Dear readers! I need to tell you about this awesome place in Leiden: Just Meet. A steak house which have given me an exceptional dinner experience.
It was a normal dinner date with Lazy Penguin and Lazy Kitten (new Lazy friend!), using his birthday as excuse. I thought: “let’s not work this dinner” (a.k.a making million photos and observing the room etc.). But the menu, the drinks, the PICK-YOUR-OWN-KNIFE experience and the food was too good to NOT share with you guys. So here it is, my enthusiastic photo story:
Story time
When entering one part of the restaurant (they have two rooms) you feel cozy and warm with the wooden interior and high ceiling. Soft sofas over there.
Food & Drinks
Just Meet offers a big selection of Gin & Tonics and wines. Since we are Gin & Tonic noobs, we took forever to order a G&T. This type of drink is getting popular, I often see it in restaurants these days. We also asked for the main menu to see what we could pick to match the drink. They offer dry aged meat, which has a richer taste nomnomnom. Lazy Kitten and I ordered the tenderloin and Lazy Penguin the rib eye for more fat taste.
We also ordered some shared side dishes. Just check out my art plating, doesn’t it look delicious? So how was the food? The meat was so soft and tender. This comes so close to sous vide meat. This really was the best meat experience I have ever had in a restaurant (better than Rodeo). Also because of the big selection of side dishes which complement the meat really well. Our chosen side portions were 2,50 euro each and not too big, so you can try a lot. Lazy Penguin was really enthusiastic about the truffle risotto. He will also make it as side dish for his sous vide meat. The quality of the meat, the side dishes were just “ah” 😙 👌* kisses fingers *.
Oh, I was so enthusiastic about the food that I skipped the fun part. It was very interesting to try out the different Gin & Tonics. They are all bitter, but have their own scent and tastes. We had [coffee bean + blood orange], [rose petals + black pepper] and [mint + red rasberry]. The coffee bean one smelled like old grandpas, but the taste grows on you. It became my favorite of the three.
Pick your own knife!
What blew my mind away was that we could choose our own meat knife! What kind of awesome service is that! For the perfect meat experience, you get the pick out your own tools. They take their meat very seriously. Lazy Penguin told us that it is not good to have a serrated meat knife (kartel mes), since you will break the fibers of the meat. While I was looking for the English translation of ‘kartel mes’ I found a cool article (in Dutch) about Chef George Jasper and Robin Verloop from Just Meet. I am just getting hyped up about the knives! I picked a flower laser cut knife with strange holding area. I assure you, the next time I will visit them, I will pick the same. It grows on you.
Middle knife is mine.
Dessert time! We were already quite full, but since the food had been awesome, we also had to try out some desserts. Just look at these pieces of art!
And again, the taste and the textures were so interesting and delicious. Glad we didn’t skip the desserts.
Price & Service
All this food, drinks and awesome experience was ónly 50 euro per person. I think that is a great deal for good food + alcohol. The service was also friendly and easy going. I felt a bit uncomfortable taking so much time to pick a G&T, but our waitresses were really patient and friendly.
So… time for you guys to visit?
Visit them!
Just Meet
Breestraat 18, 2311 CR, Leiden
T: 31(0) 717 50 45 70
just-meet.nl Facebook
