Admittedly, Bruges is home to a vast number of restaurants. From small food stalls to accessible bistros and renowned Michelin-starred establishments, Belgium’s top tourist city offers (more than) enough dining options. Yet, new culinary spots open regularly, and we’re secretly not sad about it at all, because as a restaurant critic, you always want more choices and more diversity (unless you belong to the jaded type of journalists, perhaps). We went to check out the brand-new La Plancha – La casa de Rita.
Download the entire LifeBytes Magazine article by clicking the link above
Actually, with La Plancha, the Bruges restaurant scene hasn’t really gained a new restaurant; it replaces Den Huzaar, a restaurant that for years was decent in every respect but completely unremarkable. Unfortunately, our most vivid memory of it is an incident where we tried to send back a bottle of wine that wasn’t up to standard.
We were given a small taste, but it was clear they were accustomed to a very mild and undemanding clientele because when we asked for a different wine, the reaction was very angry, and we were still forced to pay for the whole bottle.
However, La Plancha shows how an extreme makeover and different management can elevate even a banal original to a much higher level.
The owners of La Plancha are operator Joeri Van den Abeele and his Latin American partner, who also designed the beautiful and highly clear menus. Joeri is an entrepreneur through and through, and this restaurant is not his first venture.
He has pulled out all the stops to make it a potential new Bruges institution, which is also reflected in the subtitle of La Plancha: Rita was Joeri’s recently deceased mother, and it’s clear that with such a tribute, he was extra motivated to turn a visit into a real experience — not in the way Heston Blumenthal would do, but by paying attention to many small details that would escape the average eye.
It’s a great thing to notice, and something that really helps define La Plancha as a ‘place to be’.
Reception & Interior
La Plancha – La casa de Rita is very centrally located in Vlamingstraat, opposite the Royal City Theatre and, as we’ll see later, quite fittingly, the Frietmuseum.
However, the beautiful facade doesn’t immediately reveal how large the restaurant actually is: with a long hall leading to a genuine piano and a large screen usually displaying an inviting open fire, a beautiful terrace with a pond, and a basement that has the charm of a super cozy bodega, this is a very spacious establishment with various spots where only the most nitpicky would struggle to find their place.
Upstairs, we find soft petrol-green sofas, tastefully combined dark gray chairs, and a large bar.
There is a warm wooden parquet floor and wall panels that nicely match the patterns on the wallpaper.
The look is never too sparse, thanks in part to the beautiful paintings and small objects that you might not immediately notice, but which make everything even more delightful: a bird or giraffe figurine here, a candelabra there, photos of Joeri’s mother Rita in a corner of the bar, and so on.
Only the best designers know how to tastefully bring together so many details and nods within such an eclectic decor, and the fact that everything fits together so well and forms such a cozy whole is a feather in the designer’s cap.
The fact that Joeri did almost everything himself, including using techniques like SpeedSet from his film company, All4Set, makes the achievement even more impressive. One minor drawback: the black square tables are easily movable and can quickly form a whole, but they are not too far apart, and we can imagine it might feel much busier if there are a lot of visitors. However, you don’t need to worry about real Parisian situations like those in the often crowded restaurants on the Champs-Élysées.
Downstairs, we find a cellar where authenticity and a good sense of modern design beautifully come together, again with a lot of wood use, fun texts, and an atmosphere that harkens back to Latin American or Spanish wine cellars and Italian osterias. Impressive!
The restaurant is run by Joeri and his family, together with the former friendly maître d’hôtel of Den Huzaar—rightly the only remaining ‘fixture’—and an extremely charming and graceful Ukrainian woman (we dare to predict that many people will return just for her).
Of course, even a (re)new(ed) team in the best starred restaurant occasionally experiences growing pains—a steak knife that is initially forgotten or a wine that hasn’t yet been explained—but we expect that the front-of-house staff will quickly grow into a well-oiled machine.
The menu
We start with two—mostly improvised—cocktails. Our bartender tells us he doesn’t have much experience yet but is very eager to learn and also loves cocktails himself. We tell him we don’t want anything too sweet because we want to prepare our taste buds for the food, to which he asks if one of the mixtures can be really spicy. Well, that’s certainly okay with this journalist, and so we are served two cocktails, one of which has peppers and Tabasco. We are used to the super-spicy cuisine of Thailand’s Isaan province and love how the spicy margarita-like drink adds the necessary kick to our aperitif experience.
Our chef is originally from Venezuela, which also explains the menu, which mainly focuses on meat, fish, and grilled dishes, without forgetting the vegetarians among us.
The tuna sashimi is intended as an appetizer, but with its 200 grams of excellent quality tuna, it is already quite large. The tuna is fairly firm and has a slightly creamy flavor profile, while the freshness adds extra elegance and subtlety. Although it would be considered sacrilege by many traditional Japanese chefs, the slices of raw fish are seasoned extremely well. To our surprise, the seasoning also adds a lot to the dish: amazing!
Then it’s time for our main courses, which immediately surprise us with their size. These are American portions that you can easily share with two if you’re not famished!
The first main course is picanha from Uruguay. This South American specialty, from the piece of meat just before the cow’s tail, is perfectly grilled, with a crispy exterior and juicy, tender meat inside. The unique cut of the meat, which retains most of its fat, gives it a firm, slightly fibrous texture with a robust flavor enhanced by a light smoky taste from the grill. Because the fat runs through the rest of the meat while grilling, our beef dish remains very juicy. Delicious!
Our second main course, the filet mignon from Argentina, is known for its buttery texture and subtle flavor. This filet is cooked to perfection, with each bite melting in our mouths; softer and more elegant than the picanha, but of course, also slightly less complex.
Both dishes are served with the same garnish. It is fairly simple, consisting mainly of onion slivers, super fresh lettuce, and cherry tomatoes, but is elevated with a tasty, light vinaigrette.
If there is a point of criticism, it’s that we can only get fries with our dishes. Healthier alternatives like whole-grain pasta, rice, or sweet potatoes are unfortunately not available. A shame, although most visitors would likely just choose fries. The large fries served at La Plancha, however, are top-notch: perfectly fried, crispy golden on the outside, and with plenty of soft potato inside. The best fries we’ve had since we had to review Brasserie de Paris in… Hua Hin, Thailand, about three years ago!
For wine, we are served a deep red, full-bodied Butcher’s Cut — a robust Malbec from Argentina with a full body and a complex palette of ripe black fruits, including blackberries and plums, complemented by subtle hints of vanilla, tobacco, and dark chocolate.
The firm tannins are nicely integrated into the whole, and the long finish is slightly sweet. A true red meat wine, of course, and naturally a great pairing with both our picanha and filet mignon.
This time we also have kids with us, and they go for hamburgers. There is quite a broad burger selection for a restaurant that doesn’t immediately specialize in them.
The vegetarian burger is a hit, while the chicken burger we are served a few days later is a complete dish; it is served with crispy nachos, red onions, parsley, crispy lettuce, fries, and a tasty, slightly sweet sauce. The chicken meat looks like it was breaded in-house or at least comes from an excellent supplier, and it is still very juicy inside, while the slightly soft bun is of better quality.
We taste two desserts: the ‘piña colada’ — vanilla ice cream with plenty of real vanilla in it, served with sweet pineapple pieces and a bit of syrup, but without the whiskey that would elevate the dessert even further for adults — and a tasty chocolate mousse with whipped cream on top. Good, but we’re curious about the more adult version with pili-pili, lime, and raspberry coulis that’s on the menu.
A few days later, we return to try some fish as well. The tuna steak and the salmon steak (which is only listed in chopped form as tartare on the menu) continue the trend that was set earlier: a strong emphasis on the product, served in very large portions without too many frills.
Our dining partner this time is the American ‘Coach of the Stars’ Richie Chance, and you already know that the salmon, which is more cooked, will be more to his liking than the (deliberately) slightly less cooked tuna, but that mostly has to do with the fact that the average American isn’t too keen on cooking times that still allow for a bit of pink.
In between, we are also presented with one of the rib dishes. We know that owner Joeri is a fan, and it must be said: it seems that this dish was also chosen to work only with very high-quality base products.
Conclusion
The conclusion is clear: at La Plancha, you can find fairly simply prepared dishes made from very high-quality ingredients, served by a great team in a beautiful, very cozy interior. Among the best that Bruges has to offer outside of its Michelin-starred restaurants!
More info: www.laplancha.restaurant
Text: Dirk Vandereyken
Pictures: Hans De Ryck, Richie Chance & Dirk Vandereyken, supplemented with a picture from the La Plancha website
Comments