Saturday my fiancée and I tried and discovered a new little restaurant called Mi’ró. The location of the restaurant is maybe a surprise to lots of people as the area it is in is not known as the most popular part of town. Although more and more people seem to find their way back to Borgerhout and are opening lots of nice restaurants here. I actually grew up a few streets from this restaurant and lived here until I was 12 years old, so I enjoyed seeing this neighborhood heading back to its rightful place. When I then read on a fellow blogger website (be_gusto in Dutch) Mi’ró made a special version of one of my favorite dishes Vol-au- vent (aka vidée or koninginnehapje)….I just had to try this and needed no more convincing!!!

Already from the moment you walk into this restaurant you can immediately feel the good vibe. Maybe it is because the restaurant is not too big (only 7 or 8 tables) or the big photo of old Borgerhout hanging there? It also has to be said that the vibe only became better and better during the evening and this was not because of the wine ;-). It is also due to the very friendly and caring host and hostess!

I started with homemade grey shrimp croquettes (I had heard they were exquisite) and my fiancée followed me, but took the cheese version of the croquettes (don’t worry, they also have non fried dishes). I think that  what makes these croquettes so special is as they have a Spanish touch to them, they reminded me of the croquettes filled with Iberico Ham I had in Barcelona a couple of times. This might be due to the fact the chef/owner has worked some years in Barcelona in avery good restaurant ( Comerç 24, FYI a restaurant you als have to try!). Anyhow to make a long story short(er) those where some nice croquettes.

As a main dish I just had to pick the Vol-au-vent, no matter how tempting the other dishes were.  My fiancée took the Corvina with “schorseneren” and a champaign sauce.  The vol-au-vent did meet my expectations, what made it different and special is that they used instead of regular mushrooms they used Enokitake mushrooms; they added duck stomachs (which they can leave out if you ask, and this proves all is made freshly on the spot!)  Instead of puff pastry that usually comes with a Vol-au-vent they gave very big croutons. I would truly recommend it to try classic dishes with a twist.

There were very nice wines on the wine list.  We took besides Lacrima Baccus cava to open our tastebuds, 2 different red wines I had an Italian Marchesi Antinori wine a  Bolgheri ‘il bruciato’ (had a very rich and round flavor and I really those buttery tastes in wines (or butter in general 😉 ). My fiancée on the other hand took an Argentinian wine from the Mendoza region called “Fabre Montmayou” which was also a nice choice.

To sum it all up, we had a very nice dinner and they for sure haven’t seen the last of us!

Bistrot Mi’ró

Address: Moorkensplein 28, 2140 Antwerp Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0)3 235 03 25