This is a family restaurant handed down through the ages. It breathes all the atmosphere and scents of years that patrons have come and gone, the fire place has stained the rafters and walls and the decor has been added to somewhat haphazardly throughout the centuries. The structure in of the building itself is somewhat Heath Robinson like. The tables are laid with the typical cloth of red and white, the napkins are real cloth not paper. It wasn't modern in 1950 or 1914 or 1878 but it is true to itself.
The staff also has the real hallmarks of being a family restaurant, this is not the anti-sceptic efficiency of the MacDo or the suave sophistication of fine dining. They are friendly, smiling and propose the offering of their menu with patience and hunmour. As the evening goes along the service does tend to slow down as they spend more time chatting to patrons - many obviously have been coming there for yonks - taking time aside to surprise the little kid with an extra special ice cream and so forth. Do not be in a hurry and if you are make sure you catch the eye of the wait staff. Then they are very reactive - this is the classic relaxed Sunday family outing not a New York foodie temple.
The menu has the Belgian classics - we had grilled scampi - excellently done with a nice tartar and rouille sauce, yum - a frisee au lardons a simple but wholesome dish and the mushrooms on toast. The portion size was exactly right for a starter, often they are too large at such places where you get heavy food. We took the T-Bone for three with jacket potato and vegetables. Wonderful wonderful jacket potatoes - really grilled with a house butter/cream in it rather than the typical heavy cream one. The salad is a classic again, just lettuce with a good vinaigrette mixed in the bowl for you. For desert a real dame blanche - always a good choice in Belgium and we took the Sabayon with marsala. Clearly freshly made - exactly the warm slightly alcoholised goodness you would expect. There is a limited wine list but the prices are reasonable and the quality of the Vacqueyras we had was great, looking at what else was on offer there were none that gave me pause.
So what is the downside you will say? I regret to say that whilst the T-bone was excellently cooked on a real fire the quality of the meat itself fell short of my expectations. It was - despite being cooked well - a bit tough, dry and bland-ish. The other thing that irritated me somewhat is that there was 3.30 charge per sauce with your T-bone which I think is a lot when the sauce is served in a tiny ramekin. The veggies and aperitifs likewise were on the expensive side and at the end of the evening things just took a little too long, until I just started signalling the wait staff. Bathrooms impeccably clean and great coffee. It may be that we were unlucky with our piece of meat, I will return and we will try again - if it wasn't for that I would have rated it a four star but as it was the main attraction disappointed. read more
