Vineum

Nice restaurant with a nice relax ambiance. Excellent wine combination with the food. We had the 4 course menu. Also a great restaurant For groups or business dinners. Located in the center of Rotterdam.

Wine
Ever since I started enjoying wine I was told that, contrary to popular opinion, one oughtn’t drink wine to complement the dish one is having but the exact opposite; The food you eat should match the bottle you open. I have seen my fair share of wine bars, wineries and wine tasting events but it’s getting harder and harder to find a good restaurant with an extensive wine list that doesn’t force you to travel for 2 hours from the nearest city.
Fortunately, I found such a place in the beautifully quaint Vineum.
Located only 5 minutes away from the heart of the city, one wouldn’t expect such a lovely combination of a café, wine bar, and a restaurant to have a very quiet, intimate garden where you can enjoy the finer things in life. I decided to visit for dinner on a Thursday evening.
On the inside it looks beautiful; Very fresh, vibrant colours and EXTREMELY comfortable chairs (I am not kidding, I could sleep in those things). After having arrived we were seated by the hostess and immediately found that the staff working there had all had proper training concerning hosting/​waiting/​gastronomy. Even though the restaurant looks quite classy/​formal the reception was very warm and comforting, I often find the more upscale restaurants to be cold and uninterested in the customer, a slight sense of snobbism which is a shame, for what is good food if there is a lack of good service? But none of that here, it was a great evening and we were taken care of brilliantly.
When we sat down we instantly gazed through the wine menu with a sense of wonder and amazement. The old ‘kid in a candy store’ comes to mind, pressing his nose up against the window in awe of the collection of treats. The owner is also the sommelier and the co-​owner of a wine import/​trade company and an owner that knows the business makes for a fine owner indeed. After having browsed the wine menu for about 20 minutes, occasionally laughing and smirking at each other due to the incandescence we felt for this beautiful, beautiful list of wines (over 250 noted!) we decided on our first champion.
A Meursault 1er Cru «Les Genevrières» and 6 Oysters Fine de Claire no. 3 for starters. My company had the Oysters with lemon, red wine vinegar and shallots, and I had them with ginger foam, sweet and sour marinated celery and crushed ice of gin & tonic. I generally have oysters without too many additions, just a splash of lemon and that’s it. However, as the Meursault carried quite some weight I thought a bit of experimentation was in order. The oysters were sublime, very fresh, very large as well and the gin & tonic ice was a great complement to the dish. A great way to turn a classic dish into a (dare I say it) hipper version.
For our second starter I chose a crispy veal’s sweetbread with green peas, and a sauce of tomato and cinnamon. Sweetbread borrows its name from being A: sweeter than most other meats and B: bræd being the Old English word for ‘flesh’. Due to its sweetness I had high hopes for the combination with the Meursault and indeed it worked together rather well! A lovely soft dish with the surprise of cinnamon. What a great invention coming from the chef, sweetbread can get very soft and smooth but the cinnamon gives it a nice punch that you expect in a starter!
Time for the main wine and the main course! Our eyes wandered over the menu once more and found a Valpolicella Superiore that was also included in the advice of our host for that evening. As we were to have the fried breast of «Poulet des Landes» (with added duck liver, which I very much recommend) the Valpolicella sounded like an excellent partner. The crust on the chicken was made of macadamia nuts which added a lovely sweet tone to the chicken which then transformed into an earthy, creamy taste from the sauce of morels. The chicken had a perfect cuisson and was very tender (which in all honesty isn’t always that easy with chicken). The addition of duck liver truly lifted the dish to a new level and did not at all overpower any of the other flavours. A great composition on the plate, visually stunning and a feast for the palate.
After having had such an amazing dinner one really needn’t think long about dessert; cheese. If you’re in a proper wine restaurant they usually have a dessert of cheeses and accompanying wines and Vineum is no exception. Which wines I drank with the cheeses is a mystery to me but I do remember the combinations were well executed and explained by our hostess. A night to remember! Great food, great service, an extensive knowledge of wine and the dishes that are served, how I missed restaurants like this!
The kid in the candy store has finally grown up and can now indulge in the pleasantries of wine and food at Vineum. Perhaps imagining pressing his nose up against the glass wine cabinet to take a gander at what he might be drinking tonight.