Kylie
Google
We went here for Valentine’s Day and the food was genuinely insane. We eat at Michelin restaurants often, including three-star places, and this was easily some of the best food we’ve had. Period.
A huge part of why the food was this strong is clearly their chef, Tristan de Boer. We ended up chatting with him throughout the evening and had genuinely lovely, relaxed conversations about food and his cooking philosophy. His talent is very obvious and his food carried the entire experience. You could feel how strong and confident the kitchen was. Why his name isn’t on the door instead is a mystery to us.
Almost every dish had a twist, not just technically impressive or labour-intensive food for the sake of it. Every course had unexpected pairings or textures, and even the plating made the dishes feel fresh and beautiful.
A few standout food moments:
They served lab-grown foie gras developed in Delft, which I thought was very cool. If you didn’t know, you wouldn’t feel like you were “missing” anything, and you can sleep at night knowing no waterfowl were tortured for consumption :)
The caviar from Eindhoven was also special. Tristan worked directly with his supplier to create his own cured version, and it was noticeably less salty and briny than traditional sturgeon caviar. Even the salmon roe was sweeter and more delicate in flavour than normal!
And then dessert. There was a chocolate dessert with these little crunchy bits that basically ate like cereal, except they were made from portobello mushrooms. A mushroom dessert. I don’t even care for mushrooms but it absolutely worked! Delicious.
Where things fell short was the service, though. For a Michelin-starred restaurant, the attention to detail just wasn’t there. For example, after the bread course, no one cleared the crumbs. Our water glasses kept sitting empty, and there wasn’t water left by the table for us to refill ourselves. These are small things, but at this level, they matter because they pull you out of what should feel seamless.
The non-alcoholic pairing was another example. The white was totally fine, enjoyable even! The red “proxy” wine though, was very acidic / heavily fermented and just not for me. That’s totally fine, but what felt odd was that I had already said I don’t generally enjoy red wines, and there was some pushback and insistence from the sommelier that “this isn’t red wine though, it’s a proxy wine” and I “needed the acidity” for the venison. I tried it with the venison, still didn’t like it, and didn’t drink it. And he never came back, so I couldn’t share this feedback, nor order another drink… :)
That said, there were also very thoughtful service moments! We were shown a peek into the kitchen (which was surprisingly small!) and that felt quite special. And as we were leaving, Tristan caught up to us to thank us for coming and wish us a good evening, which honestly made us feel great!
To sum: the food at The White Room is exceptional. If you’re going for the cooking, it absolutely delivers and is well worth it! But the service needs more tightening to fully match what’s coming out of the kitchen. Right now the food is doing 95% of the heavy lifting (and luckily for them it’s very, very good at it).