Restaurant Le Jardin in Utrecht

When you have lunch or dinner at restaurant Le Jardin in Utrecht, you’ve got the feeling that you’re in France. Although it’s right in the city center, because of the quiet square and the green surroundings you feel like you’re in a small French town.
Le Jardin is a restaurant and flower shop in one. The restaurant isn’t a 100% vegetarian but they do have their main focus on seasonal vegetables. You can let the chef know if you’d like a completely vegetarian meal or if you’d like some fish or meat. Whatever you choose, the vegetables are the most important ingredient in each course. Which doesn’t only make it very suitable for vegetarians, it’s healthy too!

If you go to restaurant Le Jardin for lunch you can choose between a 2, 3, 4 or 5 course lunch. There’s no menu, you just let them know your dietary wishes and they’ll make sure you’ll have a delicious lunch. In a hurry? No problem, just let the staff know and they’ll make sure you’re done in one hour. We started with this dish made with broad beans, peach, kohlrabi and mozzarella. It was a very tasty and fresh start of our lunch and I loved the sweet tone of the peach in combination with the vegetables.

As a side dish we got mashed Opperdoezer potatoes, these small round potatoes are only cultivated in the North of the Netherlands. It was served with gruyere cheese, string beans and fermented garlic. The Swiss cheese made the mashed potatoes extra creamy!

Our main dish was made from several beets served with artichoke, blueberries, radish and pistache nuts. I thought the colors of this dish were superb. Where else would you get a colorful dish like this, except for a restaurant that puts vegetables in the first place?

Although I was already quite full we also got a light dessert. It was made with cucumber, strawberries, coconut and lemon zest. It was a perfect end for our summer lunch outside and luckily it wasn’t heavy on the stomach!