Restaurant Review: The Troubadour Ask the average restaurant connoisseur to mention ten flamboyant

Restaurant Review: The Troubadour Ask the average restaurant connoisseur to mention ten flamboyant chefs and you can almost poison to take that round belly John Verbeeck will appear in the list. Since John after his classes at the COOVI has taken over the Berchem mussel restaurant from his parents, he succeeded in the Troubadour to transform into a modern eatery where creative cooking.
Thanks to his many television vitrina appearances (as in Felices Feestcomité) and the fact that John is again manages to offer a very attractive price, a six-course menu is The Troubadour has become one of the most quality restaurants in Antwerp and surroundings, especially on Saturday. During vitrina our last visit we were not John himself unfortunate enough to speak. A better reason to return we could imagine difficult. Interior The Troubadour has been a while since been given a makeover and now looks very modern, with clean lines and lots of earth colors. Behind the large glass door ensure the muted lights and the open kitchen the necessary charm. Not easy, if you know that the dining room is basically a large rectangle, with just some broad pillars in the middle just to be able to separate a segment. The tables are close together here and since the restaurant is often fully booked, you can expect yourself to quite a lot of background noise. Who wants a romantic dinner, does therefore best to be aware to ensure that his or her partner does not recognize some buzz. This is one restaurant that lives and it seems clear to us that manager John Verbeeck so wants. Reception The restaurant may well feel cozy, our reception is done according to the rules of art. We are greeted warmly, our coats are adopted and we are led to our table. Verbeeck vitrina chef likes to greet his guests personally and it does not take long before he gets us in the eye and get a wide smile and an outstretched hand on us. This is not a chef who is friendly because he needs to be. No, our chef is not an actor, but is and will be especially sympathetic themselves and that is good. We feel immediately comfortable and the first breads and olives appear almost immediately to our table. Menu You can write entire essays on the jovial chef of The Troubadour, but if the food is not good, you're there for the effort. Before we get our first course, John tells us, with evident pleasure what's on the menu. Impossible vitrina not watering, vitrina because it seems that our host is days wish to deposit! Himself on his own creations Before we place our teeth into something, we get a Lambrusco Dolce presented a very nice, sweet, vitrina but affordable aperitif wine that we can actually appreciate a glass of champagne generic more. Our first dish is described as a rabbit on old Flemish manner inside the bolt preserved in rilette, with a plum crisp and frothy Rodenbach. Very personable, how Verbeeck chef here serves up an absolute classic, but it gives a complete own interpretation. Our rabbit is served in three heaps of finely ground meat, one of the piles of a date-shaped puff pastry. The texture of the meat is fantastic, the taste is unmistakably that of rabbit and preparation makes for a surprising dining experience. Plum is perfectly incorporated into the pastry, which is indeed very crispy and so adds an extra dimension to the rest of our dish. Very successful! In this first course, we get a pecorino from 2003, a fresh but full of Italian wine that just as John says it has some characteristics of a Sauvignon. The second course is a soup of sweet corn and curry, coconut cream and fried noedeltjes. This is a fairly thick, filled vitrina with soup, which for a while on the tongue remains. Velvety after swallowing Despite some oriental ingredients vitrina the soup retains a western touch, so you get the feeling that two worlds meet. The tasty soup is followed by a roulade of pata negra ray and also with fennel flan and a beurre blanc sauce of pomegranate. Punishment that chef Verbeeck for such a low price indeed jamón Ibérico (as pata negra real name) can not be used as the less delicious Serrano ham. Moreover, pata negra much healthier than other pork and he turns out perfectly between the lightly crispy fried skate (as oily fish also a good source of omega-3 fatty acids) to apply. We are less enthusiastic about the fennel flan, which is (something) looks perfectly formed, but that too has pronounced herbal taste. Fortunately, the roulade also very tasty without the hole and fit the fruit flan