Belga Queen
Rue Fossé aux Loups 32 Wolvengracht 32
1000 Brussels
By Lavin
Baroque and Flawless. Almost.
'Behold' is the best verb I can come out with to summarise what this restaurant is about, i.e. to see or to look at, but often used for places or things deemed worth it. Belga Queen in Brussels is the antithesis of McDonalds, the Abel of each Cain, the mother of all grandiose restaurants, the ideal restaurant to have a stag or hen night and then get arrested by the police when you had one too many. It is the Habitat of all Ikeas, the Trappist of all beers and the Jabugo of all hams.
It is large, decadent, with its broad columns holding a central nave and two aisles where light not so much as comes in but falls from the sky. It just needs a replica of the fresco at The Vatican where God gives the breath of life to Adam through his finger, and you would have got your food temple for the faithful.
There are brains behind the visual impact of this restaurant: space, a clever combination of dark and light colours, transparent WC-doors which become opaque once you lock the door, a communal place for washing your hands, a turn-over wheelbarrow coated in what it looks like a mix of concrete and tempura as the central piece of art -if you like that sort of thing-, a kitchen where you can look into, the "de rigueur" empty, trendy bar, and the attentive, unobtrusive staff.
However, there are also less savoury parts in this restaurant: waiters in mock monk habits look plain silly; wine at five times’ retail prices may be Ok if you work at the European Commission and you receive the equivalent of Zimbabwe's trade deficit as your tax-free monthly salary, but for the mere mortals is just excessive; their design of cutlery is a bit kitsch -meat knives resembling Spanish cutthroat razors, what were they thinking?-; sofas where you are so far removed from the table that you have to choose between having back support but only staring at your food, or eating your food but sitting as upright as a broomstick: you can’t have it both ways.
What about the food then? Well...the bread was freshly baked and tasty ; the butter came from suitably subsidised Belgian farms -supposedly to pamper to those EU ‘Commissionists’ and the Agriculture lobbyists who get 40% of the entire EU budget -, the wine was rather good, the Carpaccio was bland and it came with what it looked like a lump of baby food on top, and in fact tasted like a lump of baby food; the beef was perfectly cooked and tasted superb, the chips were originally served in a grease-proof paper cone -how very Belgian-, dangling from a purpose-built metallic holder, and the rhubarb ice-cream with ginger and a lemon-scented, sugary-coated cookie was magnificent: unctuous, deep, flavoursome, not too cold, neither watery, not lumpy: a perfect bliss of a pudding. Sadly, the espresso tasted as if they mixed it up with chewed tobacco and motor oil, but hey, have you ever seen a perfect queen? Nor have I.
And then, for all its panache, pomposity, élan, baroque style and nicely-presented dishes, two minor errors in the dishes were spotted in as many visits. Its namesake relation at Gent still gets the upper hand: a hideously-restored facade masks a superbly decorated interior with a flawless cuisine. Its sister in Brussels however has a great facade, but its cuisine betrays a slightly lack of care to match its surroundings. If it would be applying for its next Michelin star, I'd give it to Gent.
Verdict: 4/5
Legend (whit apologies to A.A. Gill):
5/5 Queen Victoria
4/5 Queen of Africa
3/5 Beauty Queen
2/5 Drama Queen
1/5 Queen of the Damned
1000 Brussels
By Lavin
Baroque and Flawless. Almost.
'Behold' is the best verb I can come out with to summarise what this restaurant is about, i.e. to see or to look at, but often used for places or things deemed worth it. Belga Queen in Brussels is the antithesis of McDonalds, the Abel of each Cain, the mother of all grandiose restaurants, the ideal restaurant to have a stag or hen night and then get arrested by the police when you had one too many. It is the Habitat of all Ikeas, the Trappist of all beers and the Jabugo of all hams.
It is large, decadent, with its broad columns holding a central nave and two aisles where light not so much as comes in but falls from the sky. It just needs a replica of the fresco at The Vatican where God gives the breath of life to Adam through his finger, and you would have got your food temple for the faithful.
There are brains behind the visual impact of this restaurant: space, a clever combination of dark and light colours, transparent WC-doors which become opaque once you lock the door, a communal place for washing your hands, a turn-over wheelbarrow coated in what it looks like a mix of concrete and tempura as the central piece of art -if you like that sort of thing-, a kitchen where you can look into, the "de rigueur" empty, trendy bar, and the attentive, unobtrusive staff.
However, there are also less savoury parts in this restaurant: waiters in mock monk habits look plain silly; wine at five times’ retail prices may be Ok if you work at the European Commission and you receive the equivalent of Zimbabwe's trade deficit as your tax-free monthly salary, but for the mere mortals is just excessive; their design of cutlery is a bit kitsch -meat knives resembling Spanish cutthroat razors, what were they thinking?-; sofas where you are so far removed from the table that you have to choose between having back support but only staring at your food, or eating your food but sitting as upright as a broomstick: you can’t have it both ways.
What about the food then? Well...the bread was freshly baked and tasty ; the butter came from suitably subsidised Belgian farms -supposedly to pamper to those EU ‘Commissionists’ and the Agriculture lobbyists who get 40% of the entire EU budget -, the wine was rather good, the Carpaccio was bland and it came with what it looked like a lump of baby food on top, and in fact tasted like a lump of baby food; the beef was perfectly cooked and tasted superb, the chips were originally served in a grease-proof paper cone -how very Belgian-, dangling from a purpose-built metallic holder, and the rhubarb ice-cream with ginger and a lemon-scented, sugary-coated cookie was magnificent: unctuous, deep, flavoursome, not too cold, neither watery, not lumpy: a perfect bliss of a pudding. Sadly, the espresso tasted as if they mixed it up with chewed tobacco and motor oil, but hey, have you ever seen a perfect queen? Nor have I.
And then, for all its panache, pomposity, élan, baroque style and nicely-presented dishes, two minor errors in the dishes were spotted in as many visits. Its namesake relation at Gent still gets the upper hand: a hideously-restored facade masks a superbly decorated interior with a flawless cuisine. Its sister in Brussels however has a great facade, but its cuisine betrays a slightly lack of care to match its surroundings. If it would be applying for its next Michelin star, I'd give it to Gent.
Verdict: 4/5
Legend (whit apologies to A.A. Gill):
5/5 Queen Victoria
4/5 Queen of Africa
3/5 Beauty Queen
2/5 Drama Queen
1/5 Queen of the Damned
1 comment:
I have been only once and I would give only maximum 3/5.
As this restaurant wants to be different, they have adopted the lounge style. For a bar, it can be nice to be sitted in sofas, but it's not really comfortable to be sitted in such seats around a low table to eat... and it is even not very convivial.
The food is fresh, that is for sure. I had the menu "Brasseur".
The starter: " Carpaccio de Thon, mousse de Pois chiche à l’huile de noisettes, feuilles de céleri vert" => tasteless
The main course: "Contre filet rôti au beurre maître d’hôtel à la Ramée Ambrée, lasagne de légumes, pommes frites" => the meat was really well cooked and delicious, the fries were thick (real belgian fries) and originally served presented, but the vegetable lasagne wasn't warm enough and the taste of it didn't match well with the rest
The dessert: "Crème glacée à la rhubarbe et gingembre confit" => really good
They have funny rest rooms and the washbasins are original. I would expect from such a "posh-looking" restaurant that their rest-rooms are impeccable, but it's not the case... Too bad...
So if I leave aside the environement, I can give a 4/5 for the price vs. quality of the food.
But when considering the rest, it is only worth 3/5 (in my opinion, of course!)
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