Deventer is a historic town in the east of the Netherlands, on the banks of the IJssel river. This is not a part of the country that we visit often, and we had never been to Deventer before. I knew Restaurant Bouwkunde only by the reputation of being a wine lover’s paradise. Heleen Boom and Pieter van de Pavoordt have run this restaurant for 40 years already. The restaurant is listed in the Michelin guide with a “bib gourmand” for good food at moderate prices. And since Deventer was kind of on the way to Oldenzaal where I had to be early Monday morning (more about that in my next post), I decided this was a good opportunity to give Bouwkunde a try. There is a fixed menu of which you can choose 3, 4, or 5 courses. We opted for 5 courses including cheese (75 euros).

We started with a glass of Crémant du Jura, a sparkling wine from Chardonnay made in the same way as Champagne with a second fermentation in the bottle, but from the Jura region. Which is quite unusual, as Crémant from Burgundy, Alsace, or Loire are more common. Sommelier and owner Heleen is a vinoloog like me (Dutch diploma for wine knowledge) and a member of the board of the Dutch wine academy. The wine list is amazing, especially the selection of Burgundy (about 40 white and 40 red), also from older vintages, and for extremely reasonable prices. In the Netherlands it is common in restaurants to sell wine at three times the retail price or even more, but at Bouwkunde there is only a moderate surcharge compared to retail prices, making it much more fun to order a nice bottle at less than half the price compared to most other restaurants.

And so that is what we did, with some help from Heleen as the wine list only mentions appellation, producer, and vintage, and even as a vinoloog you do not know what all the wines from all producers are like. Together we picked a Chassagne-Montrachet 2019 by Jean-Claude Ramonet, and it was excellent. Just the way we like our white Burgundy: complex, minerality, and a beautiful balance.

The amuse bouche was salsify in crispy kataifi pastry with chive mayonnaise. Very well executed: very crispy, the pastry did not overpower the salsify, and the chives provided a fresh accent.

The appetizer was hamachi (kingfish) ceviche with black radish ravioli, and “Tom Ka Pla” sauce. The latter is coconut milk with lemongrass, galangal, and kaffir lime leaves, but without the chillies. Five spice powder was sprinkled at the rim of the plate, to add to your liking. The fish was served at room temperature and the sauce had a mild but delicious flavor. White Burgundy with Thai food is not a usual pairing, but by leaving out the chilies, it worked very well.

The next course was organic chicken breast with little gem lettuce, anchovies, parmesan crumble, and aioli. This was like a warm version of a Ceasar salad with great depth of flavor and perfectly tender chicken. I think I may prefer the lettuce to be less cooked (and thus more crunchy). Again a great pairing with the Chassagne.

Next was cabbage, barbecued with beurre noisette, with a miso and celeriac cream, and XO sauce. The cabbage had nice crispy edges with barbecue flavor and this was another great pairing.

As the wine prices are so friendly, we decided to get another bottle to have with our main course and the cheese. Together with Heleen we chose a Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Charmes 2012 by La Pousse d’Or. It was more youthful than I would have expected from a 2012 vintage, with nice fruit and balanced acidity.

The main course was veal strip steak with cream of caramelized onions, and shimeji mushrooms. The veal was nicely medium rare and the mushroom flavor came through very well. A good pairing with the Chambolle.

The pre-dessert was served before the cheese and was indeed more a pre-dessert than a palate cleanser (because it was quite creamy and sweet), so after the cheese would have been better I think.

The selection of (mostly French) cheeses was very nice.

We opted for some cheeses that worked well with the Chambolle.

Coffee came with waffles with the restaurant’s logo in chocolate.

This was a very nice dinner and it is truly a shame this restaurant is not closer to where we live. Even though the chef is new, it is clear there is a lot of experience here. They know very well what they are doing and it shows. And it is definitely a wine lover’s paradise. We did not finish the bottle of red and decided to take it home to finish there. Heleen knew we were staying at a hotel and asked if we were going to finish the bottle in the room. Because if we did, she would lend us some wine glasses to prevent us from drinking such a nice wine out of cups (which we would never do, but she’d only just met me). Just the fact that she offered to lend us wine glasses speaks volumes to the service at Bouwkunde. Strongly recommended.