Restaurant Blauw

Restaurant Blauw, which has long had a reputation in neighbouring Utrecht, finally opened a second location in Amsterdam in autumn 2008. Situated at the Oud-Zuid end of Vondelpark, Blauw is the new face of Indonesian food in the capital.

Forget batiks on the walls and gamelan music playing in the background, though, the interior here is sleekly designed in white, black and red (in direct contrast to the name, which means blue), the music is loungy and the lighting subdued. So subdued, in fact, that the menus all have tiny (and rather tacky-looking) reading lights attached to them.

The Indonesian food at Restaurant Blauw, however, is very authentic and ranges from ikan pedas (spicy fish) and saté kambing (strips of goat’s meat threaded onto skewers – when done well, this is delicious) to gado gado (a salad of mixed raw vegetables with peanut sauce) and rendang (spicy stewed beef).

Indonesian Restaurant Blauw Amsterdam The choice of 14 à la carte dishes range from €21.15 to €26.50, but the best way to sample as many dishes as possible is to choose the rijsttafel (rice table), which comes in 3 varieties: vegetarian (€24.50 per person), fish (€28.25) and mixed (€29.25).

Although the rijsttafel was something the Dutch colonisers in Indonesia invented, and which is rarely seen any more in Indonesia itself, it has retained its popularity in Holland and is actually a very sociable way of dining. Similar to tapas in a Spanish restaurant, the 18 or so rijsttafel items at Restaurant Blauw are served in lots of small, sleek white dishes, from which everyone can help themselves.

While many foodies disagree that spicy Asian food combines well with wine, I thought the full, complex reds on the wine list – particularly the Italian I pastini – complemented the dishes very well.

My only complaint would be that the Indonesian food at Restaurant Blauw was not quite spicy enough. The Dutch have a notoriously low chilli threshold, so the chefs could be trying to accommodate local tastes. This would be a shame, as everything else about the food was spot on.