Comforting food to share in a timeless setting
Gertruida Bosboom-Toussaint
In, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful streets of Amsterdam (the Bosboom Toussaintstraat), Gertrude has found its home. Named after Gertruida Bosboom-Toussaint, this restaurant offers you comforting, flavourful dishes in a warm setting that feels like coming home (with a very nice bar in your living room though).
When you walk into Gertrude you will notice that it is not a new, modern restaurant, but a bistro style restaurant filled with memories and classy details. On one side you’ll see the classy bar with marble, on the other side a beautiful leather bench and bistro chairs with tables. From your table you can look right into the kitchen through two big, classic windows.
The chef & the food
The chef, Monika Blazevic, lives around the corner of the restaurant and it has been her dream for a while to open her own restaurant at this exact place. When one of her friends got the possibility to exploit it as a restaurant, she took the opportunity and developed this very cool concept with the owners. Monika works with a lot of women in her kitchen, which is not very typical in the chef’s world. To give you an idea: in my ten years of experience in restaurants, I was already happy to see one woman in the kitchen at all, let alone two women or the chef being a woman. Monika fixed it to lead this kitchen and to have multiple women in it, which in my opinion is awesome.
That this is a very good thing can be concluded from the menu and the quality of the food. The food is very straightforward and it is all about comforting flavours and sharing. Monika’s idea is to make people feel at home and simply serve them good food. In my opinion she not only succeeds in these two aspects, but she also knows how to combine products in the most comforting way, which results in well-balanced dishes that make you want to eat all day. To be honest, that is also what happened when we were there, because we stayed for about 4 hours.
The experience
We started of with a few snacks, which was a very good start: sardines with rocket oil, bread with lavender butter and pate made from mackerel, lemon and chervil. Literally, even the butter with lavender was already great. Afterwards we selected a few dishes, which was not easy since we liked a lot of the dishes on the menu. Besides the menu, Gertrude also offers a few specials, such as bone marrow with shrimps.
To end your dinner or brunch, you can choose one of the sweets of the menu or cheese. At least try the madeleines with tonkabean cream. I am very picky with madeleines, but Monika’s madeleines were just delicious and I highly recommend them; perfect structure and not too sweet. All this delicious, comforting food, can be accompanied by some delicious wines. The selection of wines per glass is already very good, but the list also offers very good bottles.
At the end, I wasn’t actually done with Gertrude yet. I could have stayed for a bit longer to try all the other dishes. So I have to go back to try the rest, because what I tried made me very happy and long for more. Let’s go home again soon and share some d*mn good food!
Favorite dish
Altough it is not easy to make a decision, the roasted oxheart cabbage with carrot cream, beurre noisette and parmesan cheese stole my heart. It was recommended by the crew and it exceeded our expectations.
Highlight
The warm and comforting taste of the food and the atmosphere. The place looks and feels like a classy living room and I could sit here for hours. Plus, it’s perfect for a long brunch on Saturday and Sunday.
Bosboom Toussaintstraat 28H, 1054 AS Amsterdam
Shared dining – à la carte
Lisa Proof(t) 