Oliver’s, Haarlem
Our Recs · Restaurant
Oliver's
We were never not going to order the oysters.
They came on pebbles with a shallot mignonette, cold and clean, and set the tone for everything after. Then an amuse-bouche — a crisp tartlet with carrot, mustard seeds and something soft and savoury underneath — which was delicious and did the job an amuse-bouche is supposed to do. It made us curious about the rest.
We took the five-course menu. Every dish was good. Two were fantastic.
The first was the tuna starter: grapes, a dark savoury dressing, crisp seaweed shredded over the top. Sweet, salty, and put together with real judgement. It is the dish we would order again before we had even sat down.
The second was the blue cheese ice cream. A great many desserts in this country play it safe; this did not. Cold, salty, sweet, and cut with apple. Excellent.
In between: scallops seared hard, with carrot and a nut crumble, and a main that arrived under a snowfall of shavings in a deep dark sauce. We drank a Saint-Émilion Grand Cru — Château Peyrelongue 2022 — which had the weight for the back half of the meal.
A very good dinner in a very good room.
The table
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