On one of our pre-Christmas adventures to the Netherlands, we went to Breda, a small city in the south of the Netherlands. As my birthday is also close to Christmas, we usually also use this opportunity to get a nice birthday meal. This year, we settled on Puick, a small restaurant that offers a dinner menu Friday through Sunday. Dinner consists of a single tasting menu, which is served to all tables. It only offers a single tasting menu, which changes every two months. It’s also worth noting that whilst they will try to accommodate allergies and intolerances, they don’t accommodate dietary preferences. So if you’re vegetarian, vegan, or perhaps less adventurous with your food, we’re sorry to say that Puick is not the restaurant for you.

The short lifespan of the menu probably makes describing the dishes below a little superfluous, but at least it will give you an idea of the sort of thing they cook up.

The dishes that we got served were:

• Carrots with soy foam and speculaas spices

• A bao bun, filled with tofu cream, sesame oil, pumpkin seeds, lemon grass, and chilli syrup

• A raw prawn with red beet, lemon pepper cream, candied hazelnuts

• Parsnip with clementine slices, curry spices, cocos, and walnuts

• Black rice with oxtail, peppadew and pear

• Red beets, with red onion, smoked cheese, marmite, and hoisin sauce

• Sweet potato, with a kale curry, kefir, and peanuts

• A deer steak with atjar, broccoli, mustard seed, and almonds

And for dessert:

• A dark chocolate mousse, with olive oil and capers

• Gorgonzola, served with chestnut honey, trail mix, and pane carasau (an Italian flatbread)

We decided that having the wine pairing would make the drinks selection easier given the variety of dishes that would be served. This turned out to be a great decision, as we had some lovely wines that all went well with the food. There is also an alcohol-free “botanical pairing” option available.

Dinner at Puick was an eclectic and exciting mix of cuisines, flavours, textures, and ingredients. Each dish was excellent, and well explained by the team. Puick also offers a lunch menu, with either matching wines, or alcohol-free “botanical pairings”.

We really enjoyed our time at Puick. The dishes were delicious, the service great, and the atmosphere cosy and relaxed. If you’re up for an interesting tasting menu, we can heartily recommend Puick for when you're ever in Breda.

Carrots with Speculaas

1 / 10

Bao Buns

2 / 10

Parsnips and Clementines

3 / 10

Raw Prawns with Red Beets

4 / 10

Black Rice with Oxtail

5 / 10

Red Beets with Red Onion

6 / 10

Deer Steak with Atjar and Broccoli

7 / 10

Sweet Potato with Kale Curry

8 / 10

Gorgonzola with Chestnut Honey

9 / 10

Dark Chocolate Mousse with Capers

10 / 10

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We had been at the Vincent Rooms earlier in the year, but as I wrote in our review then, we usually try to have a Christmas meal first. Their Escoffier Rooms were busy again, so we "settled" for the Brasserie.

The Vincent Rooms is a restaurant of the Capital City College — where they train chefs. The meals and service are all done by the students (with suitable supervision). This has little effect on the dishes, but it does sometimes make for a more haphazard service. That is okay though, as we are now used to this, and students learn by doing these things.

As it is now Christmas time, the evening's menu was suitably themed. It was a set-menu, catering for Christmas parties, of which several were going on when we arrived. We decided to join in with a glass of prosecco, because why not.

Each course (starter, main, dessert) had three options. My wife chose the pumpkin velouté as her starter, which was slightly spicy, and full of pumpkin goodness. Some puffed rice on top added a bit of texture. I had the Lincolnshire game terrine, which was wrapped in Parma ham, and served with a cranberry compote and some pistachios for texture.

With our mains we shared a bottle of a crisp Australian Chardonnay. This was a great choice for my wife's main, as she selected the Norwegian Saithe. This was served as a fillet, with a crispy skin. It came served with a rosti, and a lovely mussel and vegetable mixture. I decided on going full Turkey with the Christmas roast. The turkey was served as both breast and leg slices. The red cabbage and sprouts were just the right kind of soft. The roast potatoes were okay (I'm really picky about them, and mine are the best). The turkey was topped with a pig in blanket, and served with a gravy that lifted it nicely up. It's probably the best roast meal I have had in a long time.

For dessert, neither of us chose the traditional pudding. I enjoyed the spiced milk chocolate mousse, which was surrounded by a collar of caramel with hazelnut flakes, and served with a caramel dip. My wife opted for the mulled wine bavarois, which was nice and soft, and served with flavourful poached red fruits and a ginger biscuit.

The meal, as always, was excellent. The service also seemed much more like in a normal restaurant on this occasion too. We'll surely be back for next year's Christmas.

Lincolnshire Game Terrine

1 / 8

Pumpkin Velouté

2 / 8

Norwegian Saithe

3 / 8

Christmas Roast

4 / 8

Home-made Bread

5 / 8

Mulled Wine Bavarois

6 / 8

Spiced Milk Chocolate Mousse

7 / 8

Mince Pies

8 / 8

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Pyrá is a recent addition to the line-up of restaurants on Lonsdale Road. Their menu is on the shorter side, and they also cater for parties. When we rocked up, there was a wedding reception going on in their loft. Pyrá has a menu with both Greek and Spanish influences, a more unusual combination, but one which on reading appeared to work well. We shared a portion of the chorizo and manchego croquettes. These were a little spicy and salty, including some chunky bits of manchego.

For our main courses, I picked the deconstructed lamb gyros, which came served with fluffy flatbreads, chips, a chilli dip, tzatziki, and an onion and tomato salad. My wife chose the roasted Merton sole, with saffron rice, and oyster mushrooms. It came served whole, with a dressing of some lemon and roasted garlic. However, service was slow, with a noticeable wait until the mains showed up, and then the mains not being served together. My wife's sole eventually appeared almost half an hour after the gyros. This may have been due to the large party upstairs, but no warning was given of a possible delay, and no apology was forthcoming either. Overall, this wasn't the most positive.

The food (when it came) was nice and well cooked, and the portions were fairly generous, which meant that we skipped dessert.

We enjoyed Pyrá, but the long wait in between our main dishes being served let them down, and would probably mean it was not our first choice in Queens Park for a revisit.

Chorizo and Manchego Croquettes

1 / 3

Deconstructed Lamb Gyros

2 / 3

Dips

3 / 3

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