As you might know, I almost never write 2 times about the same restaurant… but sometimes I make an exception.  Last weekend my wife and I thought it was time again for a date. Basically a moment without our 2 lovely children 🙂  The checklist for our date: eating outside, reachable by bike and great food/wines.   The place that checked all the boxes was Bistro Vintage!! Only 8minutes by bike, a wonderful garden aaaaand very gastronomical.

Bistro Vintage used to be the ‘second’ restaurant of the 2 Michelin star awarded restaurant Nuance. Back at that time the few times I had a meal here, the food was good, but there was something missing… or rather someone. In my opinion (and I had heard other people sharing that same opinion) what was missing was maturity and somebody more experienced in the restaurant.  I always found it a pity that a restaurant in such a beautiful location and so much potential didn’t meet up 100% with expectations.

The trigger for me to visit and write about Bistro Vintage again was/is because of 1 person Steven Wullaert (former head-sommelier of restaurant Nuance) who took over Bistro Vintage about a year ago 🙂 .  I was pretty sure that Steven would be able to get the restaurant back on track and bring the (for me) needed experience to the restaurant and take it to the top.

My guts was right! Everything I had hoped for that would change after Steven’s arrival, changed in a positive way. From the moment you enter the restaurant until you leave again you can feel the organization. This combined with great food and the company of beautiful my wife made it a wonderful date!!

Although the ‘a la carte’ menu looked wonderful and every dish on it would make my taste buds very happy, we decided to go for the tasting menu. The same actually goes for the wine list 🙂 I gave my full confidence to Steven… why wouldn’t I, in 2012 Steven won the title of Best Sommelier of Belgium AND he worked for many years as head sommelier of a 2 Michelin Star restaurant (not even talking about everything he did before)… so I’m pretty sure if somebody should advise us nobody better than him 🙂

After a few delicious appetizers we were served our menu starting with braised beef with Artichoke, beet, fermented garlic and Savora Mustard, followed by Breton sardine, tomato, Romanesco, Rouille and almond. As main course we were served slow cooked veal with focaccia, curry, cauliflower feta, pesto and pommes soufflées.

The strawbery on the cake was the dessert ( no cherries for us this time;-) ;-))  Strawberry with champagne parfait, Cara Crakine sugar, petit gervais ice cream and sugar waffle.

As for the wines, I got another important lesson!! I still have lot to learn and taste 🙂  As Steven knows I’m a big wine lover he never told me up front which wines he served with the dishes…  so basically it was up to me to tell him what it was. In my defense, I’m not a professional sommelier (and I don’t pretend to be, I’m only surrounded by many all the time), nor do I taste/drink every day … which basically makes it all more difficult. My biggest ‘problem’ during tastings is often that I do recognize what I smell and taste, but linking it with the correct wine isn’t always easy… On many occasions I do guess it, but unfortunately also many where I don’t 🙂 🙂 but that’s the fun of the game I guess, isn’t it?

Anyhow I would advise everybody to visit Bistro Vintage 2.0 and hopefully they’ll like version 2.0 as much as I did!!