Oriental Bar & Kitchen UMAMI by Han is located on the Overtoom in Amsterdam. It is a modern Asian restaurant where everything revolves around the shared dining experience. Sharing food brings people closer together and that is an important principle in the Chinese culture. In addition to the location in Amsterdam, UMAMI also has restaurants in The Hague, Rotterdam, Eindhoven and Maastricht.
We were very curious about the UMAMI by Han experience and we went for dinner on a Sunday evening. Upon entering, the restaurant is bigger than we had imagined, and what a beautiful interior. Kassandra immediately noticed the Japanese characters on the chairs and it says Umami in Japanese. A fun fact is that in addition to sweet, sour, salty and bitter, Umami is recognized as the fifth basic taste.
They have a new vegetarian menu composed by Top Chef Han Ji and we wanted to try it! Our dinner consists of 5 courses, but you can of course also opt for a 3-course menu. In addition to the vegetarian menu, there are also many options for fish and/or meat.
the first course was roasted cauliflower with mash, asparagus and topped with coriander oil and black olive crumble. And the Umami sour salad, which is tofu and tree ear mushroom with a fresh cucumber dressing. We also ordered a fish dish, the Sour Seabass, which is a ceviche of sea bass with lemon sauce.
The second course we had Haricot verts with piccalilli soya egg. And the Artichoke & Mushroom, which are baked oyster mushrooms in tempura with a mushroom dressing and cinnamon syrup. the dishes were all very nicely seasoned
Then we had the Oat veggie roll, a vegetarian version of a spring roll with a crispy oatmeal sesame dressing and soybean puree. The vegan noodle salad was also very tasty, you get Konjac noodles with beech mushrooms and a spicy chili vinaigrette.
The main course consisted of a Shanghai bok choy with black beans, peanuts and shittake. The second dish was a spicy portobello mushroom garnished with chili and grilled shallots and spinach sauce.
We were quite full but of course there is always room for dessert, which was a delicious chocolate cake with cherry sauce, pineapple gel and a scoop of mocha ice cream.
We would like to give our compliments to the chef because we had a delicious dinner and the dishes were all beautifully served!
Location: Overtoom 31HS, Amsterdam
