B is for Belgian

Our second Cuisine Club meeting was at Cafe De Bruxelles - a Belgian restaurant, since B is for Belgian. We had another option - Bavarian food, but that did not have too many vegetarian entrees, so we shall reserve that pick for another time, when we have only carnivores present.


Cafe Des Bruxelles had me skeptical at first, because their website links din't work, and the number listed on that very primitive website was wrong. However, whatever few reviews of the restaurant I read were fairly good and we decided to try it anyway. Using our ever trustworthy and reliable menupages site, we were able to get a reservation for 11.

Cafe Des Bruxelles was truly what you'd call a pleasant surprise - the food was excellent, the ambience great and the service fairly bearable. The restaurant is located in a quieter part of East Village, but was buzzing with activity by the time we got there. The restaurant decor is fairly functional, where black and white picture frames of some famous Belgian landmarks adorn the walls. The restaurant was noisy and crowded and packed with people, which is a fairly typical of restaurants in the city on Saturday night. Cafe Des Bruxelles has a huge selection of imported Belgian beers and we all ordered an average of 2-3 beers through the course of the night. I had a pale ale called Leefe which was excellent and just what I wanted - light and flavorful with my chicken entree.

We ordered appetizers for the entire table including mussels a la escargot - baked mussels with garlic butter (absolutely delicious and not just because it is an aphrodisiac); plate de campagne - homemade country pate; comate au montrachet - baked tomato filled with goat cheese and served with fresh wam basil vinagrette (the tomato was baked just perfectly and with each bite, the cheese melted in our mouths) and the feuillete de champignons suavage - wild mushrooms baked in a puff pastry - all of which were delicious. The portions were small, but with these many appetizers, it was enough to go round the table. The dishes that really stood out were the mussels and the goat cheese filled tomato. Cafe Des Bruxelles claims that mussels is their speciality and they also claim the distinction of having been the restaurant that introduced mussels to America. Now I don't honestly know or care if that's true, but what I did learn is they sure know how to make those mussels tasty!

After that very fulfilling first course, we ordered entrees for each of us and beers to go along with our food. I stuck with my Leefe, but the men tried darker ales that might go along well with red meat and seafood. I ordered a chicken entree - the Poulet Facon Du Chef - chicken breasts filled with sweet peppers, onions and wild mushrooms. Each of our entrees came with pomme frittes or french fries. The chicken was very well done and came in six round portions filled with the onions, peppers and mushrooms. I couldn't taste much of the mushroom but the sweet peppers finely complemented the onions and whatever mushroom were baked into the dish. All round the table, each raved about their particular dish and the choice of beer, and so my conclusion is that it was definitely worth making a trip to this restaurant.

For dessert, we were too full and in too much of a hurry to catch that weekend's new flick, so we decided to order just a Belgian chocolate cake to share. It was a good sized portion that could be shared by all, but although appetizing, what disappointed me was that it wasn't warm..it was cold and crumbly to the taste and any good pastry chef, heck, any good eater, would know that chocolate cake, especially, gourmet chocolate cake, must never be had cold.

Apart from this small disappointment, I must say that Cafe des Bruxelles exceeded all expectations - the food was very good, the ambience perfect for a Cuisine club outing and the service fairly prompt (and I say "fairly" because occasionally our server would disappear and we could never find him when we needed to order!). It was a fun evening, filled with good conversation, better company and great food. Cafe des Bruxelles is a restaurant highly recommended for the Belgian experience.


PS: I might have honestly left something out, so others, please feel free to chime in with their comments.