Belgian Restaurant Reviews # 2, 3, and 4

I may or may not have mentioned the we are enjoying our eating on this trip. While in Bruges, just to the north and west of the battlefields of Ypres and an entirely different stop — yes that was intentional. The Roman, medieval town of historic importance, faded glory, missed opportunity and regained significance as a tourist destination and United Nations World Heritage Site is alright.  

According to TripAdvisor they only have 550 restaurants in a town of 117,000. (Ieper had 94 with a population of 35,000). The receptionist at our hotel recommended several restaurants for us. We chose what later turned out to be numbers 39 and 64 or something like that. We also chanced up a cafe that was awesome.

Cambrinus was a Flemish restaurant, no music, no TV, just bar, food and and the hum of conversation as background. Once you realized you were not shouting over music or distracted by TVs it makes for really nice atmosphere - not to mention - just the well - atmosphere.

 

It was just off the main square, we found it with little trouble, Patt goes with the omelet, I go with Flemish stew. We both win.  Patt drinks the house beer, me the house red.

We both win.

Today while walking around the wind was fierce at times. The temp did not get up very high and we got cold. Looking for a place for a cup of coffee, voila! here we are. Coffee was great. We checked the menu, talked to the waiter, chef, man in charge, and got the soup of the day. It was great.

We asked about the soup, After much discussion, checking with Patt's iPhone dictionary and finding out the French word for "zucchini" (I have forgotten) we settled on the all vegetables in our pureed soup. He was so proud. I asked if I could take his photo. But of course!

If you are in Bruges and go to see St. Anna's church, stop in St. Anna Cafe across the street. Not large, but oh so nice.

And just tonight we ate Italian at The Osteria. And we both went with the house red. This place is small, only about ten tables and we were fortunate enough to get one of the two that were not reserved.

We shared a salad, Patt had the ravioli and I had the gnocchi. Desert was a jam torte with decaf coffee - have we mentioned the coffee in Belgium is excellent?

The house red came in this bottle, we bought the whole bottle. We liked it. It was Italian. In addition to Spanish Andulisian wines, we also like Northern Italian wines we have learned - or at least one Northern Italian wine.