29 August 2009

BELGA QUEEN, Brussels




Whereas some people will say that Belga Queen is a chic, pretentious and superficial restaurant obsessed to show off but where you can indeed get the same Belgian traditional food as in any brasserie in a hidden neighbourhood, others will say that this original restaurant was absolutely necessary to give Brussels a new shed of light to the town's contemporary food scene.

Whatever the truth is however, the fact is that Belga Queen, the former Hôtel de la Poste and Crédit du Nord building reshaped by acclaimed designer Antonio Pinto (sometimes Belga Queen is better known by its designer than by its chef!), has the ambition to be an ambassador of the food and drinks made in this country.

More than that, the place offers fresh and good seafood (écailler), nice (Belgian) wines and good Belgian specialities (many of them cooked with national beer).

However, from all the good things I have learnt in this restaurant, I have to highlight the (re)discovery of the smooth but tasteful "coquilles de Saint Jacques", a delicious starter that I have spotted in most of the menus of modern French and Belgian restaurants recently.

The place is quite noisy and the toilettes hide a (nice) surprise, but Belga Queen, where the service is quite attentive and the clientele is quite diverse, is as nice for a dinner with friends as for a business lunch or a cocktail in the basement bar in a more romantic mood.

Belga Queen has a brother restaurant in the Belgian city of Ghent. Antonio Pinto has recently designed "Midi Station", a new, modern, contemporary restaurant in the South of Brussels.


Rating : 7.3 / 10

Belga Queen
Rue Fossé aux Loups 32
1000 Brussels
Tel. +32.2.217.21.87