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Belga Cafe, Chef Bart Vandaele on 8th & E Streets SE on Barracks Row


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Belga Cafe is utterly charming, and for me the crowds and din just added to the atmosphere.

The Gentleman Caller was thrilled to find Duchesse de Bourgogne, and I enjoyed a nice sparkling white (can't remember and didn't merit looking up at the moment). So far, so good. The venison was tender and flavorful, the frites were crisp and deliciously golden, and everything is going swimmingly, and then...

The mussels mariniere, which I have been thinking, dreaming, praying about all week...food porning around the Internets, asking friends for recommendations, sifting through old Tom chats...the consensus seems to be that Belga does them right, with some soul, here they are, our friendly and helpful server is lifting the lid off the gently steaming pot, and then...

So dry. So stick, stick, sticking to their shells. So...off. So not something you can really send back or bring up, but rather something you can pick at and try to be happy with the many, many things you have to be happy about. So, so sad.

We left happy, yet I mentally looked back over my shoulder at Belga Cafe, at what might have been. Maybe desserts next time? Not tonight, because the boy baked me a pie. So there's a happy thought. Fin.

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So dry. So stick, stick, sticking to their shells. So...off. So not something you can really send back or bring up, but rather something you can pick at and try to be happy with the many, many things you have to be happy about. So, so sad.

We had dinner there a couple of weeks ago. While mine were actually perfectly cooked, they lacked a little flavor. Nothing to complain about, but I have had better at Brasserie Beck and Bistro De Coin. However, for the price it was a great value. The special, which was tongue over a Portabelo mushroom was amazing.

I have visited Brussels many many times and my two major complains about Belga are....

1. When I think of Belgian Fries, I think of potatoes wedges with the skin on. These were string cut french fries. I was utterly disappointed. I still dream about the fries stand across from their version of the treasury building.

2. They should not serve a waffle which is not representative of a Belgian waffle (those delicious waffles packed with sugar and covered in chocolate) which you can find at just about any stand in Brussels.

However, when I take everything into account (including the great atmosphere and awesome appetizers), I will be going back to try more items on the menu.

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We live just down the street from Belga and if I had a little more of a discretionary income, I would totally be here at least once a week. We first came on Belgian National Day in 2007 at the behest of a visiting friend, and as I'm a complete sucker for moules frites in any guise, I was a goner. I love that Belga's frites are perfectly seasoned and expertly crispy -- no wussy, soggy fries for me!

Funnily enough, given my predilection for Belgian fare, we used to live around the corner from Brasserie Beck in NW. I adore their frites too, although they are matchstick thin instead of a bit thicker (they remind me of the most perfect fast-food fry I ever encountered, from Steak'n'Shake, where I spent many of my formative years growing up in the midwest). I do like that Belga has more moules preparations on offer, but I miss the paté de campagne and beet salad that I would consume on Beck's summer patio, alongside my frites!

The past few visits I've put together a meal of the grilled West African seabass with melted spinach and mushrooms and lemon mosto oil (om nom nom...this is seriously some of the best fish I've had in DC, right up there with Hook for me) ... and of course a side of fries. It will be a cold day on the sun before someone can drag me out of a meal at Belga sans frites.

I will also note that I'm not a beer person, which I realize is almost heresy at a restaurant like Belga. They keep a great, drinkable rosé by the glass on the menu, which is the perfect compliment to any of the mussel preparations I've tried, and for the sea bass as well.

My goal at the moment is to make Belga my total neighborhood go-to. The biggest problem I foresee with this is, as others have noted, the consistently spotty service...Part of what makes a spot a go-to is having staff who start to feel a bit like a family, and while we have had service that ranged from slow to fine to downright bizarre (that's a whole other post), it's never topped the "just ok" level at Belga. If they could improve that, I'd be a regular, hands down.

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Tasty (pricey) food, crappy service.

Particularly yummy were the kazen krokketten - $9.95: four cubes of fried cheeses that come out all gooey when you bite into their crusty breaded exteriors.

They have an impressive beer list, and seem to infuse everything with the bubbly: beer cocktails, beer sauces, beer braises... they are less a cafe and more a dispensary of carbonated fermented grain products.

The service was detached and slow, without the usual affable panache I prefer from those who are beering me. I'd be pissy too if I had to winnow my way through the narrow door to serve the al fresco diners.

The food was way too pricey for a place I would like to see take on more of a gastropub mentality. It all comes down to food cost. Every plate was a pastiche of flavor and color, not always balanced, and always overdone: it was the gustatory equivalent of dropping acid while watching the "Beyond the Infinite" scene in 2001 through a kaleidescope. Way too many ingredients. Way overworked. Simplify simplify simplify!

Good fries and mayo, though.

If I were running the restaurant:

-Rework the drink menu to focus less on the admittedly innovative beer cocktails and more on what's on tap. Highlight/describe the draught specials.

-Suggest beer pairings. Rather than slink beers into every recipe, bring one of the big draws of the place to the fore.

-Cut each entree section ("Classic Entrees with a Twist" and "Eurofusion Entrees") in half and combine them into just ENTREES. Do the same for the app section.

-Simplify the dishes!

-Potatoes are cheap. Create a menu section devoted to Real Belgian Fries. Offer a variety of mayos for people to choose from: soooo easy to do a la minute. Charge 99 cents for additional mayos.

-Simplify the dishes!

-Offer a "Belgian Special": $19 for mussels mariniere (smaller portion), fries, your choice of three mayos, and a glass of Hoegarden. These would fly out the door.

-Simplify the dishes!

Of course, if business is booming, ignore me. But I probably won't be back. :rolleyes:

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Tasty (pricey) food, crappy service.

Particularly yummy were the kazen krokketten - $9.95: four cubes of fried cheeses that come out all gooey when you bite into their crusty breaded exteriors.

They have an impressive beer list, and seem to infuse everything with the bubbly: beer cocktails, beer sauces, beer braises... they are less a cafe and more a dispensary of carbonated fermented grain products.

The service was detached and slow, without the usual affable panache I prefer from those who are beering me. I'd be pissy too if I had to winnow my way through the narrow door to serve the al fresco diners.

The food was way too pricey for a place I would like to see take on more of a gastropub mentality. It all comes down to food cost. Every plate was a pastiche of flavor and color, not always balanced, and always overdone: it was the gustatory equivalent of dropping acid while watching the "Beyond the Infinite" scene in 2001 through a kaleidescope. Way too many ingredients. Way overworked. Simplify simplify simplify!

Good fries and mayo, though.

If I were running the restaurant:

-Rework the drink menu to focus less on the admittedly innovative beer cocktails and more on what's on tap. Highlight/describe the draught specials.

-Suggest beer pairings. Rather than slink beers into every recipe, bring one of the big draws of the place to the fore.

-Cut each entree section ("Classic Entrees with a Twist" and "Eurofusion Entrees") in half and combine them into just ENTREES. Do the same for the app section.

-Simplify the dishes!

-Potatoes are cheap. Create a menu section devoted to Real Belgian Fries. Offer a variety of mayos for people to choose from: soooo easy to do a la minute. Charge 99 cents for additional mayos.

-Simplify the dishes!

-Offer a "Belgian Special": $19 for mussels mariniere (smaller portion), fries, your choice of three mayos, and a glass of Hoegarden. These would fly out the door.

-Simplify the dishes!

Of course, if business is booming, ignore me. But I probably won't be back. :rolleyes:

So, Dan, when are you launching your new career as a restaurant consultant? You've clearly got what it takes!

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Tasty (pricey) food, crappy service.

This pretty much captures why, even though I'm a Hill resident, Belga has not made my list of "go-to" places. Every time I've gone, there's been some mitigating factor to what would have been an otherwise enjoyable experience--indifferent service, overcrowded and noisy, a too-busy menu or dish, price point. There are many things to like here, and I'm glad they're on the Hill, but the dislikable stuff is irritating enough to be a deal-breaker for me.

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So, Dan, when are you launching your new career as a restaurant consultant? You've clearly got what it takes!

Same time you OPEN a restaurant, since you've clearly got what THAT takes. :rolleyes:

I would not work for a restaurant that would hire me as a consultant, given that I've never worked in the food industry and my only knowledge of the business comes from Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. :huh:

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If I were running the restaurant:

-Offer a "Belgian Special": $19 for mussels mariniere (smaller portion), fries, your choice of three mayos, and a glass of Hoegarden. These would fly out the door.

Great ideas, but I hope you would hire someone to spell check your menus for you.

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Tasty (pricey) food, crappy service.

-Offer a "Belgian Special": $19 for mussels mariniere (smaller portion), fries, your choice of three mayos, and a glass of Hoegarden. These would fly out the door.

-Simplify the dishes!

Of course, if business is booming, ignore me. But I probably won't be back. :rolleyes:

I've been a regular at Belga since it opened, and although servers have come and gone, have always received good service. My main complaint about Belga is the noise level - it can be incredibly loud in there. I do agree that the entrees could be simplified a bit, although I don't know how much you can simplify a croque monsieur or madame from the sandwich menu. Good idea about the "Belgian Special", although was the place less than packed when you were there? Belga strikes me as one of the restaurants on the Hill that is always crowded.

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Great ideas, but I hope you would hire someone to spell check your menus for you.

You're right. I'm sorry, that should have been "ho garden." But for only $19, don't expect any blumpkins.

Keith - I'd say it was decently crowded. Like I said, if business is booming, who cares what I think? :rolleyes:

<sarcasm>Also, I'm pretty sure I'm the first person in HISTORY to make the Hoegaarden-ho garden joke.</sarcasm>

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Me: "So, Dad. Your bone marrow's clean, your CT scans are clear and your cardiac tests are normal. What are you going to do now?"

Dad: "I'm going to Disney World!"

Okay, it was more along the lines of, "Let's pick up your mom and go get something to eat." Then he says something about Chart House. Now, Chart House is a perfectly fine restaurant, but if I find myself at that place one more time, there will be a scene akin to the "no more wire hangers" scene in Mommie Dearest--only much, much worse.

So, I entice them with a trip to Eastern Market. Should've known it was way too easy to find parking. Oops, closed on Mondays. So we head back down 8th Street to see what was open at 3 pm. Belga Cafe beckons and we decide to try it. Good decision. Only a few patrons there at the time and so it was quiet and the servers weren't busy. My parents had Palm beer which I think was imported from Belgium.

For starters, my mom had the chilled avocado soup with crab, which she said was delicious. Dad had the Salade Roulade which was romaine heart with goat and bleu cheese. He raved about it and wanted to lick his plate. I had the Kazen Kroketten which were also quite good.

For entrees, mom had the 5 pepper crusted hanger steak and frites. She really enjoyed it and I thought it tasted okay, but I don't like pepper-crusted anything. Dad had the herb-crusted halibut. He proclaimed it excellent, but we didn't taste it, cause he does not share. I had the flemish beef stew with frites and red cabbage. The flavor and texture of the beef was perfect. The frites were also good and worth the extra insulin I had to take for them. The flavor of the cabbage was good, but I prefer my vegetables on the less cooked side. We were all too full for dessert. Plus, if I have to choose between frites and dessert, I'd probably go with the frites.

We enjoyed our first trip to Belga Cafe and will definitely return. Clearly 3 pm isn't a time that most people would go, but my parents are 76 and 80 and definitely in that late lunch/early dinner mindset- so it works for us.

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My older brother was in town. The wife and I currently live too far out from the city to eat out very often (we're moving soon!) so I wasn't sure where to take him for the kind of casual, affordable and good food that would be appropriate and near Union Station. My wife did the first round of research and from coworkers and the like, heard Chef Geoff's was a good place to go. "Oh no," I said, "we have to see what the people on donrockwell.com have to say first."

The general opinion here on Chef Geoff's was, shall we say, less than ecstatic, and ultimately I found Belga Cafe. The food was very good. She and my older brother both had mussels. He went with mussels with garlic butter, she with mussels marinière. I tried and liked both. I had the biefstuk van de beenhouwer. I wisely didn't attempt to pronounce it, lest I incorrectly confuse Belgian pronunciation with a Schwarzenegger accent. It is described on the menu as "Hanger steak with roasted vegetables, purple potato confit and a red wine sauce." It was also good.

All in all, the dinner exceeded expectations. We all left feeling happy and intend to go back. My older brother told us it was much better than the dinner he had the previous night. Apparently a Maryland native (which I am not) took him out intending to impress. The hamburger, he said, was burned on the outside, but raw on the inside. "The place had such good turnover," he said, "I ate it anyway." It turns out it was our near miss, Chef Geoff's. Had we gone with that original choice, he informed us, he would have found an excuse to rid himself of our company.

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David and I went to Capital Hill last night to poke around and see what was over there.

We went into a little Belgian bistro called Belga and had a wonderful meal. I had venison tenderloin that was fork tender!

The service was wonderful as well. I didn't catch the server's name, but she had short brown hair and did a wonderful job taking care of us.

The beer menu is huge!

Anyway, I wanted to do a shout out because I noticed they were having a Belgian Waffle event this Saturday. It sounded intriguing, and I HEART a good Belgian waffle.

Passing along the website - http://www.belgacafe.com

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This may not be actual news, but new to me: Belga has a happy hour menu, offering certain appetizer items for $6 each.

It includes the kazen kroketten, croquettes of “four cheeses” with a frisee-bacon salad and balsamic dressing, for $6. It's three croquettes for $6 on the happy hour menu, and I have no idea why "four cheeses" is in quotation marks, above, but really: gooey fried cheese, bacon, frisee, and balsamic? How can you go wrong?

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Last night, I had an amazing bowl of sour cherry gazpacho at Belga Cafe, which includes a nice little scoop of sorbet. It was by turns tangy, sweet, creamy and refreshing. It was offered as one of the specials, so I don't know how much longer it will be around, but it definitely is something to try on a hot day.

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I met up with some friends for dinner at Belga on Sunday. It was a pretty mixed experience. Things started off well at the bar. I had a pear & pumpkin martini-type cocktail that was quite boozy and not overly sweet as I had feared, followed by a glass of Cava that was good. We also shared a couple of orders of fries, which are served with a trio of mayos - plain, garlic, & chipotle. The garlic aioli was my favorite, I could have done without the chipotle. I am no sort of fry expert, but I was surprised that most of them (other than the little bits at the bottom) were not crispy. However, I was a little behind my friends so they had already been sitting there for a bit. That may have had something to do with it.

Dinner I'm afraid was a fail in terms of the choices made unfortunately. I did ask the bartender and our server what they recommended and got comments from both about how this new menu had just been rolled out. Correction, bartender said it had been rolled out a couple of weeks ago, but she had been somewhere in India so hadn't had time to get caught up, while our server said it had just changed. I'm not sure who was correct, but the unfortunate result was that we had a hard time getting questions answered. I asked first about the "head to tail" suckling pig since there was no clue what that actually meant. Off she went to get the answer. Then someone wondered what the speculoos component of the duck dish was. Our server had no idea. We gave up on asking questions lest she spend the next half an hour running back and forth from the kitchen.

I ended up choosing the scallop ravioli for my app and the server's rec of the hangar steak for my entree. The ravioli were good, but they paled in comparison to the other app I had been considering, which my friend got and let me taste - the escargot fritters. Those things were amazing - a perfectly fried exterior with a filling that oozed out when you cut them and had a pleasing escargot flavor. I really wish I had ordered those. The hangar steak was a real disappointment. I love this cut and don't buy it for myself often so I enjoy ordering it out. It was cooked to order (med rare) but it was unfortunately very tough and lacking the very meaty flavor I expect from hangar. The "au poivre" was evident and the cognac cream sauce was fine. The star however was the mix of roasted vegetables. My friend (the other in our party who's a bit of a "foodie" and was therefore into sharing tastes) got the same thing and felt the same way on all counts. We were both left wishing we had just gotten a giant plate of those vegetables at 1/3 the price. The people who got mussels seemed very happy with their choice.

There were a lot of enticing options on the menu - under appetizers a casserole of wild mushrooms & frog legs sounded enticing, for entrees a venison steak, the duck, the rabbit roulade, and the 72 hr short ribs all called to me. I really really wish we had had better direction choosing items as I feel like I might have had a totally different experience than I did.

I will also note that they did a better job with the wine pairings (for me, I requested the sommelier) than they did with the beer pairings (my friend, who went with our server's - who claimed it was her area of expertise - recs). Despite some of the service flaws, everyone was incredibly friendly and enthusiastic, I will give them that. And I really liked our bartender.

I fear I sound incredibly negative overall. I would go back here and give it another shot and hope for better guidance from the servers. I really like the menu, there were so many things that immediately piqued my interest. But it's not an inexpensive meal and I felt dissatisfied at the end of it. Nothing was really bad, much of it was quite good, I just wanted everything to be great and it wasn't.

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After spending Saturday afternoon lounging by the pool and sipping gin and tonics, I was hit with a craving for mussels. The boyfriend, however, is allergic to shellfish and was craving steak. We spent an hour trying to figure out where to eat dinner before I thought of and we decided on Belga Cafe. Although I have lived in DC for nearly ten years (two of those on the Hill), I have never been to Belga. I'm glad we decided to go on Saturday as we enjoyed a very solid dinner.

We arrived around 8:30pm and were seated immediately. The boyfriend had a glass of Malbec from a poor selection of red wines by the glass and I had a Rodenbach on draft. Neither of us particularly enjoyed our drinks. To start my boyfriend ordered the salade roulade (hearts of romaine lettuce wrapped around goat and blue cheeses, and roasted tomatoes with a basil vinaigrette). The presentation was beautiful and the salad was very well composed and refreshing. I ordered beignets d'escargot which I enjoyed very much. The beignets came with a side salad, garlic confit, and a parlsey sauce. Everything on the plate came together beautifully, and I especially enjoyed the bits of garlic.

For our entrees, my boyfriend the biefstuk van de beenhouwer "au poivre" which was essentially a steak au poivre with a congac cream sauce, roasted vegetables, and frites. I didn't have any of the steak, which my boyfriend said was cooked very well though he would have liked more pepper. My boyfriend seemed to enjoy his vegetables as well. I had the mussels curry which hit the spot, although I would have liked a little kick to the broth. The pot of plump mussels was huge and I ended up sacrificing much of the accompanying frites so I could finish the pot. The few frites I had were very well cooked, although I am not a frites expert by any means.

Service was friendly and efficient. Rose's Luxury gets a lot of attention (not undeserved) in that neighborhood but I can see myself ending up at Belga if the wait happens to be too long and leaving very satisfied.

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Related this recent brunch experience at Belga Café elsewhere, but thought it deserved to be shared here.

Had one drink today which, according to the drink menu, included Mount Gay "Black" rum, but I watched the bartender use Captain Morgan spiced rum instead (!!!). When I mentioned it, I was informed that the Mt Gay "Black" was out of stock.

My friend ordered a drink which, according to the menu, included Mandarin Napoleon, and Corner Creek Bourbon. Instead, the bartender used Grand Marnier and Jack Daniel's (!!!)

Maybe I'm spoiled, but I'm used to being informed ahead of time when I'm not getting the drink that I've ordered, and paid for. If you've run out of something, that's fine, but please give me the option of accepting the substitution or ordering something else. Silently substituting is insulting to me, and I don't appreciate paying the same money for cheaper ingredients. If you advertise specific ingredients, then that's the experience that I want. It's dishonest to switch them out without telling me. Why should I have to watch the bartender prepare my drink? I (rarely) have the opportunity to watch a chef prepare my meal; I have to trust that I'm getting what I ordered and paid for. No different with drinks.  If the menu simply said (for example) orange liqueur, Bourbon, etc... that's one thing, but to actually list the components by brand name takes things to an entirely different level.

I enjoyed my food just fine.  Terrific frites.  Great brunch menu, which I can happily recommend, but order with care off of their drink menu.

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Yuck, just like the face says. Well, not so much "yuck" as "lack of any discernible flavor at all." Tomato Mozz salad made with unripe store-bought tomatoes (despite the 'heirloom' advertising), and this in August peak tomato season. Mussels also flavorless.

And it's overpriced.

Go across the street to Ambar.

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Yuck, just like the face says. Well, not so much "yuck" as "lack of any discernible flavor at all." Tomato Mozz salad made with unripe store-bought tomatoes (despite the 'heirloom' advertising), and this in August peak tomato season. Mussels also flavorless.

And it's overpriced.

Go across the street to Ambar.

Were the tomatoes served with the receipt from Safeway or something?

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It had been many years since we had been to Belga, so my husband and I went there last night for his birthday. We had a really good meal. The options we were shown for a table included that spot in the corner by the brick wall and the window that is the "quiet" table [#33]. Good thing, too, as the restaurant started to fill up and get louder, and we got a large party seated right near us. No one was particularly loud; it's just a noisy restaurant. It has "energy."

The server described the one special they had for the night, along with price, early on. It was a ribeye with blue cheese and blue cheese sauce and fries. My husband hates blue cheese, so kind of tuned out when the description got around to that. I wasn't planning to order steak, so I guess I wasn't locked in either.. After looking over the whole menu, however, the special is what I went with. Unfortunately, enough time had passed that I forgot he said it came with a green salad, and I ordered another salad to go with my meal. We also both misheard the price he gave, thinking he said $24.95, but that 2 was actually a 3. (I think we just misheard him. There were several times I wasn't quite sure exactly what he had said.)  

The fries and plain mayo were as good as I remember them. (My husband thought they weren't quite as good, though.)  We both thought our steaks (he had the pepper steak) were noticeably salty. They were both cooked as requested (medium rare) and were tender and delicious. We just don't eat a lot of salt, so that stood out. 

He got a cold green pea soup that was wonderful. I had some and might have ordered it myself if I hadn't realized I was doubling up on the salad. The beet salad I ordered was excellent, though. It had multicolored beets, feta (?), basil, and a beet vinaigrette.  I managed not to spill any of it on me. I had sort of dressed up for the occasion and was feeling cautious about spillage. That's also why I skipped ordering mussels. 

Our bill hit $100 before tax and tip, which for a very filling celebratory meal out in DC seems reasonable. (We each had a can of $7.50 Bavik pilsner, but more or more expensive alcohol would have shot the total upward pretty quickly.)

We really shouldn't let years go by before getting back here. I remember when it opened, and it seems impossible 13 yeers have passed. They're having a 13th anniversary customer appreciation special during the month of September with $35 3-course prix fixe dinners. (It looks basically like an extension of Restaurant Week, which they are participating in starting next week.)

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