Just a few years ago, the impressive fortress of Tivoli Vredenburg arose across from Hoog Catharijne. Based at the bottom of this giant is a nice bar called ‘Het Gegeven Paard’, a bar that offers a different note to this musical palace. Het Gegeven Paard seems to be stuffed to the brim every Friday with Gin Tonic-lovers on the hunt for the best of the best in the big selection of Gin Tonics that Het Gegeven Paard has to offer. Apart from Gin Tonics, they also offer an array of other amazing drinks, including a large selection of wines, whiskeys, cognacs and even cocktails. However, we didn’t (just) go to Het Gegeven Paard for drinks, we also decided to grab a bite to eat!
Small menu with surprising combinations
The menu is surprisingly small compared to the amount of choice available for drinks, but that only makes choosing a meal easier. Everything available on the menu does sound very nice. I decided to for the ‘walk in the woods’-salad, with mushrooms, bacon, chestnuts and cepesmayonnaise. My partner went for the chicken and chips; crispy chicken thighs with potato wedges and spicy curry mayonnaise.
The flavors of the ‘walk in the woods’ were perfectly balanced, with a sour dressing harmonizing perfectly with the round soft flavor of the chestnuts and the salty bacon. Cepesmayonnaise turned out to be some sort of truffle mayonnaise, which is one of my favorite flavors! Needless to say I enjoyed the salad very much. My partner’s chicken was also very tasty, however the ratio of chicken to potatoes was a little off, and my partner definitely missed some greens/vegetables in his dish.
To finish off our lovely evening, we decided to get dessert and a rose lemonade. The dessert ended up being a lovely combination of caramelized banana in rum, vanilla and lime, with a marshmallow of banana, crème, sponge cake, crumble of chocolate and vanilla ice-cream. Once again a very interesting and flavorful combination.
I can definitely recommend Het Gegeven Paard for before or after a concert, to also let your taste buds sing!
Address: Vredenburgkade 11
Website
Google map