Every wannabe North Atlantic resort has a strip of restaurants along its docks or oceanfront…read moredesigned to lure in the sparse and unwary tourist trade. Most of the establishments are adequate, but not very good. A few are excellent, but indistinguishable in their faintly forlorn facades.
In Oostende, the strip runs from Visserskaii around to Vindictivelaan (a foreboding name, if ever there was one, for a restaurant row). The last time we were here, on a bitterly cold January afternoon, all of the brasseries were empty, except for 't Waterhuis, which barely fit us in.
Apparently, this fishing port's locals, when given the choice of meals out, favor pasta over seafood, and that is what they serve here. The sauces are more Flemish than Italian, with strange ingredients like curry powder and mountains of an indeterminate rough-ground cheese. The food is actually quite good, if not great.
The house itself was another matter. Built a few centuries ago to sell that most precious of seafaring commodities - fresh water - to passing trawlers, it sits on a vast, empty cistern. The water taps have been converted into light fixtures. With its dark Flemish decor and pleasant, if hurried, staff, it makes a warm refuge from the ugly weather outside.
