (just to make a point), and we felt as though we were eating at a casual restaurant. The level of English of the waiters also was a bit below our standards, which made it difficult to communicate with them. The one highlight was the sommelier, who showed to be very professional and had many years of experience with wine despite his young age.
8/10
Atmosphere:
The tables were seated quite close to each other which is often not very comfortable in a fine dining setting and also made service more difficult to perfect. Overall didn’t give a fine dining vibe partially also because the restaurant is located inside a house. It had a casual, more home-like feel.
8/10
Presentation:
It is rare that we give full marks for presentation because we always think there could be more impressive platings, but De Jonkman really impressed us not only with the level of finesse and detail in each dish, but also the level of creativity and thought that was put into the plating and also the coherence of presentation throughout the menu. By coherence to the menu, we mean that the presentation was actually relevant to the name and theme of the degustation menu, which was called ‘Summer’. It is given that restaurants stick to the theme of the menu for the food and taste, however, the presentation is often overlooked. But De Jonkman managed to remind us through both the presentation and the taste of each dish of the theme it was trying to portray. Just looking at the presentation for the amuse bouche, for example, the fishing nets and rocks and sea shells, it is evident that the chef didn’t neglect plating each and every thing that went onto the table. No matter how exquisitely plated a dish may be, we feel like full marks requires not only impeccable plating, but also lots of creativity.
10/10
Technique:
Again, full marks are rare, but De Jonkman impressed us once again with the amount of technique that they showed through the dishes. Two stars of the night were the julienned eggplant and zucchini, and the slow cooked chicken. They both showed a high level of technique and skill that really caught us off guard.
5/5
Total Score: 45/50
Fuchelin: Solid 2 stars, can contend for 3 stars
Final Remarks:
This was truly one of our favorite restaurants that we know we will look back and remember. The one hour drive was worth every minute and we would definitely make a trip to come back to this restaurant again. It gave a very positive impression of dining in Brugge for us and we are looking forward to visiting again to discover what more this city has to offer. Knowing that this restaurant is a michelin 2 starred restaurant and there are two other michelin 3 starred restaurants in Brugge, we have high hopes for the culinary experiences in store for us if/when we come back. This is a must try if you are in Belgium!!