Brasserie Flo, Amsterdam

I am working in Amsterdam at the moment, which is fun. It’s great to be able to eat out every night on expenses, although unfortunately our budget doesn’t go very far with the current exchange rate. Luckily we were late in the first night, so only had sandwiches, and then had a cheap and cheerful Wagamama near the hotel the second night, so we now have a bit more to play with.

I don’t know how people coped with being away before the internet. Twenty minutes in my lunch break had left me with a list of places that looked worth trying, and we decided to try Brasserie Flo.

After getting a bit lost (I find Amsterdam really confusing, and I have been here a couple of times before) we eventually stumbled across it. I hadn’t realised it was a hotel restaurant, and first impressions weren’t great as it was very brightly lit, and we were led to a table that was incredibly close to the ones on either side. However, things improved from there.

Both of us went for the set menu in the end, as it seemed a bit of a bargain. There were two choices of starter and three each for main course and dessert. Being two girls we decided to go for a main course and a dessert, and in the end we both went for the same main.

I nearly diverted when I heard my colleague wanted the same thing, but eating out with people from work doesn’t allow for quite the same sharing, so I stuck with it, and I am really glad I did!

Grilled fillet of corn fed chicken, stuffed with truffle, with truffle mash, mange tout and a ‘boletus’ jus arrived. It was absolutely superb. The chicken was soft and succulent, and perfectly cooked. I think it must have been poached first to achieve the texture. The truffle shone through without being overpowering, and both the sauce and the mash set it off beautifully. I had to google ‘boletus’, although I assumed it was some type of mushroom. It turns out it is a porcini.

Dessert was a perfectly adequate crème brulee, which was such a huge portion I could only eat half of it. I was rather jealous of my colleague’s chocolate fondant with rum raisin ice cream, but I have given up chocolate for Lent. The total bill, including a bottle of wine, water, and service, was £86, which seemed like very good value, particularly given the weak £.

This was unexpectedly good, and now I just have to hope I can find some places that live up to it in the next couple of days!