Maybe it's because sweet little Belgium looks like it may be seriously just about to fly apart at the seams—the simmering linguistic quarrel between the Flemish and the French hasn't been so ferocious in many years, and there's serious talk of a divorce between Flanders and Walloonie—but counter culture is suddenly thriving there. In turbulent times, the casual conviviality of sharing a meal with strangers at a counter seems to have a special appeal.
In Antwerp, the city's best restaurant right now is GinFish, a tiny little place in an old brick house just steps from the magnificent Grote Markt, which is lined with spectacular gabled medieval houses. Here chef Didier Garnick serves a single four-course seafood menu nightly to guests who sit at a long counter and watch him work. Garnick is obsessed with freshness and everything he does with his first-rate catch of the day is designed to showoff its clean, natural flavors.
A recent meal here began with a stunningly good salad of crunchy runner beans topped with thin strips of raw baby mackerel lightly dressed with a fresh mustard-spiked mayonnaise. Next up, grilled scallops on a bed of white beans from Paimpol in Brittany and chopped tomato in a tomato-fish bouillon imaginatively flavored with the haunting Moroccan spice blend ras al-hanut. Then came grilled sea bass in a light parsley oil with garlic chips and pureed potato. The house pour was an excellent and pleasantly dry Australian Riesling. Dessert was served as a sampler trio that included freshly made vanilla ice cream, chocolate mousse, and a salad of citrus and raspberries garnished with preserved orange peel. Coffee was served afterwards in an adjacent lounge with a bold contemporary design. Reservations are imperative.
In Brussels, Le Fourneau is big hit with a similar formula—a team of chefs cooking in an open kitchen with guests seated at a horseshoe-shaped black granite counter in a loft-like space on the Place Sainte-Catherine, traditionally the district in Brussels where the locals go to eat seafood. The food here is contemporary French and is presented as tapas-style small plates for starters, and priced-by-the-weight main courses in increments of 100 grames, which allows you to calibrate your meal according to how hungry you are. Excellent recent starters included langoustine ravioli in a delicious langoustine-bouillon cream sauce; Ardennes ham with a miniature tomato bruschetta; and lozenges of tuna belly with Maldon salt and beurre blanc mayonnaise. Main courses of Simmenthal beef and cod steak were excellent with sides of potato puree and braised chicon (Belgian endive).
Gin Fish, Haarstraat 9, Antwerp, 32-3-231-3207
Le Fourneau, Place Sainte-Catherine 8, Brussels, 32-2-513-1002
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