De Lindenhof in Giethoorn

Cozy, friendly, super attentive staff and exquisite, divine food!!!
Our dinner at De Lindenhof finally happened after we decided to spend the weekend in Giethoorn to celebrate our wedding anniversary. For starters it was lovely to be received by the door by Marjan, the hostess and owner and the young and very pleasant waiter. The surprises begun with the "amuses", which are normally limited to 1 or max 3 at the other restaurants. But instead we had 3 rounds of amazing amuses, every one so different from each other and every one so carefully elaborated with unimaginable wonderful combinations. Really hard to name one that could have been better. I still can't forget a delightful smoked amuse which is brought to the table on a closed glass tray with smoke in it. How brilliant is that?! This was definitely my favorite one. Then the delightful coquilles, the hazelnut soup and the red mullet... my mouth is watering already, the freshness, all those flavors! Then it was time for the main, the lamb (and I must confess, I was not a huge fan due to my previous experiences) just to prove to me that yes, it can be delicious. For the first time I ate it and wished to have some extra. It was more than perfect, beautifully rose, extra tender and tasted so good with a tasteful elegant jus making it even better. We were in heaven. But it was not yet over, we still had dessert coming, and when told that it would be a trio, I expected a nicely presented long dish with three tiny portions, as usual. To our surprise each one was brought separately, in decent portions and very carefully mounted so that the various flavors could be properly appreciated. Again you could taste the freshness of the ingredients in every bite. The first one already won us, their signature dessert the tzatziki ice, wow, how could one have such a brilliant idea?! We could already leave completely beyond satisfied at this point, but there were two more to come yet, so we enjoyed the beautiful mango passion fruit one in the sequence. But as they know what they do the best was saved for the last. A wonderful homemade vanilla beans ice, with crunchy nuts, green beans and beautiful homemade caramel sauce.
And on top of it all, the price-quality value is very good!
On our way out, while congratulating Marjan for the sublime experience she surprisingly invited us to the kitchen so that we could personally tell Martin about our fantastic experience, which honestly was our best at stars restaurants. What a welcoming couple.

This was, with no doubt, the perfect choice to celebrate our wedding anniversary!