Last Friday I went to a restaurant that has been on my list for quite a while. Why  haven’t I gone there before? Maybe because the restaurant is located in a district I don’t often go to or pass through that much? I’m talking about restaurant  Bar(‘t) a vin, located in the heart of the abattoir district also called “Den Dam”. When I was younger I used to come here pretty often with my dad to buy meat for his restaurant. People who know this district will agree that it is not the most attractive neighborhood, although I must say that the last few years the government (city) has done  its best to make this a sparkling part of Antwerp again. When arriving here I was actually surprised about the amount of restaurants!! But for me the true pearl of this district is without any doubt restaurant “Bar(t) a vin”. When entering  this restaurant, you immediately get stunned  by the ‘honest’ interior with . original tiles on the wall from the time this place was a pig abattoir.

The fact that the kitchen is incorporated in the restaurant and being able to see chef Tom Van der Borght doing  his thing, shows that this restaurant has nothing to hide.  Bart Adriaenssens, the owner of the restaurant, is the maître and helps you to make your evening a true experience.

Food time J  We first started off by having a glass of Portuguese sparkling wine (that I don’t remember having seen before). The restaurant has no real menu card and wine list. For the food they have a little blackboard with at the left the classic dishes that the restaurant always serves and at the right the daily suggestions. As a starter we took a mix of fine meats, cooked and grilled vegetables together with smoked mozzarella.  The assortment of meat was not only your typical piece of ham, they also added freshly made ‘kop’, different kinds of salamis, etc…

As  I can’t stand on one leg, I obviously also needed something to drink with that and as they don’t have a wine list, Bart tries to find together with you, the perfect matching  wine (although I think he already knew what kinds of wine I liked, just by looking at me). I had an Italian red wine from Tuscany and my girlfriend had a French Shiraz kind of wine. Both wines were chosen well   (fyi, the restaurant has around 200 different kinds of wine). As a main course, my girlfriend took the Steak Tartare (raw meat) that to her opinion was one of the best she has ever had (and she already had it lots of times) and I went for rays fish (rog). I know it is strange to take fish in a restaurant in the meat district, but is was Friday, so fishday…. But nevertheless, I really enjoyed it. The main course was accompanied by a nice glass of Rioja.

We finished off with a freshly made “moelleux au chocolat” and a “crème brulee” . I’m really glad that I visited this restaurant and I’m sure I will be going back (my dad and brother would just love this restaurant). And may I add that this team of 2 is really wonderful and of an unseen friendliness!! Keep up the good work guys

 Basically, restaurant Bar(t) a vin is a well hidden treasure!!

Restaurant Bar(t) a vin

Website:  http://www.bartavin.info/

Address:

                Lange Slagerijstraat 3-5

                2060 Antwerp, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0)474 94 17 86

Did you ever drink wine from India???  I didn’t even know they made wine ….

At restaurant “De Troubadour” you can taste/drink the strangest (but very good) wines, that you have ever seen on wine lists. I remember John Verbeeck, the owner from “De Troubadour”, from the regional Antwerp TV. What stayed in my mind was actually that he was a very happy, round, funny and in some way eccentric chef that would combine products that I would never think of combing. Honestly, I don’t know why I never came here before as it is pretty close to where I live. It was actually my girlfriend who surprised me on by birthday. She asked me before if I would prefer a present or a dinner at a nice restaurant? So I told her that I would be happy with both of them, that she just had to choose. But as she knows me really wel,l she knew that food would make me happier than any other gift :)… So she took me to  “De troubadour”. When arriving there, we almost entered the wrong place as we didn’t see the glass door at our left (we thought it was just a window).

Anyway, as I have already told you in previous posts, in restaurants like these I prefer taking the gastronomical menu (in this case the “Sensation” menu). We started with quail, then we had a bisque, followed by Skrei, after that we had veal and finished with a nice chocolate dessert. All accompanied by matching Croatian wines. When I think of Croatian wines I only think of Malvazija, but nothing else. I would love to give you the names of the wines I had, but I lost the list I made 😦  (yes, guilty as charged). With the veal for example, we had a wine I would never buy when tasting it, because it was the taste was real herbal, but together with this dish, the wine really give another  dimension and gave the wine a better impression better than the first one I had. When looking at the restaurant’s wine list, I couldn’t believe my eyes because so many different countries were represented on it. (like India for example, which a colleague of mine had tasted and enjoyed it)

 So if you feel like tasting excellent food and wine from countries you didn’t even knew they had wine 🙂, De Troubadour is the place to be.

 I know I always seem enthusiastic and that I only seem to be telling good things… But I only want to put things on my blog that people would like and that I liked.. It is just not in my nature to be negative.

Restaurant De Troubadour:

Website: http://detroubadour.be/

Address:

                Driekoningenstraat 72

                2600 Berchem, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0) 3 239 39 16

Last Friday I had a dinner with some colleagues and like every time, they relied on me to find a nice place to eat. This was not an easy task as I need to keep my reputation high and since my colleagues also wanted to try something new.  This time we choose to go to Josephine’s. Entering this restaurant is like entering your grandmother’s living room (but then with a few modern touches), velvet sofas, retro coffee tables, etc …

This part of the restaurant is used as a bar and therefore we choose to take our aperitif in one of the funky sofas. Two of my colleagues and myself took some bubbles (Veuve de mormont) while the others went for a beer cocktail and an iced mint tea.  For an unknown reason we received a plate of fine meats and olives (the guests sitting beside us didn’t get this), but maybe it came with one of our aperitifs .

We also passed our orders in granny’s living room. 4 of us took the suggestions:  Mechselse Koekoek (type of chicken) filled with Italian ham and zucchini, fresh linguini and oregano sauce (gravy sauce) and this was also what I took. The others took the Yellow fin tuna  with green asparagus, shiitakes and mashes potatoes with a butter/spring onion sauce.  One of my colleagues  chose the trademark dish of the restaurant called “Black angus”.  We all took different wines to accompany our dishes. I took the Australian Shiraz that to my opinion nicely matched the dish.  We all enjoyed our meals and I really like it when I have a full taste while eating (for example if a gravy didn’t cook enough it would be tasteless). The tuna was also cooked as it should.

Last but not least, before ordering I already saw the “Tarte Tatin” on the menu (and you guys know how much I love it) so I HAD to go for it. My colleagues took the Chocolate Brownie.

I should also mention the extra touch to my Tarte Tatin, they did a live flambé of the Tarte Tatin with Rum.  So it feels like it’s your birthday and the restaurants does something special, but if there is one thing I HATE, it is to be in the center of the attention in a restaurant (even when it is my birthday). I would hereby like to thank my table companions, formerly known as “my colleagues”, for singing “Happy Birthday”(it wasn’t even my birthday) when I got my dessert (MY REVENGE WILL BE SWEET) 🙂 🙂

Again a nice discovery in the city center of Antwerp and the feeling of coming home.

Ah one more thing, they sometimes also have live Jazz sets in the restaurant!!

Restaurant Josephine’s

Website: http://www.josephines.be/

Address:

                Gentplaats 1

                2000 Antwerp, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0) 3 248 95 95

Sometimes I really have no inspiration of where I need to go and eat, even dough Antwerp is filled with great restaurants. I don’t always feel like going to the ones you usually go, I basically feel like trying something new. So then I start bugging friends if they don’t know nice places I should try. On one of these evenings I went to restaurant “à l’ improviste” which means unexpectedly in English and that is the least I can say about this wonderful place of gastronomy.  Honestly, I don’t know why I didn’t go to this restaurant before, because I used to pass by a lot… Anyhow, this restaurant is a must to anyone who like to be surprised by food and to explore new tastes. You have the choice between a 4 or 5 course menu that the chef introduces at the table. And if there are things you don’t like or you’d prefer to leave out, the chef is more than happy to do so. They only use season and fresh products that get prepared in their open kitchen which allows the visitors to see that everything gets prepared with a lot of care. I choose for the 5 course menu  and I enjoyed every bit of it  and as a Nutella hazelnut lover, I really loved the Nutella/hazelnut icecream 🙂 🙂(mmmm, if only I could have some while I’m writing). As you would expect in a restaurant like this, they foresee wines that perfectly match the courses. It doesn’t happen much that I think by myself, man  I want this at home … but here I remember buying all the wines I had that evening 🙂  for example the Schreuebe (white wine) from Geilwas one of them (they also have nice Riesling and Kerner). This gives the restaurant an even better value, as you can buy all their wines and some of their products in their wineshop/lunchrestaurant / tastingbar “à l’ infintiste” , where I also had a small lunch (with great wines)  a few times and also liked this a lot.

 So get unexpectedly surprised at “à l’ improviste”

Restaurant à ‘l improviste

Address:

                Mechelsesteenweg 112

                2018 Antwerp, Belgium

Phone n° : +32 (0)3 216 33 03