Lieven, a new restaurant witch Lieven Vynck as chef, opened in the Philipstockstraat at the end of March. We tasted the food and were very impressed. First and foremost, the interior stands out, a long wall is fully decorated with strips of marble and granite in brown and beige tones.
The rest of the interior is predominantly black with modern, comfortable chairs. In the front, there are half a dozen tables – the back, close to the open kitchen, is equipped with a couple of high tables.
It’s pretty hard to find a restaurant in Bruges that is open a Monday evening, Lieven was open, and luckily, we made a reservation, because the restaurant was packed. Quite a few people from the horeca came on their free night to taste the menu and to discover the place.
On the limited menu, there are about five starters, four main courses and three desserts, there’s no set menu yet, but maybe in the future… At midday, you can eat lunch for €15.
Annemieke chose, while drinking an aperitif, for the pasta with squid and Mediterranean vegetables, I went for the tartare of tuna and crab. Two beautifully decorated plates with generous portions became ours. Very tasty and nicely garnished dishes, especially the pasta was very tasteful.
As main courses, we chose the sea bass with asparagus and parsnip puree, and pigeon breast with asparagus and a little potato pie. We got super fresh products which were quite tasty. The pigeon was cooked perfectly and very soft, just like the fish. The pie was a bit dry, but had a lot of flavour because of the fennel seeds.
For dessert, I opted for the vanilla ice cream with hot chocolate and crumble. Creamy and delicious ice cream, but I found it a pity that the chocolate was milk chocolate, and not dark, but never mind. We ended the evening with a tea “evening pleasure” that tasted lovely.
The bill came down to €130, aperitif, each two glasses of wine and tea included, definitely worth its money!
Bruges badly needs restaurants like this, that, next to quality on your plate, also has an eye for the interior, when we were sitting there we realised we could just as well be in Antwerp or Ghent… This goes on our favourites list!
