That I have a long restaurant wish list isn’t a secret, I literally have a spreadsheet subdivided per country and city which restaurants I want to do… you could see it as my list of how many restaurants to do before I ever die 🙂 and by the looks of it I’ll be living for eternity ;-). Anyhow a restaurant that has been on my list for a while now is restaurant ‘Les Eleveurs’ lead by Andy De Brouwer who is already the 4rd generation in the De Brouwer family to keep the restaurant.
Maybe it was destiny, but there was no better time to visit restaurant ‘Les Eleveurs’ as lots of changes happend in its scenery as after a having had Michelin star and Andy being the Best Belgian sommelier, they changed their way of working and exchanged their Michelin starred food for an affordable and more basic Bistronomie cuisine. What this basically means is that they are a ‘bistro’ serving more gastronomical dishes than in a regular bistro, but still keeping it simple. So I couldn’t have asked for a better table guest than Mr. Bistronomie himself Steve Engels 🙂
Something good to know before I go on is that ‘Les Eleveurs’ is a hotel and restaurant… so basically no excuses not to drink 🙂 that’s all I’m saying. I wanted to share this as with a top sommelier as Andy De Brouwer in the restaurant it would be a shame not to go 100% for the wines, beers and other great beverages (like Madeira or Sherry) they have.
Les Eleveurs’ Chef Nico Corbesier might be a lot younger than Sofie Dumont who used to be headchef at ‘Les Eleveurs’ (who decided to go her own way), but when it comes to experience Nico has already worked in lots of great restaurants and has been leading the kitchen upon Sofie’s maternity leave. I know it might sound cocky , but to my opinion age or where you learned how to cook or did chef school doesn’t really matter, it might influence you… you either have it in you or you don’t and I think Nico has it.
I don’t know if you guys like wild game dishes, but if you do it is worth to pass by ‘Les Eleveurs’ as they now have something called the “Wild Festival” (no, not the wet t-shirt kind). Basically they are serving different kinds of meat from wild animals (for the non-wild game lovers, they still have few other dishes on the menu). We took the tasting menu, this way we got to taste several things.
We started with an assortment of 4 pieces game pies with lettuce, red cabbage, celeriac and an authentic made remoulade sauce. With which Andy paired a white2011 Spanish El Pajara.
We continued our meal with a “vol-au-vent” of pheasant that Andy served with a Lustau Solera Reserva . A combo of one of my favorite dishes and one of my favorite drinks… so an easy score 😉
The main course of the evening was a deer loin with beetroot, pomegranate, truffle potato(purple), red onion and cherry sauce that got paired with a herby and bit stronger wine what is needed for piece of meat like deer loin (but not tooooo strong dough). It was a French Malbec, Les Escures by Mas Del perie
To finish this wonderful meal and evening we were served a nougat ice cream with quince and nuts that got served with a Gran Riserva PX by Toro Albala so basically stuff I like… because of the PX grape it is of course a sweeter drink, but a nice sweetness and not a toooo sweet drink.
Technically speaking ‘Les Eleveurs’ can be taken of my wishlist, but I think I’ll keep it on there as I’m pretty sure I’ll wanting to come back here and the experience will be as enchanting as this time!
Hope when you get to go you’ll be having the same opinion as me, but I’m sure Andy and his team will do their best that you do.
Restaurant Les Eleveurs:
Website: http://www.les-eleveurs.be
Address: Suikerkaai 1A, 1500 Halle – Belgium
Phone n°: +32 (0) 2 361 13 40
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