Scallops with cheese and honey and irritating service

These were scallops, goat cheese, honey, and some type of salad with a sweet and sour vinaigrette (~13 euros), with everything except the salad served up steaming hot out on the cold terrace of BelgoBelge on St. Boniface.  Interesting flavors, but not really what I was expecting since the scallops must have been about the same dimensions of a two-euro coin, while loads of melted cheese oozed out from underneath.  For a small but rich snack, though, it satisfied me:

Unfortunately there were lots of service problems here, as we were served two plates of food that weren’t ours.  At least there were mussels:

Also one of the red wines was listed on the white wine menu, apparently.  Not being wine connoiseurs, we didn’t know this until what we ordered to go with the mussels came out:

But in the end, food is food, even when it’s good and not great, so of course it got eaten despite the very, very late l’addition.

BelgoBelge
Rue de la Paix, Brussels

Food: B+
Price: B
Service: C
Atmosphere: A
Languages: French, English

Much food for your money

Post-Antwerp 10 mile race, which apparently is one of the races with the highest attendance in Belgium with 25,000 runners, we discovered a place where you get so much food for your money. For once we couldn’t actually eat it all. Unfortunately, all I can tell you for now is that it is in the center of Antwerp, very close to the train station. The waitress kindly humoured our post-race smelly selves and let us feast.

Vol au vent

Meat platter

Grilled chicken

The 1/2 grilled chicken came with a side of potatoes and a huge salad. The meat platter was a meat-fest and the vol-au-vent was good. The table full of food cost us less than 15 euros a person with a large bottle of water.

Food: B
Atmosphere: B
Service: A-
Price: A
Languages: Dutch, English

Make it a Thursday night

Over the last three years I have watched the evolution of one of my favorite eateries. The first time I went to El Vergel, I remember thinking the food was great and it was cheap relative to the quality and amount you received. Then about a year later I was a bit annoyed at the obvious and quite large prices increases (over 2 euros on some dishes) that appeared practically overnight. This was attributed to the price of meat going up (that vicious cycle of increasing grain costs due to fuel costs blah blah). Of course it didn’t have anything to do with the hordes of Eurocrats that flock there every lunch from the European Parliament and Commission and the ING and other bankers in the area, all of whom obviously have money to spend.

That said, the food is still delicious, and they still make a hell of a margarita if you happen to drop by on a Thursday night (the only night of the week that they stay open for dinner). Top of the list are the chicken and beef tacos (7.10 and 7.50 euros respectively) and the chicken salad (9.30 euros). The daily special is usually a meat and potato/rice/plantain type dish and almost always great (~10 euros). Sometimes it is packed for lunch and the service can be quite slow, but generally friendly. The best time to go is Thursday evening when there are less customers and you can enjoy your meal in some peace. The cheesecake (3.70 euros) is probably the best in town.

El Vergel, Rue du Trone 39, 1050 Elsene

Food: A
Atmosphere: A/B ~ depends if its for lunch or on a Thursday night
Service: A/B ~ depends if its for lunch or on a Thursday night
Price: B
Languages: French, English, Spanish

Spinnewhat?

I actually read about this restaurant on a Facebook group called On va manger où? I was searching for recommended Belgian brasseries or restaurants. People raved about this place, and a few weeks ago with a friend in town from Germany I finally had the chance to try it out.

I had the carbonnade au lambic (15.50 euros) which was excellent. I also tried another dish: succulent rabbit (à la gueze ~ 18.50 euros). Two thumbs up for quality Belgian food and decent prices, but unfortunately the place is tiny, unbearably hot, and they wanted to charge us 500 euros for trying to bring our own cake. You can imagine that we didn’t end up eating the cake until in the car (true story).

Go for the food, but make sure you have a small group! We also had to make a reservation for a Friday night as they are usually packed.

Spinnekopke
1 Place Jardin Aux Fleurs, 1000 Brussels

Food: A
Atmosphere: C+
Service: B
Price: A-
Languages: French, English, maybe Dutch?