Day 3: Brussels
Our trip to the Des Enfants Rouges market for breakfast was a fail. This is the third time this particular creperie was not open during their listed hours. Instead we picked up something small at the local bakery and eventually made our way to the main station in Paris, Gare du Nord to catch our 12:46 train to Brussels. The trains here are very efficient and affordable. You don't have to worry about security checks and absurd long lines. Plus it's only an hour and a half commute to Brussels.
The first thing we noticed about the capital of Belgium is how clean the city is. You can spot several street cleaners throughout the day, sucking up trash with their Ghostbuster like vacuums. It'a also very walkable. Many of the places we plan to go to are within 30 mins by foot. We found our airbnb located on a beat up street with many construction workers. Hopefully they don't wake us up too early with their jackhammers and saws. After taking a tiny elevator to the 6th floor and climbing one narrow spiral staircase up to the top, we finally arrived at our airbnb. The place has nice furnishings, a modern kitchen and a separate toilet room from the shower, which is quite common in Europe. But best of all, there's a rooftop terrace that overlooks the Brussels city line.
Time for some drinks. Just a short walk from our place, there's a bar called Victoria that serves decent cocktails. The caipirinha had all the right flavors. The mojito on the otherhand had a strange, subtle passion fruit taste that threw us off. We also ordered our first Belgium beer which made an excellent good first impression....hoppy but smooth!
For dinner, we ate at the number one ranked restaurant in the city on Tripadvisor called Le Rabassier. Locals in Europe tend to use Tripadvisor much more than Yelp or Google reviews. Well known and highly favored eateries proudly display their TripAdvisor sticker on their front door or window. This is another 8 seater restaurant that focuses on high quality service and ingredients. We each chose our own tasting menu and it actually worked out in our favor because we tend to share everything. The server didn't seem to mind and we got to sample a wide variety of dishes. The whole dinner was very impressive and pretty much flawless. From the little bites of goose liver and curry flavored chips as appetizers, to our perfectly cooked fish entrees. Everything was divine because there was truffle incorporated in nearly every dish. We have't encountered a restaurant so dedicated and respectful to one ingredient. Our server was working very hard, meeting the demands of all the tables without any help.
It is going to be difficult to select our top 10 restaurants of 2019 but we have a feeling that Le Rabassier will make the cut. We still have another day in Brussels before heading to another culinary capital in Northern Spain, San Sebastian. Some things on our to do list: find the Mannekin pis statue, visit Egmont park and try some local Belgium food staples like waffles and chocolate.
