In all the chaos of getting married, travelling to Stockholm (yes I know, have to go into much more detail about BOTH of those events…) I missed the birthday of one of my best friends here in Brussels.
Marissa is probably my loudest friend. I could recognise her laugh anywhere, she rarely doesn’t have a big smile on her face AND she brought me us the awesome wedding gift of butterscotch cookie chips, bath&body works moisturiser and a candy thermometer… clearly she is a fun person to be around!
To make up for the belatedness, Rasmus and I treated her to dinner on Saturday. We dug out the Restopass we bought ages ago for only the second time (it already paid for itself in the first meal but we do need to get round to visiting the other 28 restaurants) and I chose our evening option based entirely on location… “where, on this cold wet night, is within a short walking distance of home?”
La Manufacture it was and after following my somewhat hastily scribbled map to a street rather off the beaten track, we arrived at this former leather workshop. The waitress politely refrained from rolling her eyes at us when we said we didn’t have a reservation, and luckily we were early enough that there was still lots of space for us to fit it. We were maybe only the third or fourth table filled (it opens at 7 and we got there at 7.15) but it quickly filled up and stayed full all evening.
We all three opted for the €35 three course menu. And then actually all ended up picking the same main course. Which wouldn’t have been the case if I hadn’t ordered first, because despite berating my Dad for doing it, I have the tendecy to change my order if someone else is ordering the same thing. Which inevitably leads to me helping myself to whatever is on my neighbours plate which is not always appreciated…
Anyway, the dinner. We started with two croquettes, one mushroom, one shrimp, which were really good. (I first typed croquants but that’s somethign very different obviously). Then we ALL had the pork medallions for main course which were served with gingerbread sauce (clearly this was what swung the menu choice for me) and sweet potato cakes. Very yummy. Especially the potatoe cakes which were coated in almonds – I could have eaten a whole course just of them.
For dessert Rasmus and I had pistachio tiramisu and chestnut mousse. Which was very good. But Marissa’s dessert definitely won. She got the chocolate trio which consisted of chcolate mousse, choclate melting pudding thing, and white chcolate creme brulee. I stole a bit of everything, despite its small proportions and can attest to it being very good.
The actual restaurant is very cool. Converted from a factory that was first a printers and then a leather workshop, all the waitors wear leather aprons over their shirts and bow ties, and the waitor actually poured some wine into his own glass to sniff before offering it to us (I insisted he had tasted it but Marissa and Rasmus both deny this!). It was a classy joint, but also very relaxed and warm, the kind of place you can laugh loudly without being frowned at. And there was a real mix of clientele in there too.
So I have no qualms about recommending La Manufacture for a nice meal out in Brussels! Although now we have used up our 30% food discount, you might need to pay if we go there again… 🙂
