Brussels dining: comme chez soi

The restaurant now holds 2 Michelin stars and continues to be considered the premier dinning establishment in Brussels; well deserved!!

We celebrated Joe's 62nd birthday there one windy, crisp evening. The space is ornate and festive with stained glass and dark paneling, formal but not ostentatious. With the right table one can see into the kitchen through a glass window. The tables are snuggly set near one another as is usual in Europe. The service is gracious and friendly; still relatively few waitstaff taking care of serving, pouring and picking up throughout the meal.

To start we chose a roll of oxtail and lamb tongues with coriander and a young leek terrine (mouthwateringly delicious) and pan fried Dublin bay prawns over a mount of crispy vegetables with a light parmesan creamy sauce (the taste like langoustines and the sauce with a wonderful gentle punch). The main course was one of those "aha" experiences that makes Comme Chez Soi clearly worth a trip. Pigeon breasts with green carraway, black radish canneloni with chinese cabbage served for 2 persons. This detail violated our decades long rule of sharing but we could not resist the selection (also most offerings on the menu are for 2 persons as well). The boneless meat was a dark burgundy color, soft as liver in texture and sublimely tasty. It is quite difficult to describe the gustatory sensation of food; this pigeon swirled into the mouth releasing pleasure with every squeeze on the teeth. There was a bit of sausage and the delicate sides to complement it, though overshadowed by the excellence of the pigeon itself. We ate slowly savoring each bite of the well measured portion on our plates wanting it to last as long as possible. Just as we were sorrowfully reaching the end..... the waiter came around with a copper pot and asked: would you like seconds? What an amazing surprise! The seconds, all pigeon, were just about as much meat as the firsts and so we had another delightful round of exquisite taste. The concluding coffee came with a small silver tray of sweet mouthfuls of chocolates just the right amount of sugar to end a most unforgettable meal. clearly one of the best meals we have had in some time and well worth a return visit.