Eat a lot: Zinc, Rotterdam

The other day, my friend Daphne took me to a restaurant near the river in Rotterdam. Sitting at a cute little table in cramped Zinc, I was reminded of many things - the place was so eclectic. There were crisp cotton tablecloths that hinted at stuffy, posh London restaurants, teamed up with bare brick walls that could easily signal a just-opened hipster place in Berlin. The lamps were missing their shades. The menu was missing altogether, but instead was delivered verbally by a waitress who wasn't very elaborate in her descriptions. I missed not having the menu in front of me; somehow I get more hungry when I can read the words... On the upside: the menu was short.

An image of Gordon Ramsay and his antics popped up in my head (but in a good way). The one thing I learned from his Kitchen Nightmares is that a restaurant shouldn't have too many dishes on their menu. Apparently it's an easy mistake to make, because wherever Gordon went, menus were sliced in half. More and more restaurants seem to be picking up on his good advice: Do a few things and do them well. It could be a motto for life itself. And for restaurant Zinc, too.

Anyway. At Zinc you 'buy' a whole menu for €32.50 (excluding drinks) and then you choose: a starter (meat, veg, fish), a main (same again) and dessert. Since I didn't really follow the rambled verbal menu, I chose a bit of everything: meat to start, then fish, then chocolate. There.

They started us off with a complimentary celeriac and potato soup with a single Jerusalem artichoke crisp. Celeriac being the one thing I can't eat, I nibbled on the crisp. Then came the starter, without further ado or explanation, leaving me wondering what exactly I was eating. Pork rilettes is my guess, well balanced with an acidic wisp of salad and a sweet little pear. The main was a white fish fillet, skin on (unfortunately not very crispy), with some in Holland still omnipresent sundried tomatoes, slices of lemon, couscous and, totally out of its Mediterranean character, purple carrots. The chocolate was chocolate, with a berry sauce. Apart from the carrots, nothing really stuck to my mind (hence my need to examine the picture to find out the chocolate I ate was indeed a mousse). But it was all very nicely executed.

Gordon was right. Small menus do work. Though for €32.50 I'd really like to know what I am eating.

Zinc, Calandstraat 12a, 3016 CB Rotterdam, +31104366579, website, open Tue-Sun from 6pm.