My birthday weekend

May 29, 2012 / dolcevitaspinelli / 2 Comments

I really consider myself very lucky, especially after I have seen how much my girlfriend, my family and my friends have done to give me a wonderful birthday weekend filled with lots of friendship and a looooooooooot of food!

My birthday weekend or I might even say week, as last already started last week J. Last Wednesday I already celebrated it with my dad. My dad suggested a Spanish or rather for Basque cuisine at restaurant Comocomo. yes,that is right, an Italian going to eat Spanish, funny stuff 🙂 )

I can only say that this restaurant really surprised me in a very positive way! The first time I passed the restaurant I thought it was a sushi place (without looking at the name that is), because there is a long flat-belt conveyor (transportband in Dutch).Just like at Harvey Nichols in London at the top floor.

The way it works is actually the following. Comocomo have 7 different colors of plates, every color stands for the type of dish. For example Yellow was for dishes with cheese, blue for dishes with fish, green for veggie dishes….

At the end of your meal they’ll just count the amount of plates you have in front of you, the more plates you eat the cheaper it gets 🙂

They have about 60-70 different pintxos and if you saw something on the blackboard that you didn’t find on the carrousel yet, you can just ask for it… FYI, they have their hams, etc…. imported from Spain!

And don’t worry, you’ll eat more than enough, in fact I think you’ll eat even more as there are soooo many yummy things passing by (I had to stop, because my girlfriend started giving me a ‘ didn’t you have enough’ look… so I stopped, but I could go on and on and on 🙂

Also the wine lovers will like this place as Beatriz has made a very nice selection of some of the best Spanish wines (most of them can also be taken per glass). To help people to know where a certain Spanish wine is from, they added a map that indicates all the great Spanish vineyard regions (so you can even learn something about Spanish wines). We went for a Tempranillo by Aranleon (we had 3 bottles, so I think we liked it)

So if you want to have a nice evening with friends and try something different, Comocomo is definitely something for you!

Restaurant Comocomo

Antwerp restaurant:

Kammenstraat 75
2000 Antwerp, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0)3 232 02 10

Brussels Restaurant:

Antoine Dansaertstraat 19
1000 Brussels, Belgium
+32 (0)2 503 03 30

Stay tuned for the second part of my birthday…..

Low and high budget dining within a few meters

November 29, 2011 / dolcevitaspinelli / 2 Comments

Saturday we went for a dinner in Brussels, to Restaurant Houtsiplou. I got this tip from a friend of mine who has been here a few times. When I arrived on ‘Place Rouppe’ after a very long search for a parking spot, I saw that world renowned restaurant “Comme Chez Soi” was located on the same square :-). So in less than a few meters you’ve got a high and low budget restaurant…

So there has been a moment of doubt which restaurant I should go to and the valet parking made it even more interesting too bad I had already found a parking spot and it is a good thing my wallet got me back to my senses, so ‘Comme Chez Soi’ will be for a next time 😉 + when I have hamburgers and French fries in my mind, it is difficult to get them out

Once inside Houtsiplou, you get an instant smile on your face… All the bright colors, funny creatures on the walls + I know I’m going to eat junk food :-).

Anyhow, I didn’t come for the interior but for food! Houtsiplou is well known for being a family & child friendly restaurant (so I’m right at my place) and for its delicious hambugers. Also very good to know, vegetarians can also accompany their friends here, as all the burgers also get served with Tofu instead of meat and there are also lots of other veggie possibilities on the menu. We’re not veggie, so out with the tofu.

I went for the Basico Hamburger, 225g of beef, fresh bearnaise sauce, salad, tomatoes and fried onions (mmmm, I want it again). With some Homemade fries on the side.

My woman took the Pato, a burger with duckmeat, foie gras (that melted nicely over the duck meat) and a green pepper sauce.

When we received our plates it was very silent for a couple of minutes … The best sign that it was good!

I could have still gone for a dessert, because they all seemed delicious… Tiramisu with Speculoos or Apple crumble or Cheesecake with Speculoos already make me hungry again… but I think I made a wise choice not taking a dessert, because I would have felt too stuffed J

I would really recommend this restaurant to everybody who is in Brussels with their family and wants to have a great fresh burger !! Again the only disadvantage is the parking … but that’s a common problem in every big city I would think

Houtsiplou:

Website: http://www.houtsiplou.be/

Address:

Place Rouppe 9

1000 Brussels, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0) 2 511 38 11

A restaurant for all you romantics out there

August 19, 2011August 22, 2011 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

This post is for all you romantics out there (like me), as restaurant “Les Foudres” is really a nice place if you want to have a greatand intimate dinner with your lady (or gentleman). The restaurant used to be an old wine warehouse which was very unique in Belgium at that time, some of the barrels or “foudres” could contain 22.000 liter of wine. The wine is not there anymore, but the barrels still are and are incorporated in the restaurant’s interior. The restaurant is located in the original basement of the wine warehouse and really breathes out romance… And if you get the chance (but that will depend on the weather) you should try to dine in the wonderful garden or orchard , which is actually very big for being in the center of Brussels. As the restaurant theme would be the old wine barrels, they obviously also need to have a great choice of wines, which they have indeed . They have a wide choice of international wines. The menu is a mix of French, Belgian and Italian cuisine and you can taste the chef’s skills and know how as the food was really refined. And what I liked was that when leaving the restaurant I didn’t feel like a stuffed turkey J. We took the “Menu du marché” or market menu, which to my opinion is the best way to discover a restaurant. As dessert I had the ‘Tarte Tatin” man do I love a good “Tarte Tatin”. This restaurant is a really nice price-value restaurant.

Hope you’ll enjoy it as much as me.

Restaurant Les Foudres:

Website: http://www.lesfoudres.be/

Address:

Rue Eugène Cattoir 14

1050 Ixelles

Telephone n°: +32 (0)2 647 36 36

Aux Vieux Bruxelles

July 24, 2011July 24, 2011 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

Brussels, I never know what to think of this city. I don’t come often in Brussels. Either it is because I have a project there for work there or occasionally just for shopping with my girlfriend. Another reason is the following one. Some of you might know that I’m a drummer and that I have some American drummer friends coming on tour through Belgium (the same who actually convinced me to start blogging) and as I know that being on tour for months is not always as nice as lots of you might think, I always try to let them relax and stop thinking of their daily routine of travelling – hotel- playing-travelling by taking them out to have a good bite and drink. Brussels is usually the preferred place for tour managers to choose their hotel (because of the highway access + close by airport). Of course, Brussels has hundreds of restaurants, but I mostly like to take my friends to eat some typical Belgian food… like “Stoofvlees”, Mussels, etc… A place I’ve already took some of my friends was Aux Vieux Bruxelles.

It is like going back in time. Old brown varnished benches, red-white squared tablecloths. Already by seeing that I feel so happy (don’t ask me why, maybe it’s the child in me) and I immediately feel like sitting down and eat more than I can handle. Last time I had “Vol-au-vent”, a small puff pastry filled with a kind of white stew sauce with chicken, little meatballs, mushrooms a squeeze of lemon and topped with a “sauce hollandaise” (some also put a bit of tarragon). Two of my friends took the mussels (as at that time it was the season) and another friend took shrimps with garlic butter and some vegetables with it. And all of this accompanied with freshly made French fries.

The good thing about this place is that it is not too touristy, most of the people coming here are from Brussels… that usually is my reference to know if the place is worth the visit