It had been almost two years since Bikerboy and I had time on our own, and for my big birthday getaway we stayed two nights in Bruges, Belgium. I have a big thank you to say to the charming and informative Elizabeth from Elizabeth On Food blog for recommending the gorgeous hotel and the restaurants which turned this weekend into a delightful memorable time away, thanks very much Elizabeth.
We stayed at the Kempinski Hotel right in the centre of the city, tucked away quietly and easily missed if walking past on the main shopping street. The decor inside reminded me a little of one of our favourite places in London to have a drink, One Aldwych, modern but comfortable, as opposed to the modern austere, ultra designed for everything but reposing.
The city felt a cross between Honfleur in France with cobble narrow streets and Amsterdam in Netherlands with a few waterways running through it.
The whole time we were there it rained but no matter, didn’t stop me putting my nose against shop windows.
At home I’m the only one who’ll eat chips with mayo, but Bikerboy decided it was appropriate for him to do it here.
We wondered into this lovely shop making handmade sweet goodies at the back, the smell was enticing.
Googling the name, Juliette’s, I found a photo stream of it on flickr here.
The first evening we wanted to eat somewhere casual with no fuss as travelling days tend to be long and exhausting, and Elizabeth had suggested De Refter Bistro.
Before the starter we were offered a really delicious small helping of mackerel patê, and another little nibble of parmesan biscuits with a relish.
For starters Bikerboy and I had cured salmon with a lentil salad. The salad was sharply dressed suiting the thick meaty slices of the fish.
For the main course I had the cod below, perfectly cooked. The blob you see is a sauce but can’t remember now what sauce, it didn’t really add anything to the dish, the flavour was bland. Came with a side dish of potato puree.
Bikerboy had the meatballs, light and herby and a very generous portion.
We could see the kitchen at work.
We shared a dessert, roasted pineapple with a vanilla parfait. This was the only dish that disappointed, the pineapple was tossed with fresh chopped mint leaves which dominated the whole dessert, and that’s all I could taste, unusually for this fruit the pineapple flavour was mute.
We both enjoyed the meal, it was exactly what we were after, good food in a casual atmosphere, and cheap to prices here, with a bottle of rosé it came to 130 euros.
We walked back to the hotel, I had a couple of daiquiris in the bar, Bikerboy tried to teach me how to play chess but the rules of the game weren’t sticking in my alcohol filled head.
I remembered how easy it is to drink daiquiri…oh I paid for it…I woke at 2 am gasping for water with throbbing head, then I remembered why I never mix spirits with wine.
The next post I’ll add the photos of my birthday meal – all 14 courses!
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My God, those biscuits…there must be *so much* butter in there! Much nicer-looking than anything I saw in Amsterdam, not sure why I’m even comparing the two cities…
Fab pics, glad you had a good time and just the 2 of you for a change.
Looking forward to the next post!
Debs, x
I think it’s a prettier city Emily and the tourism more family oriented than Amsterdam where I found too many groups of stag-weekenders.
thanks Debs…we did..we certainly did.
Thanks for blogging this. We’re going to Belguim for five days to escape the jubilee. We’re staying in Ghent so that we are in the middle of Bruges and Brussels. Look forward to the next installment.
hi Seabird – you’ll have a great visit I’m sure.
Bruges is a lovely place to visit for a short weekend, isn’t it? Last time I went was when I organised a weekend trip for a group of photography friends, which was lots of effort to organise but great fun. I found Bruges to be more expensive than I’d expected in terms of eating out, but the food was very good too.
x