What owners Mick Mosterd and Maarten Meijst have in common, besides their love for food and drinks, is the letter M. Both in both first and last names. Coming up with a name for their restaurant was not a difficult task.
Culinary history
The restaurant is located in a fairly well-known catering location for Stadjers. And that has been going on for almost three years now. In previous years you could already enjoy top-quality food at Proevens and de Parelvisser. It is somewhat hidden in the Gelkingestraat, but when you enter you immediately step into a kind of oasis of peace. Especially when you see that their terrace at the rear borders the courtyard of Schimmelpenninck Huys.
A fine-dining restaurant is how the entrepreneurial duo describes their business. With lunches ranging from 2 to 5 courses on Friday and Saturday. And dinners of 4 / 5 / 6 / 9 / 12 courses from Monday to Thursday and dinners of 6 / 9 and 12 courses on Fridays and Saturdays.
Vegetarian vs vegan
They make everything themselves, work traditionally, in a classic way and with a modern twist. The focus is on Europe, and in particular French cuisine. Where the classic French often mainly revolves around meat or fish, chef Meijst gives it a different twist.
Half of the 12 course menu that restaurant M offers consists of vegetarian dishes. Although secretly the cheese course and dessert are also included, but still. They don't do vegan dishes. "That is not feasible for us," says Mosterd. 'In French cuisine, a lot of cooking is done with butter and cream.' 'The bread we start the dinner with is also brioche, so that should be different right away,' adds Meijst, '12 courses vegetarian, that is possible.'
Pleasure
The men work with a small, close-knit club. Service and quality come first, but the two consider pleasure in their work to be at least as important. “We just want to have fun,” Mustard says. Meijst agrees that 'We started this out of fun and of course out of passion for the profession. We have seen in many things around us that the fun has disappeared because making money comes first. We also try to pass on our pleasure to our staff, and in this way it also ends up with our guests. People come here for a fun evening and we want to give them that too.'
12-course menu
If you go for the full monty and you choose the 12-course menu, you have to prepare for a long sitting. But to ensure that you can hold on a bit, one of the dishes will be prepared in front of you in the kitchen. And in the meantime you can stretch your legs. And do you also drink 12 different wines with that, I hear you think? Yes, that is certainly possible. Mosterd has put together a nice matching wine arrangement where it is of course useful if you drink half glasses. But you can make it as colorful as you want.
Duck with chicken
The dish that Meijst is most proud of at the moment is the terrine of duck liver with smoked corn fowl. 'Or duck and chicken as we call it in the kitchen,' Meijst laughs. 'But of course that doesn't sound very good at the table.'
Restaurant M is open Monday to Saturday for dinner, and also for lunch on Friday and Saturday.