Rouge Piment Vietnamese restaurant - Brussels

Rouge Piment serves vietnamese and thai cuisine. Located close to the Brussels Bourse, an area with a number of Vietnamese and Thai restaurants, Rouge Piment has been open for less than a year. We visited the restaurant using a discounted coupon good for a 4 course menu.

The interior was fairly new looking and quite nice actually.

Our 4 course menu began with a pineapple aperitif

Soups

Potage aux raviolis Wantan

Potage de scampis à la citronnelle

Starters

Batonnets de canne à sucre aux langoustines

 
Calamars grillés piquants

Mains

Scampis sautés aux légumes

Canard au basilic et piments

Dessert

Beignets d'ananas

Beignets de banane

From our previous experiences with discounted coupons, we were expecting below par food quality and service and smaller portions. Rouge Piment was such a pleasant surprise. The four course menu we had was actually the same offered in their printed menu, and we were offered 3 options for each course. From the aperitif to the dessert, everything was beautifully presented. One improvement we'd suggest, however, would be to cut down on their use of fish sauce, which left a strong glutamate aftertaste.

This restaurant was a nice discovery and we'll happily be back.

Rouge Piment
Restaurant vietnamien - thai
Rue Auguste Orts 6, Bruxelles 1000
http://rouge-piment.weebly.com/index.html

Kokuban Japanese - Brussels

Kokuban is a Japanese restaurant located at the corner of Avenue Louise and Rue Vilain XIII. This area has a concentration of Japanese businesses, with Nagomi supermarket and Izakaya close by on Chaussée de Vleurgat.

Kokuban means black slate. They had a black wall used as a slate, with drawings of Japan's four main islands and ramen/broth composition.

Otsumami: marinated seaweed salad and Tako Gari (octopus and ginger salad)

Onigiri with cod roe

Karaage ramen with fried chicken nuggets

Soba with tofu

Almond pudding

Mochi ice cream - sakura and green tea flavors

Otsumami serving sizes are small by default and one needs 2-3 for a real starter course, which in the end makes the starter course more expensive than the main dish. The ramen and soba, however, were excellent. We will be returning to Kokuban fairly soon!

Kokuban restaurant japonais
http://www.kokuban.be

Chile à la Carta - Le Chalet d'Odin Thon Hotel - Brussels

Thon Hotel Bristol Stephanie organized a Chilean gastronomy event in early March. "Chile à la Carta" was hosted in the hotel's Le Chalet d'Odin restaurant. In the past couple of years they also had Brazilian and Mexican themed weeks. We were excited about discovering Chilean cuisine and made a reservation for dinner. The poster for the event was mouth watering, as captured from the Thon web site:

As we walked into the rather darkish restaurant, we saw some traditional Chilean costumes, some posters and in a corner, a replica of a Moai from Easter Island.

Main courses

Picante spicy shrimp with walnut cream, chili and cheese
Served with rice/ginger and basil-cilantro green coulis, oven roasted artichokes

Beef stewed in tomato sauce with dry plums in red wine
Accompanied with mushrooms and quinoa, beans with butter

Swordfish fillet sealed with brown butter and covered with coriander and chives

Served with mashed potatoes and Ariqueño tapenade, roasted cherry tomatoes and Rocoto chili foam

Pomairino Corn Pie

Soft corn paste flavored with fresh basil, covering stewed beef with cumin and smoked paprika, roast chicken, raison, olives and quail egg

Desserts

Fig gratin, citrus syrup and Enguindao cherry liqueur
Late Harvest meringue mousse, nougatine and caramelized almonds

Copa Manjares

Cheese cream and "Manjar Blanco" covered with Manjar mousse with a touch of pisco and mandarines, chocolate

Dessert sampler

The  mains took an incredibly long time to get served. In fact, the corn pie had to be baked, which meant that some of us received cold dishes that had been lying on a counter top for a while. For the prices charged, it was a shame that the dishes were plain average and did not seem to have any rare ingredients that had to be brought from Chile. We doubt that they had flown in a Chilean chef; it seemed that the regular cook was improvising with some new recipes. Actually, going to a fine dining starred restaurant would have cost slightly more than 3 courses at the Chalet d'Odin. Even worse, while we were having dessert, the waiters began re-arranging the dining room to prepare for the next day's breakfast.

We will not return to Le Chalet d'Odin, the type of place that gives hotel restaurants a bad name...

Le Chalet d'Odin

Thon Hotel Bristol Stephanie

Avenue Louise, Brussels

L'Horloge du Sud African restaurant - Brussels

L'Horloge du Sud is located at the junction of Rue du Trône and Chaussée de Wavre, not too far from the Matonge African neighborhood. I went there for a weekday lunch. 

Here are some photos of the restaurant. They have an upper floor where concerts and dance classes are organized.

Here's my lunch: some Pastelles to begin

Followed by Moambe à la volaille (chicken moambe)

Quite disappointing. Basically, they have pre-roasted chicken pieces that they simply cover with moambe/yassa/maafé gravy, depending on what one orders. 

Moelleux au chocolat

Mousse à l'orange

Friendly service, but the food was average.

L'Horloge du Sud Café Restaurant
141 rue du Trone, Brussels
http://www.horlogedusud.be/

Le Palais des Délices - Place Saint-Josse, Brussels

Place Saint-Josse, with its eclectic array of ethnic restaurants and grocery stores, yet so close to Brussels' EU district, has one of the best Moroccan restaurants in Brussels. The service is always friendly, dishes are excellent and served in big portions, prices are reasonable and the Moroccan pastries are to die for.

The salad bar, complimentary with any entrée ordered

Tajine Kefta (meatballs in a tomato sauce with peas and an egg), served with Moroccan bread

The selection of Moroccan pastries. Order a few and the waiter will tempt you further: "try 1 more on the house".

Overall, an excellent place for Moroccan lunch. Will certainly go back.


Le Palais des Délices
http://www.palaisdesdelices.be

Blue Elephant Brussels - Thai buffet brunch

After our Thai brunch a few months back at Les Larmes du Tigre, we decided to try the brunch at Blue Elephant Brussels. These two restaurants are the only ones in Brussels offering Thai Sunday buffet lunches (as of November 2012 - newcomers welcome!).

Blue Elephant Brussels was opened in 1980 by Karl, a Belgian, and his Thai wife, Khun. Today it has expanded into a global group with more than a dozen locations, including Bangkok and Phuket that also have cooking schools attached. They even ventured into Indian restaurants - La Porte des Indes - in London and on Avenue Louise, which according to reviews do not offer the most authentic Indian cuisine... They also manufacture and distribute grocery products, sold among others in some GB supermarkets in Brussels at fairly high prices.

Blue Elephant is located on Chaussée de Waterloo in Uccle. The restaurtant is quite inconspicuous and can easily be missed when driving by.

The interior is decorated in a traditional Siam style, complete with wooden panels, plants and flowers.

The restaurant seats 100 persons over 2 floors. The seats were rather uncomfortable with the cushions in need of some new covers. The biggest problem, however, was that they had tried to cram way too many chairs and tables, such that one of us had to stand up several times to let a lady walk out of her chair.

I had a look at the 2nd floor. Try to avoid being seated here for the brunch, since one has to climb the dark narrow stairs several times with food plates from the buffet downstairs.

Let's look at the buffet, with a selection of appetizers, including prawns grilled at the table.

Lots of choices at the salad bar, with some beautifully carved fruits as decoration.

The main dishes: rice plus 5 curries, and a noodle dish. All were fine, especially the hot curry with chunks of red chillies. The watery Chicken red curry, however, was a notch below that of Les Larmes du Tigre, which uses better quality and fresher ingredients. Since they did not have any vegetarian mains in the buffet, a waiter offered to order a veggie stir-fry from the kitchen for any vegetarians.

The noodle bar:

For dessert, there was an extensive choice of fresh fruits...

Notice the macarons and tiramisu at the end - very Thai indeed!:)

In the drinks menu we spotted the young coconut, which we had to order. Refreshing, although it didn't taste very fresh.

Finally, as we were leaving, we saw various grocery ingredients for sale.

So what's our verdict ? In terms of food, Blue Elephant offers a much better Sunday buffet brunch both quantity and quality wise, albeit at a 25% higher price. Les Larmes du Tigre, on the other hand, had a more classy setting with enough space between the tables, and the waiting staff were friendlier and more efficient.

Blue Elephant Thai Restaurant
Uccle, Brussels
www.blueelephant.com/brussels