Periodically I will post brief restaurant reviews on this blog to encourage my friends and readers to experience "dining" versus simply "eating" especially when traveling. What better way to experience and better understand a new culture while you are traveling than via a local, native restaurant instead of seeking out your next Burger King or KFC simply because "well, I know what they serve there....." ? Going forward I plan to use a basic "5 star" rating system with "1 star meaning" -- I wouldn't eat there even if you paid for dinner -- to "5 star" meaning -- I wish a had a condo upstairs so I could eat here more often."
So here are three restaurants I have dined at earlier this year:
1.) Cave du Roy -- http://www.caveduroy.com, located in the "Grand Place" of Brussels, Belgium. This restaurant is located in a 17th Century cellar which serves traditional Belgian food. I dined with my free market friends -- Sacha and Stephen -- at this restaurant while we were in Brussels for the "Capitalist Ball" (watch for a future post on this annual event). Cave du Roy is informally known as my "office" in Brussels because it is an ideal venue for a relaxed business conversation. Rating -- 4 stars
2.) Rosa Art Lounge (RAL) -- http://www.rosa-artlounge.com, located in the Toison d'Or area of Brussels, Belgium. This restaurant is located just a few doors away (36-37 Boulevard de Waterloo) from the Hilton Hotel which makes an ideal landmark for finding this venue. RAL is the complete opposite of the 17th Century Cave du Roy since RAL's decor is essentially a modern art gallery including a chandelier over the main bar constructed of broken plates and multi-colored booth seats, walls, etc. coupled with dance music in the background. This is clearly a venue for the "beautiful people" BUT somehow they allowed me to have a table!!! :) The table next to me must have included a few models since the cameras were flashing throughout my dinner which made it difficult to see what I was eating but I can report I had an excellent salmon starter followed by a cod main dish. Overall a very nice dining experience. Rating -- 4 stars
3.) Baan Klung Jinda Restaurant -- http://www.baanklung.com, located in Phuket, Thailand in a former Sino-Portuguese mansion. It was a large group dinner which typically affects food quality but in this case the restaurant rose to the challenge serving a full range of traditional Thai dishes and I enjoyed all of them especially the shrimp with basil dish. Rating -- 3 stars
Bon appetit,
Todd
14 comments:
Do any of these restaurants serve bacon?
Bacon? BACON?!?!? You and your commentors who post about the flesh of innocent little pink and greay piglets make me sick. And you, Todd, with your feast of any and all creatures of the sea. You people are furiously rabbid, flesh-eating monsters. And you, Bacon Guy - go and have your fried pig.
Disgusted by you people.
There's plenty of room for all God's creatures...right next to the mashed potatoes.
Hey there, Mr. Hannibal "Bacon Eater" Lecture. I think it's really funny how on one hand you would say my pretense to believe that eating animals is "way over board" or "has nothing to do with humans" or something of the sort (and yes, I've heard it all from your types), but then on the other hand, you venture in to the world of mashed potatoes. Do you even REALIZE the human cost the potato has caused mankind? Can you say Irish Potato Famine of 1845?!?! A disease infected Ireland's crop of potatoes (the main source of food at the time) and killed thousands and thousands of people, and forced many of the mainlanders to flee to other parts of Europe, America and even Canada. This is where we get many of our Irish immigrants from today. As you can see, your cannibalistic tendencies feed right in to human death. You think thigs like potato famines, and thousands of dead children and Ireland natives is funny. Yeah, REAL FUNNY. How about valuing LIFE for a change?
Speaking of the Irish and bacon...I could go for some Irish Bacon and Cabbage right about now.
http://www.irishfestivals.net/irishbaconandcabbage.htm
"Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon."
I feel like you never stop. I will never understand you un-ending cycle of death. In your rebuttles, you bring up more and more death. Cabbage for instance - one very popular States toy company used to be the same way. They had a very popular doll (Cabbage Patch Dolls), that then turned into a story of death with their creation of the Cabbage Patch Premie. Why, why in the WORLD are we- as a market, and them as a nation- celebrating sick and dying infants???
Funny you mention infants...I was just thinking that someone should develop a line of bacon-flavored baby food. Start 'em young!
you have bacon in every hotel's restaurant in Brussels. i think that is a difference between dinning and eating that todd mentioned. if you want to try something new..
Yikes, anonymous! Your vib is a little...frightening. It's a blog. About food. I do believe I even see the words pineaple slices and watermelons slices.
Hmmm...
I'm frightening? Wow - what's frightening is that you don't see the seriousness of the situation I'm talking about. I don't know, but it seems like "Anonymous @ 2:54" has a little crushy poo on Blogger Todd to be going to hard to bat for him...
Who is BLT4, this person seems to live in their own little world. Excuse me, I breast fed my daughter and bacon was a very large part of my diet.. so what is your real issue you have going on..because there is obviously an issue there, I LIKE BACON, FRESH, FAT, OFF THE PIG, THAT SQUEALS WHEN YOU PUT IT IN THE PAN, SWUE EEE....
Bacon and Heinz 57? What happened to the cabbage? (sometimes you scare me...;-)
Yours and a 4 leaf clover!
JJ
How elitist of all of you - breast feeding to bacon in Brussels. Get a real job like the rest of us and keep your mamby pampy trust fund lifestyle to yourselves. Including you Todd - wish I could the live of an international travel-ista.
anonymous @ 4:34,
You view of elitist is a joke, I know Todd, he is not an elitist. If you would have worked half as hard as Todd has over the last 25 years, you probably would be eligible for the tag of elitist; and my guess is you would probably wear it proudly. But my guess is you have done nothing to improve your economic situation except complain about your income. While you were complaining the "elitist" were doing things to improve their situation, example: starting their own business, going back to school for further education, etc..
Anonymous, stop complaining and start being proactive. Maybe we will see you in the top 1% in a few years.
Sorry if my English was bad, I was also trying to sell some stock online for a nice tidy profit of 68%.
Have to love the USA.
KG
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