The concept
The minute you step into the restaurant, a large stone oven with open flames greets you from behind the open kitchen.
At Nela, it's all about live-fire cooking. About using heat to let seasonal produce come to life at its best.
The newly opened restaurant is located inside one of the Valley towers on Amsterdam's Zuidas.
From the street, a flight up the marble stairs will take you straight into the restaurant.
Light wooden chairs and tables inside the restaurant give off a natural vibe and add to the natural and contemporary concept of the restaurant.
The kitchen
The restaurant is run by Hari Shetty and Ori Geller.
With experience working for renowned restaurants such as Nobu London, Yaffo-Tel Aviv, Izakaya, The Duchess, and Mr. Porter (Amsterdam), they bring a league of experience and vision to Nela.
The kitchen aims to highlight seasonal produce through the use of live-fire cooking and using their craftsmanship to preserve texture, taste and presentation.
There's an element of fire in every dish that is meant to propel the ingredients to new heights.
We of course cannot wait to try it for ourselves.
The menu
The menu is divided into five sections. You have your breads and pizzas, your raw and cured, vegetables and salads, fish and seafood and poultry and meat.
Guests are advised to order a couple of dishes from each section to sample the diversity of the menu.
We start off with an item from the breads and pizzas section — the sesame lavash with guajillo butter. A crispy flatbread leaves with a creamy butter of onion, chili and garlic. I would buy this butter for my bread if they decide to sell it in cans!
The next dish is from the raw and cured section — the yellowtail with burnt aubergine (photo). Raw yellowtail doesn't need much as it's already good on its own. But the burnt aubergine brought a hint of smoke to the dish that was utterly satisfying.
Highlighting vegetables
From the vegetables and salads section, we have the aubergine filet with salsa verde — a dish that is presented like steamed fish but was actually a beautifully slow-cooked aubergine in a lovely salsa verde.
And then there's the baby leeks dish with Swiss cheese shaved all over — a dish reminiscent of pasta but in vegetable form. I could eat this every day if I could.
My favourite though was the burnt artichoke (photo) — but then, I may be biased as an artichoke lover.
A few years ago it would have been unimaginable for restaurants in Amsterdam to turn their focus on vegetables on the menu. But nowadays, with all the creative preparations highlighting vegetables, I seem to prefer vegetable dishes over meats more than ever!
Seafood and meats
From the fish and seafood section, we have the Chilean sea bass with olive oil and sea salt (photo) — a buttery soft sea bass cooked to perfection. This was definitely one of our highlights.
From the meats and poultry section, we have the Scottish short rib with pickled chili salsa — this slow-cooked short rib is tender and soft and the salsa on top gave it just the amount of freshness and tang.
For dessert..
As a sweet tooth, I wish I could have tried the whole dessert menu.
We tried the forbidden apple with jivara chocolate mousse and caramelized apples. I was expecting an overly sweet dish (like most caramelized apple desserts are) but was surprised with the lovely balance of sweetness from the chocolate mousse and tanginess from the apples. And the crunch on the bottom added texture.
My favourite dessert though, was the Basque cheesecake with roasted fig (photo). This creamy and rich cheesecake is one of the best I've had so far.
Visit Nela
Find Nela at Beethovenstraat 515 in Amsterdam's Zuidas district.
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