De Schans by Mike & Wes

good quality, good value cooking

A countryside restaurant by chef Mike and host and sommelier Wesley de Leeuw. A bull proudly features in the logo and is subtly visible on Mike’s arm. It’s clear they’re passionate about their business, and you can taste it. More and more people are finding De Schans for business lunches, family dinners, and romantic meals. The interior is atmospheric, with nice table linens and a cozy raised seating area. On nice days, guests can dine on the terrace, though it could use a few extra atmospheric touches. The kitchen team delivers impressive results. Ingredients are sourced from the immediate surroundings, the dishes look magnificent, and are well seasoned. Opting for the surprise lunch, we start with a colorful plate of corvina ceviche marinated in tiger’s milk with pepper and soy sauce. There are a few firmer pieces mixed in, but the combination with avocado, puffed red onion, cucumber vinaigrette, and boiled corn is well executed. Next up is a classic: “Surf & Turf” with perfectly seared scallops and slow-cooked pork belly, zucchini cream, braised zucchini balls, and a green apple and celery salsa—sweet, salty, and fresh. To drink, a red Arinto from Boas Quintas, a crisp Portuguese single-varietal from Bucelas, north of Lisbon. A perfect pairing. For the main course, a generous portion of Dutch duck, beautifully roasted to a rosy pink. Served with a hearty baba ganoush, puffed cherry tomatoes, artichoke, lamb’s ear, and potato puffs. Everything in its own jus. Delicious and thoroughly well-conceived. The dessert is a feast for cherry lovers: cherries served with ice cream, meringue foam, and chocolate. A perfect finale that shows how much love and attention goes into cooking here.

Chef Wes (Wesley) and host and sommelier Mike, who share the surname de Leeuw but are not related, are steadily building their reputation at their cozy, informal living-room-style restaurant in the Green Heart region. They took over De Schans in 2020, and many guests now find their way there without fail. The interior is atmospheric, featuring wooden floors, softly tinted walls with modern light fixtures, wooden tables set with linen napkins, gleaming cutlery, paper-thin crystal glasses, and exquisite tableware. Wes’s cooking style is contemporary yet rooted in classic cuisine, and he prefers to work with regional ingredients. The quality of his produce is unquestionably top-notch. Alongside a modest à la carte selection, guests can also order a surprise tasting menu. Another plus: if you book a business lunch, you’re guaranteed to be finished within an hour. For our starter, we enjoy a generous portion of smoked salmon with fresh green herbs and pickled lemon. It is paired with a crisp white Auxerrois from Brabant produced by Sint-Catharinadal, crafted by the nuns of the oldest surviving women’s monastery in the Netherlands (which explains why it’s so good). This is followed by perfectly roasted veal loin served with seasonal vegetables and a beautifully reduced shallot jus. Coffee is served alongside delicious friandises, which you’re welcome to take home if you’ve had enough. Here, hospitality is spelled with a capital H.

Since 2020, the young and ambitious chef Wesley de Leeuw and host and sommelier Mike de Leeuw (no relation) have been at the helm of this cozy, home-like restaurant in the Green Heart, situated between the fortress towns of Oudewater and Montfoort. Wesley prepares a pure and uncomplicated cuisine featuring top-quality ingredients. The menu is cleverly structured, with sections titled 'Deep in the sea' for fish dishes, 'Smokey smokey' for smoked items, and 'For the cheese head' offering a selection of artisanal cheeses. We opt for the surprise menu and begin with cured salmon accompanied by pickled tomato, daikon, radish, and cucumber, surrounded by squid cream and a crispy garnish colored with squid ink. A beautifully presented plate brimming with pure flavors. Next comes sea bass pan-seared skin-side down, served with Zeeland mussels, a carrot crisp, and a creamy saffron sauce. Simple yet excellent. The succulently baked cod follows, paired with spinach cream, mushrooms stewed in buttery cream, a rich hollandaise sauce, and generous slices of summer truffle. Everything is outstanding. La Grande Viognier, a full-bodied fine wine, pairs seamlessly. After dessert—a soft white chocolate and citrus bavarois with orange, calamansi, and kumquat—we are served coffee alongside house-made friandises. You can take them home in a small box if you've had too many. A charming establishment where two passionate owners go all out to ensure their guests have a perfect experience. And they certainly succeed.

At the beginning of 2020, sommelier and host Mike de Leeuw and chef Wesley de Leeuw (not related) took over De Schans, and it has certainly been a great success. They updated the interior of the living room-style restaurant, but the kitchen that Wesley was already running before the takeover remained unchanged. It offers beautiful, straightforward dishes inspired by French cuisine, without any fuss, and prepared with high-quality ingredients. Mike looks after the guests, doing so with genuine dedication. With the aperitif, a 2020 Domaine Coudoulet, amuse-bouches featuring asparagus take center stage, and the version with smoked and dried egg yolk is sublime. For the starter, there is whiting ceviche with tiger milk, soy, coconut, avocado mousse, jalapeño pepper, crispy corn, radish, coriander, and pickled red onion. A spicy dish, colorfully plated, and a lovely starter. It is paired with a Sylvaner Thörle from a Grand Cru hill in Rheinhessen. This is followed by a poultry roulade accompanied by various root vegetable preparations served as jus, cream, 'filet américain', and a crispy version. The meat is juicy and cooked to perfection. To finish, we indulge in Lambada and albino strawberries with blackberries and blueberries, along with strawberry mousse and strawberry cream over a crumble base. Deliciously refreshing. The portions are generous, the glasses are poured liberally; only the pace of service could be a bit faster.

Mike de Leeuw and Wesley de Leeuw ("no relation") are the new owners of De Schans, respectively serving as host-sommelier and head chef. In an atmosphere of rural coziness—we’re right in the middle of the Green Heart—they pamper their guests with dishes from classic French-Mediterranean cuisine and surprisingly priced wines. During the crisis, they revamped the restaurant’s interior (the bar was removed and a long wall bench "for two" was added), but we are sitting outside, on the cozy terrace under parasols. After amuse-bouches such as a satay skewer of polder chicken with serondeng and an egg-shaped bread roll with mango and jackfruit, we taste a "deconstructed" vitello tonnato. That means it features tuna with capelin roe, served alongside hand-cut veal tenderloin with herbs, plus a garnish of seaweed marinated in sesame oil and fresh apple. A beautiful dish! We pair it with a Vermentino from Sardinia (s’Eleme, 2018) that complements it perfectly. The main course is a gorgeous veal loin with beetroot elements. Juicy, super-tender meat with a sweet-and-sour accompaniment. In the glass now comes a purplish-red Portuguese wine: Duas Quintas (Ramos Pinto, 2017) from the Douro Valley. Lovely! To finish, fruits such as blackberry, cherry, and blueberry with yogurt ice cream and a sweet crumble. Excellent value for money. Welcome to Lekker!

Nestled between the fortress towns of Oudewater and Montfoort lies the cozy, living-room-style restaurant of Ries and Lilian Verburgt. We start with a glass of Deutz champagne and nibble on a crispy phyllo pastry topped with sesame seeds and aged crumbly cheese. Delicious! While we study the menu, which offers an ample selection of à la carte dishes and set menus, we are served three excellent amuse-bouches, including a thrilling seaweed jelly with biltong. For the starter, Ries’s signature dish: Riesotto, a mushroom risotto with truffle foam and a fried egg yolk. Ries grates aged crumbly cheese over it tableside. It delivers a true flavor explosion with umami taking center stage. The poured Spätburgunder from Baden perfectly complements the dish. Next comes farm-raised pigeon, roasted on the bone and finished in the oven in its own jus, accompanied by a leg confited in goose fat. Served alongside are garden peas, double-shelled broad beans, a piccalilly dressing, and a full, rich jus. For dessert, there is a panna cotta, meringue, and buttermilk ice cream, paired with rhubarb cream, ruby chocolate, and Bastogne cookies. Fresh and beautifully balanced, highlighting the sweetness of the chocolate and the Bastogne. The dessert wine pairs harmoniously: a soft pink Malvira Birbet from Italy, with fine bubbles and notes of lychee and rose. It’s no wonder this place is packed to the brim.

This restaurant in the hamlet of Willeskop, right in the heart of Het Groene Hart, is absolutely packed. It is cold outside, and inside we are served warm pea soup. Well, more like a pea soup foam with crispy potato crumbs, accompanied by a few other amuse-bouches. A wonderfully warming appetizer at the welcoming establishment of Ries and Lilian Verburgt, who have been achieving regional success here for years. We enjoy an Escudo Rojo by Baron Philippe de Rothschild, 2014, a pleasantly full-bodied Chardonnay from Chile, and make our selections from the carefully curated menu. Pan-fried duck liver with sweet onion caramel and a bacon lardons dressing. Served alongside smoked salmon, marinated and pickled in beetroot. Beautiful, convincing flavors. Followed by ‘meat en griet’, a combination of pork cheek and herring. The meat slowly braised, the fish pan-fried until crispy. Delicious! On the other plate, wild sea bass, pan-fried with a herb topping and served with seasonal vegetables. The charming host and sommelier Dirk van der Plas, who has been serving here for about 12 years, continues to pour the Chilean Chardonnay to our complete satisfaction. The dinner concludes with slices of cheese from the region (blessed with numerous cheese farms), served with nut bread and syrup, and a glass of Banyuls. A delightful oasis between the fortified towns of Oudewater and Montfoort, along the road that winds alongside the Hollandse IJssel. Features its own spacious parking lot.