De Lindenhof

Set along a stretch of the vegetable garden that supplies its kitchen, De Lindenhof runs its dining room and its rooms on the same rhythm: what grows outside ends up on the plate. A stork's nest marks the highest point of the grounds, visible above a garden that borders the restaurant and its lodge rooms. Martin runs the kitchen as patron-chef, working with maître-sommelier Pieter-Jan and head chef Lennard on menus that shift daily and run from four courses to twelve. Dishes lean on the surrounding wetlands: smoked salmon with horseradish, pike-perch with lemongrass and eel, langoustine with vadouvan and pear. The wine cellar and tasting menus draw on produce grown metres from the pass, and a caviar service is offered by the tin. Stays run across four senior suites, four junior suites, four lodge rooms and a separate chef's cottage, each fitted with an Auping bed and its own climate control. Two junior suites sit above the restaurant; two more are in the adjoining Lindenlodge. You can also arrive by boat, gliding straight into the garden from a helicopter landing field next door. Rooms look onto the garden or the low rooflines of Giethoorn itself. It is a compact, self-contained address, built less as a hotel with a restaurant attached than as one kitchen extended into every room.