Our first night in Bruges (or the Flemish Brugge is more appropriate),
we walked to a nearby spot recommended by the hotel which turned out
to be the treat of the vacation so far.
LE CHEF ET MOI (www.lechefetmoi.be) is owned and run by manager/
waitress Caroline Seays and chef Stefaan Cardinael. On weekdays(closed
Sundays-Mondays), the manage this 30+ seat eatery and rear garden ALL
BY THEMSELVES.
It is a charming old house with droopy chandeliers, thick curtains on
the windows over the canals, and simply the best deal around for
miles.
The fixed menus are available daily and cost 35Euros at dinner ($50-
always keep in mind this includes tax & service and that a tip of
5-10% is considered generous!). We ordered a bottle of SAINT VERAN "En
faux vieilles vignes" 2008 and the wine prices here are also quite
reasonable from say 25Euros up. The byummy fresh bread arrived with
two large bowls of tapenades:Sun Dried Tomato and Olive. These were
divine and Samuel devoured them both voraciously; we later bought some
to take home and also have out our "picnic" planned here. Sam ordered
the LAMB LOIN which came with couscous and mushrooms, he skipped the
tomato/plum sauce which was on the side. We opted for the menu and
started with 1/2 BABY LOBSTER which was no baby at all. It was broiled
with fines herbes and a light butter sauce, no dipping in butter here
as the meat was so fresh from just miles away in the North Sea. We
moved on to a RHONE VILAGES 2008 from Domaine Remejeanne "Les
Eglantiers" which went superbly with our excellent main course of
SKATE with Sorrel and the now ever so famous and so sweet tiny local
gray SHRIMP. Only the pasta on the side was not at the level of the
rest of the meal, but we were so happy it didn't matter.
Dessert was a BAVAROIS of Caramel and Pear or one of PASSIONFRUIT.we
loved them both. Caroline told us the chef did not like to make
desserts, but these were creamy rich top notch pastries with fresh
raspberries and blueberries.
We all left and decided to cancel our plans for two nights later so we
could return to LE CHEF et MOI one more time as we were in love.
