De Karmeliet is a restaurant in Belgium, lead by chef Geert Van Hecke. Geert won a Michelin star in 1985, and another in 1989, the ultimate accolade of three Michelin stars coming in 1996, which it has retained since. The restaurant is located in a lawyer’s old house in the heart of the historic Bruges, which is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. It is fitting that such a pretty place also hosts a very good restaurant. Geert van Hecke's cuisine is traditional french but with a flemish touch. He manages to bring beautiful dishes that are based on his classic cooking background but at the same time being very contemporary. When you enter the restaurant you can decide if you want to enjoin some champagne in the lounge while looking through the menu or if you want to head up to the dining room immediately. We were having lunch but I still went with his tasting menu, The Brugge Die Scone. The service is reserved but very professional, the courses were delivered at a good pace and properly introduced so that you really knew what you were having. The menu started with three great Amuse Bouches where they favorite was some very delicate potato chips. The following two courses were both amazing. First I had some very delicate sardines with flavorful tomatoes and an interesting spice mix. The saltiness of the sardines worked extremely well with the sweetness of the tomatoes. A great start to the menu. The next course was a perfectly cooked turbot but the shining stars in this dish were the grey shrimps from Zeebrugge. Packed with flavors they lifted the dish to another level. The next course was somewhat of a letdown. I really wanted it to work because it sounded great and it looked even better. Who wouldn't like langoustine, foie gras and eggplant? The problem was that the ingredients by themselves were great, cooked to perfection and very flavorful, but when you combined them, the flavors didn't work as well as you would have thought. The disappointment was shortlived though because the next course was a knockout. A tart made of cepe mushrooms, that had an intense umami taste that worked so well with the cream of parmesan. It was a perfect combination which could easily had one of the ingredients overpower the other but not here - perfect balance and a perfect dish. The kitchen was able with very short notice to accommodate my wife's vegan dietary restrictions. We let them know the same day which is often challenging but the chef was able to produce matching dishes throughout my entire tasting menu. Here are some pictures of her favorite dishes. She said that all of them had great flavors and she was very thankful that one of the dishes was pasta instead of only vegetables. Unfortunately it seems like a lot of restaurants only serves a mix of vegetables when they serve vegan menus - if you add pasta, rice or even quinoa, it creates much more variety in the dishes, My next course was excellent, a well cooked partridge with all the right ingredients complimenting the bird. It was also rewarding to find 3 buckshots in the bird proving that it was hunted and not farm-raised. The only complaint might be that the kitchen should probably looked for these buckshots and taken them out before serving the course. But the partridge was so flavorful that I forgive them. As a nice transition to the sweet section of the course, the lady of the house, Mrs Van Hecke rolled out a cheese trolley and served some wonderful blue cheeses and local comtes. Great selection and she is also a wonderful hostess. We talked in lengths about the Van Heckes visit to New York the week before and how they loved Le Bernadin but that Eleven Madison Park was too modern for their taste. The sweet section of the tasting menu was almost as good as the savory. Great dessert creation with fruits and berries. We were getting pretty full, and heavy desserts would almost have ruined the experience for us. Thankfully, Chef Van Hecke kept the desserts very light and fresh. Above you can see a sample of what we had. The course ended with some great petite fours as well. All in all, we were extermely happy with our dinner at De Karmeliet, Chef Van Hecke has a sense for details, every course looks and tastes amazing. The wine selection was good but we didn't go all in with wine pairings since we were only having lunch. The staff is professional and the restaurant is stunningly beautiful. We had the opportunity to talk with Chef Geert after the meal and I told him that we thoroughly enjoyed our experience and that we can't wait until we come back. I am happy to say that Bruges have several reasons for a visit, the town itself but also a three-star rated gem called De Karmeliet.
2 Comments
12/20/2015 05:19:48 pm
De Karmeliet is a very famous in Belgium. First of all, it is the only 3 Star Michelin in Belgium and it's all 3 worthy. A very nice location and great staff. What we loved here was the amazing offer of cheese at the end of our meal.
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All these dishes have really awesome decoration that is very beneficent specially for the students who learning cooking because they have to learn decoration also and this post can help them.
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