We had a wonderful dinner at the De Linde. It is a little off the beaten path from Antwerp near the fantastic village of Braaschat. If you want to briefly escape the City of Antwerp for an afternoon, Braaschat reminded me of Laguna Beach CA (or Greenwich CT) with it's long avenue of high end unique shops and cafés. De Linde is simple to find on a corner, but in a heavily wooded area so there is the feeling of privacy, even though the dining room is wrapped by enormous picture windows. There is a beautiful partially covered out door deck with a small bar where all the local "well-to-do" 30 Something's congregated to socialize over wine and beer. Firstly I was impressed by the wine list and was very surprised to see one of our family favorites. We ordered wine and appetizers - a smoked salmon and a "special" shrimp and tomato dish. Both were excellent and the portions were very reasonable. We both ordered the evening dinner special, a perfectly prepared large whole Dover sole which came with a salad and a side of fries/chips. I pretend to be a french fry aficionado and these were the best unseasoned fries I've ever had - crispy but not thin like shoestrings - they were almost a distraction from the sole which was the highlight of the meal. It was firm but not overlooked. The seasoning was extremely delicate and enhanced the flavor perfectly. The portion was very large. The sole was so enjoyable it was impossible to leave any behind on the plate and I surgically cleaned all the bones to enjoy every last bit. Upon finishing and relaxing for a few minutes, the dessert menu arrived. The size of the meal precluded us from ordering anything from the extensive and very tempting desert menu so we finished the bottle of wine and headed back to Antwerp. It was by far the best meal during my 12 days in Europe. read more
