I love and look up to Icons… An icon or iconic place is something or someone whose legacy survives time and will always exist. An example of iconic persons related to food would be Auguste Escoffier or Paul Bocuse who have changed the world of gastronomy in such a way that like in case of Auguste Escoffier almost 80 years after his dead he still influences this world every day. When thinking about iconic (local) restaurants I could name a few in Antwerp that have earned their share in the history books.  Like restaurant Sir Anthony Van Dyck for example that was one of the first restaurants in the world that gave back his Michelin stars. There are also restaurant that are iconic to and for me as after 50 years without advertising or having a flashy website or even having lots of articles written about them they are still on top of their game and have a full house almost every day (thanks to people talking them)! A restaurant like this would be restaurant La Sirena in Antwerp (something to read when you don’t know what a Sirena is). It was in 1967 that Fausto Prantoni who arrived from Genova (nowadays it is his son keeping running the restaurant) first opened the doors of restaurant La Sirena that at that time was one of Antwerp’s first pizzerias right in the heart of the Antwerp Diamond district. In 1972 they had to enlarge the restaurant due to the success and had their last change in 1988 where the restaurant got its form like it is today… but no longer as a pizzeria but a restaurant serving high quality Italian/ French cuisine and being one of the most well-reputed restaurant in Antwerp. Even-though I must confess that their interior might be a bit outdated (but still classy), once you start eating you forget ALLLL about that and just don’t care anymore about their interior being trendy or not and understand why after almost 50 years they’re still as busy as back in the 80’s.

It all comes down to the food and the impeccable service, all dishes are prepared how they should be prepared (in the classical way with real butter, cream or whatever original ingredient goes into a recipe) but keeping it simple. For example one of my friends that joined had the seafood pasta, nothing special you might thinking… but instead of the usual 1 shrimp and miniature piece of salmon you get at most restaurants, at La Sirena they give you real, good  and a correct portion of fish that will actually make your pasta taste like real fish and not to fish stock cubes :-). I started my dinner with some “king scallops” with leak.( Also great I didn’t have hunt to find a piece of scallop as they were well represented 🙂 ). I must say they lobster they had on the menu seemed tempting, but tough choices just have to be made (and I also didn’t want to seem too greedy)

For the main course I shared a Turbot that came with with a dijonaise and déarnaise  sauce ( 30EUR pp). Another Friend had the Seabass cooked in a salt crust. Both fishes were cut and filleted by the waiters in the restaurant itself, something  you don’t get to see too often anymore nowadays (to me that also shows the know-how  and professionalism of the waiters). All dishes look “simple”, but you can just taste the quality and the fact they are well prepared! With all this we drank a 2012 Chardonnay from Alto Adige by St. Michael Eppan (it went down a bit too easy if ask me 🙂 )

There was not too much room left anymore, but there is always room for dessert… especially when they bring the assortment on a cart and I can actually see it all 🙂 I’m not gonna tell how many pieces I had as higher forces are also reading my blog (aka my lovely fiancée)

Why you should come here? If you like good quality food, prepared how it should (classical way) and afterwards you want to go home as a satisfied person that didn’t feel ripped off 🙂

I must also add I could have been in worse company, wouldn’t you agree? Thanks ladies 😉

Thanks to Tino and his team for their good care! I will definitely be back

Restaurant La Sirena

Address: Statiestraat 7, 2018 Antwerp – Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0) 3 233 01 02