For our only dinner in Ghent, we grabbed a reservation at Publiek. It's slightly east of the central part of the city, but it's still quite walkable. It's easy to tell when you are there - just keep an eye out for the bright-white sign saying "You're not lost, you're here". Once inside, you'll find a restaurant that has a lot of industrial finishes and furnishings (you can also tell from the menus, which have a bit more heft to them) amongst a few different areas to dine at. We ended up selecting a nook in the front of the restaurant that was cozy and intimate, and although we were dining with a few other folks in the same area, there was no awkwardness in carrying on our own conversation (also helped by the fact that we were chatting in English). The servers were conversant enough in English to give detailed descriptions of the menu items without stumbling over any of the ingredients, which I am usually accustomed to when at overseas restaurants. The drink selection isn't that broad (except for the beers, which are unfortunately mostly big-label Belgian labels), but I did enjoy my cocktail, and the glass of (very) dry Riesling from Austria was a nice pairing with the entire meal.
For food, the main option is the tasting menu - you can do a la carte, but it's basically a limited deconstruction of the tasting menu, so you may as well buck up for the full experience. At 78 euros, I felt it was very reasonably-priced, and the food definitely does not disappoint, even in the dead of winter. We started out with several amuse bouche bites that were varied but all quite nice to start out with. My favorite of the four were the hard-boiled quail eggs that were dipped in a hollandaise-like shallot sauce topped with what appeared to be shredded egg yolks. Quail eggs have a bit more depth in terms of flavor, and with the smaller size, it's a perfectly hearty bite that bring a slight tartness from the shallot. The dried house sausage with walnuts was decent - a bit more 'crumbly' than most sausages I've had - while the cheese-infused shortbread cookie and the pickled carrot slice were alright, if less interesting. It was on to the start of a 6-course dinner, starting with an excellent red mullet dish served with cabbage and celery-infused shaved ice (as a manner of speaking). The fish quality was quite good, and the cleansing flavor of the celery - with the slight texture from the ice - made it almost like a chilled sashimi or poke dish...really good overall. Next up was what was described as a 'taco' by the folks here, although I'd call it more of a crepe, stuffed with some light veggies and a generous (given the size of the course) amount of North Sea crab. The crab meat was very fresh, and the 'crepe' itself was very thin, so the dish was refreshing but still on the lighter side. The next course was probably my favorite of the night - a 'raw winter salad' that, because I did not know what limousin was (a breed of cow), surprised me by being a very veggie-forward beef tartare. The meat itself was excellent, but I enjoyed the higher-than-average presence of greens alongside sour currants, giving the tartare a much more herbal tilt.
The next course was the only vegetarian course of the evening, but we added a scallop for 5 euros (not bad for an addition to a course). The black pudding - not usually something I'd be a fan of - was actually very flavorful and reminded me a bit of the kind of homey flavors you would expect from something like meatloaf. The sliced pear on top was an interesting contrast in texture and flavor, and while the scallop was good (from both a quality and price/value perspective), it didn't quite fit the dish as well. The last main was an excellent cut of guinea-fowl (some kind of small bird, I'd presume); the meat was cooked almost in a sous-vide style, I would assume, based on how tender and succulent it was, and the tarragon sauce was more au jus than anything, which I enjoyed - it lent an herbal undertone instead of being the domineering flavor it can become in a cream-based sauce. Last up was dessert, of which you can choose from a cheese course (a small supplement) or a couple of other choices. We stuck with the listed desserts and enjoyed both, although the coffee-garnished whiskey ice cream with wafers and some kind of fruit at the bottom (I forget right off) was outstanding. The other - a malted wafer with apple and blackcurrant at the bottom - was also quite good, with a strong contrast from the blackcurrant - but it was not quite as impressive.
That said, all of the food here was absolutely delicious, and I really enjoyed both the ambiance and the food overall. Perhaps the only drawback - more noticeable to us as we struggled through the end of a long day full of jet lag, without a nap - was that the service, like many European restaurants, is on the more casual side. It took us nearly 3 hours to finish the meal, so I would adjust expectations accordingly. read more
