Before heading off to Brussels, I did what most food-crazed people do: research the area to come up with a list of places to eat in. 😀 When doing this, a place called Les Brassins kept being mentioned, not only in review sites, but also in food blogs. I figured that this was a good sign, and immediately made a note of where it was on the map.
Fizzy iced lemon tea, from a bottle. It was very nice!
Shrimp croquettes (€9,50). These were served with a side of deep fried curly parsley and a mixed leaf salad. The croquette was delightfully crispy on the outside, and soft and creamy on the inside, with the occasional bit of prawns to give a nice contrast in texture. You can only imagine how happy I, a self proclaimed potato lover was. The deep fried parsley was also a nice touch and was very interesting (I normally don’t like parsley you see…).
Beef Carpaccio in truffle oil (€9,50). This was a nice, light starter with just a right amount parmesan shavings to go with it. The beef was also nice and thin, and well flavoured.
Rabbit in cherry beer sauce (2 legs) (€17,00). I’ve only had rabbit once, many years ago, and I don’t remember it being as good as this. I have to say that I don’t think I’d guess that it was rabbit if I was eating it blindfolded, as it tastes remarkably similar to chicken. The cherry beer sauce was delightful, with just the right balance of sweetness. Excellent for dunking your chips in! 🙂
Steak “simple face“ (tender beef marinated in mustard, parsley and shallots and grilled on one side) (300gr) (€18,00). We thought this sounded interesting, and was especially attracted by the “tender beef” part of the description. Little did we know how rare the beef was going to be… (they don’t ask you how you like it done for this dish, I’m assuming this is why it’s called ‘simple face’).
I normally eat my steaks medium well done, and was slightly apprehensive when we I cut into eat to see how raw it was! Surprisingly, it actually tasted really good! Not tough or chewy like steaks sometimes are – just pure, tender goodness. I must admit I had to pretend to ignore how rare it was though. 😛
Stoemp (mashed potatoes with vegetables of the day) – one of the sides that come with the mains. The mash wasn’t perfectly smooth, but was still good, and suited the rather rustic atmosphere of the restaurant.
Homemade fries. Perfect for wiping up every last bit of sauce from your plates!
We were completely stuffed after all this food, and rather unfortunately, could not stomach dessert. A travesty, I know. In our defense, we had 3 Pierre Marcolini cakes waiting for us in the hotel room. 😛
We returned again the next day for a quick meal before heading for the train station as it was so close to our hotel (and it served delicious food!). Whilst it had been buzzing the night before, it was more quiet the second time around, though that may be because it was only about 6pm then. We had the shrimp croquettes for a starter yet again, but chose different mains.
Mussels (in season – market price). This was cooked in the traditional way – with white wine, onions, and celery. I don’t care much for celery, but I must say it gave a nice shot of ‘heat’ to the soup. It is a HUGE pot of mussels though, especially when you take the sides into account as well!
One of the specials – I can’t find the name of the dish on the site, but from my recollection, it was lamb cutlet patties with a thyme and garlic jus. Like all the other dishes we had, it was very good. It was tender, juicy, and flavoursome.
We thoroughly enjoyed our meals at Les Brassins, and I would not hesitate to recommend it. The service is pretty good as well, which is a plus. One regret I had was not being able to try their desserts as we were always too full to even consider it. I blame the fries and the stoemp!
Just a note about the menus – they have both English and French menus, but the specials board is only in French. I was lucky as R understands French, but I think as long as you have basic knowledge of the main types of meat, you should be able to guess-order your meal.
Les Brassins
36 Rue Keyenveld
1050 Brussels (Ixelles)
Tel: 02 512 6999
http://www.lesbrassins.com/
A very cool dog in Grand’Place. Don’t you just love his sunglasses? 😛
Grote Market – the main square in Bruges. (There were lots of people dressed in blue shirts there that day, along with lots of policemen. I still don’t know what that was all about…)
This is where you board the boats, there are about four boarding points around the town. (You get off at the same stop where you get on).
A lovely view from the boat
One of the last remaining wooden buildings in Bruges – it is now a hotel (and a rather pricey one too!).
Coffee with a side of savoury biscuits (which I really enjoyed!).
The compulsory frites 😀
Delicious shrimp croquettes – creamy potato and shrimp pieces in a crunchy breaded casing… topped with more shrimps and chopped parsley. It’s a joy to cut through the crunchy-ness to reveal soft, gooey goodness.
A beef fillet which was cooked on the grill. This was good but not amazing.
The intricacy of the design on the some of the cakes truly amazed me… especially that cool geometric design on the Samba.
Cute chocolate penguins, I couldn’t resist taking a photo!
Delicious looking chocolates
Chocolate lollies with nuts and dried fruit
Getting creative with chocolate! 😉
Cakes from a small family-run cafe in Bruges (I can’t recall the name of the cafe though).
The specials/suggestion board
The communal table, under an open topped roof. Such a nice place to have a meal!
Cappuccinos, with a free chocolate on the side! The chocolate was a nice touch, they never do this in London! Hrmph.
R ordered the one of the breakfast meals – which was basically a basket of freshly baked breads, with a half boiled egg. This is served with a variety of fruit preserves and chocolate spreads to have with the bread.
This is how they the preserves and spreads are served, with a spoon in each jar. It works well though, as you get to choose which preserves or spreads you want, plus you get to have as much or as little as you like. The photo above shows their chocolate spreads… which are delicious. My favourite was the Brunette, which was a milk chocolate and hazelnut spread. Pure heaven, especially when paired with the freshly baked breads.
I ordered the smoked trout, grapefruit and guacamole tartine. The trout and grapefruit complemented each other surprisingly well, and I thoroughly enjoyed this. The flavour of guacamole was slightly overpowered by the other two main ingredients, but I think the tartine wouldn’t have been as nice without it.
I was craving for a polenta muffin for dessert, but they were unfortunately sold out. I had to settle for a pineapple meringue, pictured above. It’s basically two meringues, sandwiched with cream and pineapple chunks, with cocount bits on the top. It was very refreshing, and a revelation as I’d never thought of having pineapples with meringues!
We went for different drinks this time around. The red drink is a homemade raspberry iced lemonade. It is delicious, and I fell in love with it the moment I took a sip. I wonder if the London branches would consider adding this to their menu… The coffee in the background is a latte. No chocolates on the side for it though!
Sourdough bread is served with all salads on the menu.
Smoked salmon and organic cheese salad, with a polenta muffin on the side. This was partly to make up for the fact that I didn’t get to try the polenta muffin in Bruges… and I didn’t regret my decision. The muffin was delicious, with hints of parmesan cheese and parsely in every bite. I could eat quite a few in one go, I believe. I’m hoping that they bring the polenta muffin to London too! 😛 I have to admit the salad paled in comparison to the wonderfulness of the muffin. Also, I prefer a variety of leaves in my salads, this one only used two types of salad leaves.
Smoked chicken salad, with fresh tomatoes, croutons and Parmesan shavings. The chicken was really nice, and went well with the creamy dressing provided.
Lighter-than-air marshmallows (on the R), and fruit cubes (on the L). I did not try the fruit cubes, but the marshmallows were delightfully light – I tried the pistachio flavoured one and it was nutty with a hint of lemon. Unfortunately they are only sold in boxes of 35, which was dissapointing as I would have bought a smaller box had it been available.
A larger version of one of his mini-gateaux cakes
The mini-gateaux cakes I bought 😀
This was my favourite of the three – a chocolate based gateaux covered in a raspberry infused ganache. I’m afraid I can’t describe this in any more detail, as this was all the information I got from the man at the store… All I can say is that it was delicious, and the colour of this does make it rather attractive!
Java – a coffee based gateaux, with a dark and milk chocolate sabayon beneath all that orangey-ness. 😛 If I remember correctly, there was also a thin layer of biscuit (feuilletine perhaps?) in it which added a good contrast of textures. And again, this was very good.
Envol – dark chocolate sabayon and a layer of orange flavoured creme brulee, topped with a dark chocolate ganache. This was also good, but I found it slightly less interesting compared to the other two. Needless to say, I still enjoyed it!
Yum.
I also tried his macarons as they looked too good to resist. He makes them in 5 flavours – pistachio (green), coffee (brown), vanilla (white), chocolate (red) and caramel (yellow). Having tried Pierre Herme and Laduree macarons in the past, I must say that Pierre Marcolini’s macarons are pretty good, especially the pistachio and chocolate flavoured ones. Texture wise, I found his macarons slightly on the soft side, and I must say I prefer the texture of Pierre Herme’s as there is slightly more ‘crunch’ when you bite into them. Pierre Herme also has a better range of macaron flavours.
Didn’t stop us from getting more macarons the next day though…
It took self control to stop eating the half eaten macaron so I could photograph it!
Bread et Butter 