Chez Leon

For our last dinner on our European trip, we planned to go out for moules frites (mussels and fries). Chez Leon was the only place we had picked out in advance for a meal during our Brussels stay (other than trying to get a waffle from the yellow vans), so we headed straight for it after dropping by the Grand Place one last time. When we got there, we were greeted by a sign on the door announcing that they had unlimited mussels every Sunday after 6. We hadn't known anything about the special, but it was a nice surprise.

We got there pretty early for dinner since we had an early flight the next day and had to get back to the hotel to pack. It wasn't very crowded, but it had filled up a lot by the time we left. It was a nice, brightly lit, friendly restaurant, and we were really excited about getting unlimited mussels. Pretty much everyone we saw that night was eating mussels. At least, we didn't notice anything else on any tables near us.

For our drinks, A got Grimbergen Brune, and I got a Mort Subite framboise. I think I wanted to mix it up a little bit since I had gotten kriek at the last 2 meals, and since I like raspberries, but I clearly hadn't realized how difficult it would be to get good, affordable kriek once we left Brussels. The framboise was fine, but I definitely regret not getting kriek one last time.

We started off with some bread as usual, and then our mussels arrived in big pots with small tins of fries on the side. Everything smelled amazing, and the mussels were piled high in the pots. This wasn't someplace where they were going to skimp on the number of mussels and try to fill you with fries because of the unlimited special, which we appreciated.

There were 6 types of mussels on the menu at the time. I ordered the moules spéciales (celery, onion, butter) and A ordered the moules méridionales (tomatoes, sweet peppers, garlic). We did, of course, try some of each other's preparations, but I don't think we were allowed to switch up mid-meal and order different variations for our refill pots. Both were very tasty.

All the mussels were plump, and we remember there were not very many closed shells, if any at all. We quickly polished off our first pots of mussels, and ordered refills, which also came with more fries. The fries were good, but the mussels were the stars of dinner. So much flavor, so many mussels, and all you could eat!

We really enjoyed our meal at Chez Leon. Brussels was our least favorite of the 3 cities we visited on that trip for many reasons, but the mussels were not one of them. Going out for our moules frites dinner was one of our highlights of this segment of the trip, and we still remember it fondly. Chez Leon was the perfect conclusion to our adventure.

Gaufres

One of the things we knew everyone talked about before heading to Brussels were the yellow wafel trucks that could be found throughout the city slinging delicious Belgian-style wafels. There are, apparently, many colors of wafel trucks in Brussels, but it's the yellow trucks that are supposedly the best of the bunch. So it was that on our way between two of the few touristy spots we actually saw, we came across one of the fabled trucks.

What we ran into was an unassuming food truck that was parked close to the Musical Instruments Museum (the MIM), and we saw a very short line forming since it seemed like they had just parked and opened. We quickly got into line and waited the short bit before getting our wafel.

One thing of note if you've never had a Belgian-style wafel before, the "batter" that is used to make the wafels is much thicker than American-style waffles, and it's also much sweeter. It's more like a cake batter in consistency, and the added sugar helps the wafel exterior caramelize.

We opted for a simple liege wafel with chocolate sauce. Since it was fresh, the wafel itself was very warm and soft. As mentioned, the exterior of the wafel crisped up and caramelized from the sugar in the batter, and the inside was still very soft. You also got a distinct crunch every so often as you bit into and chewed on the sugar crystals in the batter that didn't melt/cook up. The wafel on its own was delicious, but the rich dark chocolate sauce added a divine decadence. High quality Belgian chocolate lent itself to an amazing and rich topping that finished the snack off. We really enjoyed our wafel, and that's definitely one thing we'd try to get again if we ever found ourselves back in Brussels.

La Rose Blanche

After a bit of a frustrating afternoon traveling around Brussels and not being able to see most of the places we wanted to, we spent the rest of our afternoon/evening in Grote Markt (The Grand Place) in the center of the city. It was a beautiful square surrounded by grand architecture and was an amazing setting to walk around. We happened upon La Rose Blanche right near the edge of the square, and the menu seemed like it was full of traditional Belgian dishes so we thought it would be a good place to eat for the evening.

We chose to sit outside as the weather was gorgeous, and the scenery was so majestic to behold. There was also some sort of festival or concert going on, and there was a full orchestra playing music, as well as marching bands and lots of other entertainment. It felt so surreal to be there as if we were back in some city celebration back in the day.

As we often did during this trip, M and I each got a beer for dinner. M chose a kriek by Mort Subite, and I got a Chimay Blue. This was the first time we had really encountered kriek, a sour cherry beer mostly found in the Brussels area, and it was wonderful. Unfortunately, it was also about this time that things started to turn a bit. The waiter came to pour our beers, and he inexplicably spilled some of my beer on to the table. Instead of apologizing, all he said before leaving was, "Dangerous!" Yes, this is a touristy spot, and yes, we don't speak his precious French language, but it's rare that I see such terrible service. (M's note: We have nothing against French people or the French language, but this waiter was just the embodiment of every stereotype out there about French people and their attitudes towards tourists. And we weren't even in France!)

Because we were hungry, we decided not to send the bread basket back. I don't remember if we were charged for it like in other European countries, but I'm not sure we cared at the time. It was a few pieces of a nice, crusty French loaf. Other than that, though, it was fairly standard.

I liked the Carbonades a la Flamande (Flemish style beef stew) that I had back in Brugge so much that I wanted more of it so that's what I ordered. From what I remember this wasn't nearly as rich or flavorful as the previous night's offering. It was fine, but there was a noticeable difference. Coupled with the rude and inattentive service (more on that later), this was a severe step down.

M got the Boulettes a la Marolienne (meatballs with tomato sauce, onions, Faro beer and pommes frites). Except the fries didn't come with the meatballs, even though the menu specifically said pommes frites. We had photos of the menu and we knew there were supposed to be fries, so where were they? We don't remember all the details this many years later but we think there was an extended period of trying to flag the waiter down for fries, and we don't recall whether they actually arrived since we never took a picture of them if they did. Maybe we were too frustrated about the whole situation and just dug into the fries, or maybe the waiter never brought them even after we asked and we just gave up. No recollection other than that there was some frustration and aggravation about the whole situation (more on the service later).

We also opted to get an order of Fondus aux Fromages (parmesan cheese croquettes). M and I are huge fans of croquettes, and we also really like cheese. At first we thought they might just be something like mozzarella sticks, but instead these were blocks of parmesan, fried and oozing with deliciousness.

In the end, this meal was just okay. The food was nothing special, and the waiter we had was incompetent and also completely inattentive. It took several times for us to actually flag him down whenever we needed anything, and we actually did need things because of all the things that were missing or wrong in the first place. At first we thought it was because we were clearly Americans, but the Spanish tourists sitting a couple tables down from us also were given the silent/ignoring treatment to the point that all of us were joking that we clearly all didn't speak the right language.

Overall, while the food didn't make a lasting impression and the service was terrible, the enjoyable scenery and the beautiful music salvaged some of the night.

De Vlaamsche Pot

After our wafel, we wandered around Brugge some more, looking for dinner. Nothing really caught our eye on the streets we were on, so we made our way back to Cambrinus, the place we had gone for dinner the night before. They had such a large menu, and we had tried so little of it, so we were sure we could find some new and delicious food there. Unfortunately, they told us they were reserved for the rest of the night, so we had to go somewhere new. We looked through our Rick Steves guidebook, and he suggested a Flemish spot called De Vlaamsche Pot so we headed over there. Luckily, they were still open and not booked for the night, but we did have a short wait for a table. We had no idea Brugge would be so packed at dinnertime!

The restaurant was located in a narrow townhouse with lots of cute decor. It was dimly lit, with lots of red tablecloths and checkered napkins. When we sat down, they gave us large leatherbound menus, and we couldn't wait to figure out what we were going to order.

To start the meal, we both got beers. A got a Chimay tripel, and M went for the Westmalle tripel. Even though both of these beers are fairly easily found in the US, this was, as mentioned, back in the years prior to the major craft beer explosion in the US. Because of that, we both opted for a "locally" brewed beer. Both beers were very crisp and refreshing, and they were good to pair with the meals that we each chose.

We both chose to go with one of the set menus. (We can't remember whether the menus had lots of a la carte options, but the 3 course set menus seemed like a fair deal for the price and covered exactly the dishes we wanted to eat, so we went with them.) M chose the Noordzee menu (literally "North Sea"), €31 at the time, which was focused on seafood. The appetizer course on that menu was the tomato with shrimps. In addition to a lightly dressed lettuce-based salad on the side, the appetizer came with a large pile of tiny shrimp, topped with dressing and some chunks of tomato. This was really good and tasted really fresh, and it was fun eating so many small shrimp. We don't really want to think about all the work that went into preparing such tiny shrimp, but that probably made it worth the price.

A got the Vlaamsche menu (literally "Flemish"), €28 at the time, which started off with farmer's pate. The pate came with a side of lingonberry jam/sauce and salad, as well as a bag of pumpernickel bread. The pate was wonderfully rich and creamy. When spread over the slightly sweet pumpernickel and layered with a little bit of the sweet and tart lingonberry jam, it was very delicious. The salad was refreshing and definitely necessary to help balance the heavy, rich flavors of the pate.

The main course for the Noordzee menu was waterzooi met zeevis (with sea fish). Waterzooi is a classic Flemish dish, and it's basically a creamy stew traditionally filled with potatoes and seafood (although these days it's available with chicken too). According to Wikipedia, waterzooi originated in Ghent, a Belgian town we passed through on the train on our way to Brugge, so we definitely wanted to try this local specialty. 

Inside the creamy stew, M found a giant boiled potato along with a piece of fish and what looked like a large langoustine. Although it didn't look like there was a ton of stuff in the stew at first glance, the waterzooi was incredibly filling. M regretted a little bit getting the wafel earlier when she was hungry, but only because the waterzooi was that filling. From what we remember, the flavors of the waterzooi were really good. It was very rich and creamy and filling and heavy though, and we hadn't really prepared for that.

The main course for A's menu was carbonades a la Flamande (apparently stoofvlees op z'n Vlaams, in Flemish), or Flemish beef stew. Similar to waterzooi, carbonades was a Flemish dish we had heard a lot about. The beef stew came with a side of applesauce. A's big reason for picking this was because it is such a well-known Flemish delicacy. It was an extremely rich and meaty stew, but it was also so full of flavor. He doesn't remember much about the applesauce unfortunately, so he can't really comment on that aspect.

For anyone getting carbonades, they came around with a giant metal bowl of fries to fill up your plate, and would gladly refill them if you asked. The fries didn't seem like the double-fried fries like what you get in Amsterdam with the sauces, but they were still good. They were thicker cut so they were more potatoey. The outsides were stiff but not fully crisp. They soaked up the carbonade gravy very well.

The third course for both of our menus was dessert. For M, it was supposed to be homemade vanilla ice cream, and for A, an unspecified "Brugs Room dessert." We were both so full though after our appetizers, entrees, and all that bread and fries that we couldn't imagine eating dessert too. Lucky for us, they let us substitute tea for dessert. They probably made out better on that deal, but our stomachs were thankful.

Every table got some Dumon chocolates to end the meal, which seemed fitting as they were the main chocolatier that we found in Brugge with multiple outlets, and we were really happy to round out our very Flemish meal with them.

De Vlaamsche Pot was a very solid restaurant that specialized in classic, Belgian cuisine. The food was incredibly filling but also very flavorful. In fact, the carbonades were so good that it inspired M to make her own version, and A thinks that the stoemp she made with them was better as a side than the fries served here. We would recommend De Vlaamsche Pot to anyone who wants to try some traditional Flemish food. We're glad we had the chance to try these very classic dishes.

Laurenzino

When it came time for our second (and final) dinner in Brugge, we had no idea where we wanted to go. We figured we would wander the streets a little bit, and then pick someplace that looked good and didn't have too much of a line, maybe picking up some snacks along the way. At some point after walking through the winding streets, we ended up right across the street from the grocery store we visited earlier in the day and decided to pick up some wafels.

One of the things we knew about eating in Belgium was, when in Belgium, get wafels (and chocolate and beer). We hadn't actually had any wafels yet during our few days in Antwerp and Brugge, and Laurenzino seemed to be highly recommended by others (and our guidebook), so we stopped in for a wafel.

We decided to split a wafel with chocolate and sugar on top. Chocolate is always a good topping for Belgian wafels. Unfortunately, the shop wasn't that crowded at the time, so the wafels weren't being freshly made when we got there and a few were already sitting out under the heat lamps. It was still good, but we imagined that it definitely would have better had it been made fresh.

Considering how much walking we would do before finally finding a place to eat dinner, it was probably a good idea that we split this wafel for a snack. It seems that in the 6 years since our visit, Laurenzino has closed (according to Foursquare via Timehop). Although it wasn't the best wafel we got on our trip, it was satisfying and we're glad the shop was there.

Belgian Beer Cafe

We kicked off our London trip with dinner at the airport. We were flying out of Newark's Terminal B, our first time there, which (like Terminal A) has multiple security checkpoints, limiting the meal options dramatically. There was a food court pre-security, but we wanted to make sure we were through security with plenty of time, so that left us with a choice between a Belgian cafe and an English pub, the latter of which also had a takeaway section with some really badly bruised bananas. Since we were en route to London, we chose the Belgian Beer Cafe. No need for an English pub in New Jersey if we were going to visit real English pubs in London.

We knew we were getting dinner on the flight, but that was a few hours later and we hadn't eaten a ton during the day as we rushed around finishing up work and packing and preparing for the trip. We ordered 2 entrees from the Belgian specialties menu to share, and tried not to pick anything too heavy in case the in-flight dinner was filling. Here's what we got.

Croque monsieur ($14): sandwich with Belgian Chimay beer cheese, smoked ham, grilled sourdough, hint of dijon mustard, served with crispy frites.

The croque monsieur was pretty good, but it wasn't what we expected from a croque monsieur. We were expecting something rich and decadent, and covered in cheese and bechamel, but it was basically a ham and cheese panini. The thing that made this taste a little different from any other ham and cheese sandwich was the inclusion of beer cheese, which we had never had in a croque monsieur before. It was heavier and saltier than other cheeses, but didn't really have a very distinctive flavor. The fries were really good though, nice and crispy. The sandwich was fine, but the fries were better.

Sausage plate ($16): Flemish style pork sausage with onions, dijon, gherkins, potato and bacon salad.

The sausage plate arrived with 2 pork sausages, small containers of ketchup and mustard, a couple of gherkins, some spring greens, and a good sized portion of warm potato salad topped with bacon. The pork sausages tasted like pretty generic pork sausages that we could get anywhere else, not a lot of seasonings that we could discern. The gherkins were sweeter than A was expecting. I didn't notice that but mostly just appreciated the freshness. We both agreed that the best part of the plate was the potato salad topped with bacon. The potato salad had a little bit of a mustard flavor. By itself, the salad was good, but the bacon made it even better, and adding some of the greens made it feel really light despite all the potatoes and bacon. Definitely the best part of dinner.

Overall our meal at the Belgian Beer Cafe was fine. If it were anywhere other than the airport, we probably would say that we wouldn't return because it was nothing special, but if we're in that gate area again with such limited options, we might go back.

L'Estaminet

Time is flying by, and the 5 year anniversary of our trip to the Netherlands and Belgium is fast approaching (and with it, our aspirational goal/self-imposed deadline for posting trip recaps). When we last left off, we had eaten a snack in the Grote Markt before heading off on a canal cruise to explore more of Brugge. The canal cruise was great. We took tons of pictures of the interesting architecture and enjoyed exploring the city from the water. Once we got off the boat, we wandered around town a little bit, but mostly we were off to find lunch.

I hadn't been able to find a ton of casual, affordable spots in Brugge when doing restaurant research, so when we were thinking about lunch, we decided to rely on a recommendation from our Rick Steves guidebook. He recommended L'Estaminet as a good spot for light meals. Sounded good to us!

We arrived at L'Estaminet, which seemed to be on the "outskirts" of the old part of town (we always got turned in circles in Brugge, so that's how it felt but don't rely on our descriptions as far as a map goes) next to a nice park. They offered us a table in their "outdoor" seating area, which though outside was also enclosed, so we happily took that. It was nice and bright from the natural daylight, which made us happy because we love to see what we're eating.

We both got a beer with lunch (in Belgium, you have to pay for water in restaurants, so might as well drink beer). A went for the Brugse Zot, the local Brugge beer which they made right in town at a brewery that we were going to visit later in the day. The beer was a Belgian pale ale, and it was crisp and refreshing. It had a subtle sweetness in the first taste and ended on a drier hoppy-er note. I got a Stella Artois. It was fine, better than the Stella in the States because it's "fresher," but that doesn't really need a photo. It's just Stella.

For our lunch dishes, we mostly focused on the section of the menu called "toasts." Since everything started with the word "croque," we figured, based on our basic knowledge of the croque monsieur, that the toasts were probably sandwiches. Sounded good for lunch to us. A chose to get the croque monsieur, which the (current online) menu describes as a toasted ham and cheese sandwich. The sandwich also came with a very robust salad on the side, filled with tomatoes, onions, pickles, corn, and another pickled item that we could only identify as rakkyo. It was a pretty impressive salad.

The sandwich when it came out surprised us with the way it looked. We were expecting more of a traditional croque monsieur, thick bread, covered in bechamel, or at least something that resembled an actual sandwich. This was more like a turnover or a really stuffed pie filled with creamy ham and cheese. That's not to say it was bad. It wasn't. It just wasn't what we thought of as a croque monsieur at all.

Overall the sandwich had a rich, buttery flavor to the bread portion while also being paired with the rich, creamy ham and cheese stuffing. It was a hearty "sandwich" and very filling. It was also very delicious. A bit of crispness from the toasted bread ended up melting into the gooey, salty cheese and ham.

I opted for the croque shoarma. There was no description on the menu when we were there, but the current online menu describes it as a "toasted sandwich with shoarma spice mix of cumin, coriander, garlic, various kinds of pepper, ginger, and cinnamon." Just like with A's toast, we were expecting this to look more like a sandwich, but it looked just like A's. The plates generally were virtually identical except I had an extra sauce on the side (can't remember what it was) and instead of all that rakkyo, had some chopped up red peppers.

This was stuffed with chopped up chicken flavored with all the spices you usually get with shawarma (not used to spelling it shoarma). This many years later it's a little hard to describe each aspect of the flavor in detail, but it was similar to a really good spiced chicken pie (English style) or patty (Jamaican style). The spices were really wonderful. That, I do remember. We liked both of our choices for lunch. They may not have looked like the sandwiches we were expecting, but we were pretty satisfied with them.

There were a few other tables in the outside seating area while we were there, and we noticed that almost every single person was eating spaghetti bolognese. We already noticed the day before the prevalence of spaghetti bolognese in Brugge (although we still weren't sure why), so we decided that we would have to try to come back to get the spaghetti. After all, it had seemed like it might be their specialty since everyone got it and they weren't all tourists, we don't think. (I don't remember reading it in the Rick Steves book back then but he does recommend the hearty spaghetti. Perhaps we did it read it then but just didn't go straight for spaghetti since we had it the night before? Don't remember.) We were pretty happy with our lunch at L'Estaminet and definitely wanted to try to come back the next day!

BXL Cafe

The plan for Father's Day last year was to go out for some all you can eat mussels. My dad loves mussels, and we thought that would be a perfect way to celebrate. For a whole bunch of reasons (including the fact that AYCE mussels are usually only on Sundays and Mondays, and we tried to go but they were out of mussels on certain holidays), we never actually got around to going out until this year's Father's Day. After all of that anticipation, we hoped that the AYCE mussels would live up to our expectations!

We chose to go to BXL Cafe near Times Square, since we were already in the area due to the Solstice in Times Square yoga event, and they have a great mussels special. A and I had always thought about going before for Belgian WorldEats but just never got around to it before now. The special is $24 per person, for all the mussels you can eat, a plate of fries, and a 33cl Stella Artois (for which you could substitute a glass of wine).

Of course, we each got the mussels special, and shortly after we ordered, the giant pots of mussels started to arrive at the table. The first pot is 2 pounds of mussels, and every pot after that is 1 pound.

The fries also arrived, and they came with a small cup of mayo, which we expected since they're a Belgian spot. The fries were nice and crispy, but the mayo was sadly just plain mayo. We were hoping that it would be as good as some of the housemade mayo we had in Europe (especially the one in Haarlem), but it wasn't.

A started out with the moules marinières, which had a white wine shallot broth. The giant pot of mussels came with a lemon wedge and lots of onions and celery. The broth there was pretty good, and the mussels were almost all cooked perfectly.

I got the moules provençale, which was mussels with tomato, garlic, and fresh basil. Just like the marinières, these mussels came loaded up with a ton of onions and celery under the tomato basil sauce. The mussels were just as good and perfectly done as the marinières. It seems the way that BXL layers up the mussels is broth on the bottom, then the mussels, then all the onions and celery, and then the sauce of choice, which layering was a bit more noticeable here in the provençale because the tomato sauce was more obvious in color. It didn't seem like all the layers were mixed together that well from the start, but by the time we got halfway through the mussels, everything combined together nicely.

The great thing about BXL is that they allowed us to mix up the sauces in our subsequent pots, unlike some places that make you stick with whatever you chose initially. Since they're all the same price in the AYCE, it makes sense that you can mix and match. We both got the moules thailandaise for our second pots, since the server said that was her favorite. The thailandaise was made with coconut milk, lemongrass, and curry, and the flavor of the curry sauce was so good. That was definitely our favorite of the 3 sauces.

We were all pretty happy with the mussels we got at BXL. Were they as good as the mussels A and I got in Brussels (which hopefully we'll tell you about soon)? No, but they were still really good. We would definitely go back again for more mussels.

An Unmemorable Snack

We were only in Brugge for one full day and we had tons of things to fit in, so we got a relatively early start. Our first "event" was a boat cruise through the gorgeous canals of the town. (The cruise was fun, but would have been nicer if it had been sunny.) To make sure we didn't get really hungry while cruising through the canals, we decided to stop at one of the food stands in Grote Markt (the central square in Brugge) for a morning snack.

Looking through photos from our day in Brugge, memories came trickling back about our snack here, but before we looked through the photos, we had completely forgotten that we had even stopped at this stand - ever. The first place we were going to write about from this day in Brugge was our lunch. When I made a list of the trip recap posts we needed to do (I really like lists), this was never on it. Neither of us really had any recollection at all of going there. It made so little impact on us that back when I captioned the photos, years ago, I didn't even remember then what we ate, so I definitely don't know now. Even better, I've thought all along that the name of the place was Bicky Burger, but didn't know until this week, 4 years after coming home from Belgium, that Bicky Burger is actually just a fast food burger that they sell in Belgium. Oops.

We got 2 snacks that day at the square and they are certainly not the most attractive of snacks. One looks like a fried meat sausage, like a frankfurter, and the other like some kind of long fried croquette. In the caption to the photo from whenever I uploaded it, I was speculating that they might be kipcorn and frikandel (but I really wasn't sure). Kipcorn is a long deep-fried snack with a creamy meat filling, so the one on the right could be kipcorn. Frikandel is a Belgian minced meat hot dog, so it could be the one on the left. Based on the pictures on Wikipedia, it certainly seems possible.

We really don't remember very much about the taste of these snacks. (Obviously, since we barely even remember stopping there and eating them.) We always like croquettes though, so I'm guessing we were okay with them.

After our snack, we headed over to the dock for our canal cruise, which was quite a wonderful way to see the town (we wholeheartedly recommend it). We definitely had more memorable croquettes in Amsterdam so we can't say you must stop here for a snack, but it was convenient. We're just not sure what the place was called...