With a restaurant name like ‘The Butcher’s son’ it leaves little to the imagination what type of cuisine they prepare. Let’s just say it’s not a veggie place 🙂  . The butcher’s son is as you might have already expected a restaurant with as mean topic on the menu meat. Although Luc Dickens (one of the 2 owners) told me they don’t want to be the typical meat restaurant with only men as customers… They want to open up their restaurant to everybody and therefor chose for a more “general” menu. If somebody wants vegetarian or more “hard-core” meat dishes like specific intestines it is all possible :-).

When I first heard their name I (and I think most people) presumed that either Luc Dickens or Bert Jan Michielsen (the 2 owners) would be the son of a butcher… right? After hearing the real story behind the name I think the name ‘the butcher’s adopted son’ would be more correct 🙂 🙂  . At a particular day Bert Jan was supposed to take the train back home, unfortunately missed his train. As it dates back to a pre-cellphone period Bert Jan had to look for a place where he could call and inform his parents .  This search brought him to a nearby butcher shop De Laet & Van Haver. As he had to wait a while before his parents were able to pick him up, the shop owner suggested if Bert Jan wanted he could role some meatballs while waiting . To make a long story short (but you know I prefer telling the long story) this was the beginning of a life long friendship and many weekends (after words full time)of  working at the De Laet & Van Haver’s butcher shop and catering business  in Hove … and today a collaboration with them and having a restaurant right next to their new butcher shop in the old Antwerp city brewery of De Koninck . In other words the owner saw Bert Jan as his son…

I know Luc and Bert Jan mostly from their years working at the highly awarded restaurant De Schone Van Boskoop and Luc I also know from the Belgian Sommelier Guild .

I’m also a fan of their location in the old Antwerp city brewery of De Koninck . I say old, but it is still an active brewery, but as after restructuring the brewery they had some parts they weren’t going to use anymore they freed up this space to create an oasis of food 🙂 and bring creative/passionate people together. You can find craftsmen like  cheese master, chocolatier, butchers, etc… here. I do recommend everybody to visit it (even if you don’t want to eat their) as it is worth it. You’ll find more info on the brewery on the following link.

I know it sounds unbelievable but I do always try to keep it as short as possible… but I always want you guys to get the whole picture and all the info :-).

For our meal my friends and I chose to first go for all the refined meat appetizers  (all home made in the next door butcher shop) they have on their menu with exception for the 1 non meat dish 🙂 What we basically had was : dry aged  Secreto 07 (a product the Adria ‘El Bulli’ brothers also sell in their restaurants and shops in Barcelona); Calf Brains with tartar sauce; Pig head with mustard; 18 months Duroc ham de Batallé; Croquette of pork leg with pickles and some game pâté. Very nice selection, me personally I wasn’t a fan of the brains, but that clearly was a personal opinion as my table guests could have eaten a second plate 🙂 I must admit that it was also the first time I tried it in my entire life… To accompany these appetizers it seemed more that logic to take a beer made in the local brewery and that perfect marriage to my opinion… FYI the brewery makes specialty darker beers so not a pils.

For my mean course the first idea was to take an Entrecôte , but when I saw they had a sweetbread videe on their menu my mind was made up. A videe is  a puff pastry that gets filled with a kind of chicken and mushroom stew.  In this case the stew had next to the chicken and meatballs some sweetbread and got finished of with some hollandaise sauce. On itself not a special dish you might think, but trust me finding a good prepared videe is not an easy task!  My problem was that the videe was for 2 persons… so I had to convince one  my of 2 table guests taking it with me 🙂 I might not be a sales person, but I do know who to get it my way 🙂 🙂 the other person at my table however  took an Entrecôte.

Best decision ever to take the Videe as it is by far the best I’ve ever eaten!!  I know when we saw the dish arriving we had to share both I as my buddy thought we’d be fighting for who got the last bit as it didn’t seem enough… but our eyes were bigger then our stomachs as the dish was heavier. So instead of fighting it was rather suggesting the other one to have the last bit 😉 🙂  Nevertheless a wonderful dish!!

As we had the luck of having a sommelier at our table (and no I’m not referring to myself as I’m just an amateur sommelier) who was even a former finalist of the Best Sommelier of Belgium competition. His choice for wine went to a 2014 Spanish Garnacha Cellers Joan d’Anguera Altaroses D.O. Montsant. Good choice Bram!!

When we thought the night couldn’t become better, there came the bottle of the 1976 Madeira 🙂 🙂 FYI we just drunk a glass of it, not the whole bottle…

Wonderful food and a marvelous evening I recommend to everybody.