There is a place outside of Antwerp that is a cross between an art gallery and fine dining…read morerestaurant. When you walk up to the door you pass a bronze statue that laughs at you. Designed by Arne Quinze, a famous Belgian artist whose work is in and outside of the restaurant. The place used to be a presbytery but you wouldnt know it from the modern elegance it exudes now. Arne Quinze's touches with more bronze art in the lobby, and a wooden installation that crawls throughout the main dining rooms. I came here alone to see what the best of Flanders eating was going to be like and was in for a real treat.
You're served the usual amuses, fine bread and a great tray of oil, butter and some greens that are a tradition in Belgian with your bread. There are many menus to choose from, which were named in many ways, showing different expressions of the kitchen. I wanted to go with something seafood specific and ended up with the Desire menu:
oral mouthsensations, salty, sour, sweet, bitter, umami
e motion passion, drive
SARDINE smoked, artichoke, sorrel, pickled onion, white celery
RED MULLET aïoli, SPINACH, RAMSONS, SAFFRON, BREAD "POFFERTJES"
SUNFISH BEURRE blanc sauce, yuzu, miso, langoustine, fennel
RHUBARB white chocolate, sisho, buttermilk
toggle one last temptation
As you can see the menu's are somewhat playful and cryptic in their message. The balance. creativity and deliciousness of the food is not cryptic in any way. It is outstanding. As I got to speaking with most of the staff, the sommeliers and then Marie-Claire the co-owner, they saw I had an appreciation for what they were doing, in both cuisne, art and architecture (the 3 things I look for in my travels) and we ended up hitting it off quite well. Very soon other dishes that I knew were not on my menu showed up and they were very much at this point taking care of me like I was in their house. It is unbelievable the level of hospitality that I was shown. We got to talking about what I was doing and where I was going citing I had friends who owned a restaurant in Antwerp proper who some of them knew. Small world! Finding out that I was headed south to Brussels the next night, it turned out that they had just opened a restaurant there too. So they called ahead and said that I was coming. Talk about the royal treatment. I have nothing but exemplary things to say about the foils here. It was most unexpected and was definitely one of the highlights of my recent travels. I can only hope that people reading this will make their way out to Reet and experience what is an amazing restaurant from all points. I look forward to the day I can return and eat here again.
