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