Blik

Jacob Jan Boerma, three stars at De Leest in a former life, cooking bistro food in the old Lion Noir room.

Jacob Jan Boerma spent years running De Leest at three Michelin stars and The White Room at one, then walked away from tasting-menu formality altogether. Blik is the result, opened with hospitality partner Tijn Verstappen in the grand old Lion Noir space on the Reguliersdwarsstraat, high ceilings and carved stone kept exactly as they found them. The menu reads like a bistro card until you taste it: steak tartare with a foie royale cream and white chocolate crumble, brioche with smoked eel and horseradish cream, a whole roasted chicken in miso sauce built for two. A dry-aged tarbot at 800 grams, also for two, shows where the old technique still lives. The wine list runs deep and the digestieven list runs deeper, grappa and cognac by the glass for whoever wants to stay past the last course. Service is warm rather than formal, which is the entire point: Boerma's cooking without Boerma's old prices or Boerma's old dress code. Weekend lunch runs from noon, dinner Tuesday to Sunday, closed Mondays.

Tuesday to Friday from 18:00, weekends from 12:00 for lunch through to late, closed Mondays. The three-course chef's menu at €49.50 is the fastest way into Boerma's cooking.

Photo: Blik, via Reguliers.net