The menu is more of a tasting menu; you can choose from either a five or a seven course sitting. We went for the five, though mainly because I unfortunately cooked fish seems to disagree with my palate - bizzare!

Our party of four have very differing tastes, so this was a good mix to see the reactions on the cuisine.

As with all tasting menus, there were a few extra courses, and with each course we had a wine pairing. It was extremely fortunate that the chef/owner was amicable as I really am not a great alcohol drinker or should I say alcohol doesn't sit well with me. He was happy for me to have the wine pairing till I couldn't manage it - and I actually lasted till the third course!

I was also very lucky that the Chef could describe well the menu in English - he is very animated and we couldn't help but get caught up in his enthusiasm for the dishes. The listed menu had a some substitutions and this is due to what was available on the day, either from the market or homegrown vegetables, etc..

For our evening's sitting, there was only two people that cooked and served. The Chef/Owner Juriaan de Witte and the Sous-Chef Jaime.

It was amusing... after finishing each dish, some of us declared it was the best dish yet, and this carried on with each course that came. So I can safely say that it was very enjoyable! I think images speak louder than anything, so I have included them in large format below.

For the Pig's Head course, most of us were a little disappointed that it did not resemble a pig's head, with a little sigh of relief from another. With every dish, playing around with combinations to see were favourites and were the best eaten together or even on its own. Each combination gave me a different sensation, flavour, texture to digest.

Perhaps it was that we all finished our plates that we were asked if we would like an extra course of cheeses which was accompanied by some port, complementary, as I had eyed them up at the beginning of the evening. My curiosity also got the better of me... I only knew then of the typical hard Dutch cheeses but as you can see we were served a couple of soft variations and one extra (the blue) when we were chatting with the chefs.

I applaud the creativity and aim of chefs - bringing Dutch cuisine, and even more so, local to Schiedam to the forefront, dispelling traditional negative thoughts and introducing/modernising recognisable typical Dutch produce and dishes in an imaginative way. The enthusiasm that they bring, with a fantastic location in an old building on the high street (around 1540-1550), the atmosphere they have created for De Stoker is quite "Gezellig" if I have got the right word.

Enjoy! Eet smakelijk!