It's not worth the hype. Molecular gastronomy, used correctly, can transform both the look and taste of ingredients. The owners of DCW focuses too much on how food looks and not enough on taste and texture. The menu I had is called "anything but flat" and is inspired by the Dutch landscape. Indeed, the dishes do look like mountains and lakes, which directly translate to chunks of uncut vegetables and occasional soupy mess. I started off with some magnificent chickpea flatbread and kale and walnut pesto. First course was a soup with onion mashed potatoes and sea vegetables. The broth of this dish was way too bitter. Second course was, again, potato, topped with red cabbage and caramelized apples, with rusk and a black bean roll. They put a layer of red cabbage juice infused jelly at the bottom. I'm not sure if they are aware that gelatin is not vegetarian. Furthermore, the menu states that they make everything from scratch. But I saw a box of whole grain biscuit mix in the kitchen, which I guess is what they made the rusk from. Third course, lentils with root vegetables (including guess what, potato), was super bland. Lentils were under seasoned and the vegetables were plain boiled. I don't need parsnip, parsley root, beetroot, sunchoke all on one plate. I just need one that's well cooked. The fourth course, deep fried grapes on top of vanilla cream and forbidden rice was quite successful. Sourness of grapes, sweetness of cream and the wonderful chew of forbidden rice went well together. Last course was the best course of the whole meal- a quad of fried apple pie wonton, orange mint sheet, dark chocolate and lime infused ice.
PS. If you're reading this review you probably know their concept. It is not really a restaurant because you have to clear your own table and instead of paying a fixed menu price you decide how much the meal is worth to you. The owners consider existence of a waitstaff a distraction from the food, and they believe that people should be drawn to the food rather than the frills of a restaurant. read more