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

As I mentioned in my “Aux vieux Bruxelles” post, I often have foreign friends and colleagues visiting.  If I can be honest with you, I prefer to receive them in in Antwerp, as this is the town where I grew up and that I know best. A restaurant that I always like to take them is “Brasserie Den Artist”.  They serve mainly  traditional Belgian food like “Steak Tartare”, this “Stoofvlees” (Belgian stew), “Stoemp met worst” ( mashed potatoes  (+other vegetables in it) with sausage and gravy) “Witloof in de oven” (Ham and chicory role served with béchamel sauce), Mussels, Vol-au-vent,  etc… All prepared as it should be prepared. But they always give it their own twist, like the “vol-au-vent “, they added some Tarragon, what really gives this dish this little something extra. at “Den Artist.  Of course this comes with freshly made French fries.  Even my Italian colleagues have enjoyed this restaurant…and usually Italians are the most difficult to convince 😉

Besides the exquisite food, “Den Artist” is greatly located. It has a magnificent frontal view of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts.  A majestic neoclassical building (makes you think of a Greek temple)… really impressive. “Den Artist” is in the Southern part of Antwerp (town) and is considered as the more trendy part of town.

Have you been there already?

Brasserie Den Artist

Website: http://www.brasseriedenartist.be

Address :

                Museumstraat 45

                2000 Antwerp, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0) 3 238 09 95

I would lie if I would say that I don’ t like greasy food J  . I could of course always temper this hunger by going to the traditional fast-food chain restaurant … but as you might know by now, I always like something more special. When I really feel like grabbing a great burger,  I go to “Lunchbox”. This places serves the best freshly made hamburger with fresh bread. Besides that they also have great wraps and wok dishes. All the products used in this restaurant are from excellent quality. If you for example take the Chicken steak, this would be a hamburger with a real chicken filet, pineapple, ketchup, onion and some salad (accompanied with French fries and a tasty salad). The bigger challenge would be taking the mega bacon burger, I cannot even fit it in my mouth. I also like the tuna melt, a wrap with tuna and cheddar cheese. For all you vegies, don’t worry they also have a ton of vegetarian dishes!!

If after eating all of that and you would still find a spot,  you should definitely take one of their homemade muffins, brownies or other sweets (my favorite is the raspberry apple muffin)

 Lunchbox is located in the “Quartier Latin”, not sure why they gave it this name (but let’s just accept it). Right across the “Stadschouwburg” (city theater) on the big square. In summertime they always have a big terrace on this square (with blankets in case the ladies get cold)

If you would go there in weekends, on the big square, there is a very big open air market called “Vogeltjes markt”.

Restaurant Lunchbox:

Website: http://www.lunchbox.be

Address:

                Nieuwstad 8-10 (Theaterplein)

                 2000 Antwerp, Belgium

 Phone n°: +32 (0) 3 231 04 79

Two days ago I had a nice dinner at Bistro and winebar “The Glorious”. I actually arrived a little bit too late, so my friends already started with a glass of champagne (not bad for a Tuesday night). When I arrived I could off course not do less than my friends, so I joined them in their champagne vibe. It was a nice glass of champagne, but for a winebar I would have expected that they would have chosen a more special champagne.  The “amuse-gueules” were really nice, freshly made grissini and tapenade… So basically a flying start. After that I had the “Seawolf accompanied by a risotto with in olive oil marinated summer vegetables and basil”, my friends had the “Sweetbread (Kalfszwezerik) with artichokes, mushrooms and port jus” and   “Rib-eye with red raspberry tarragon sauce”… I had a taste of all 3 dishes (don’t worry, I left some for my friends J ) and I have to say that all 3 were very good! You really taste the good quality of the ingredients and the plats looked like beautiful paintings . Off course we didn’t drink water to accompany this meal, as the choice of wines at “The glorious” is wide, we just asked the sommelier what he would recommend. He suggested us a South African Red wine, the Pinotage (a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault)  from Sumaridge winery. We really enjoyed the choice, the wine was a little bit sweeter and fruitier . We didn’t have a starter, so we felt morally obliged to have a dessert (every excuse is good). It was actually a big surprise because most desserts were made by Master chocolatier Pierre Marcolini. My friends actually discovered it, they took the” Biscuit from dark chocolate , crème brûlee  with Madagascar vanilla , pieces of red raspberry, sabajon of milk chocolate and red raspberry sorbet “ and the other one enjoyed his “Chocolate pie with a hazelnut crust, orange, chocolate mousse from dark Ecuadorian chocolate  with a little Moelleux au chocolat”. They discovered it, because without knowing, they had exactly the same dessert a few weeks ago at the Pierre Marcolini shop…  funny stuff!!  The coffees were also accompanied by Marcolini sweets…

All by all a very nice restaurant and I would definitely return.

 Restaurant The Glorious:

 Website: http://www.theglorious.be/

Address:

                Burburestraat 4a

                 2000 Antwerp, Belgium

 Phone n°: +32 (0) 3 237 06 13