Le Fourneau, Brussels

We had a superb meal out last night in Brussels at Le Fourneau. It has been our best meal out whilst on holiday.

The restaurant is very open plan, to the extent that the vast majority of tables in the restaurant are located at the bar looking into the kitchen which is where we also dined.

There was a nice ambience to the restaurant with funky music playing lightly in the background.

Jane had the 7 course tapas (which was actually a degustation) and I went with 3 courses of lobster (lobster salad, lobster bisque and a half lobster in veal jus); EUR45 and EUR35 respectively. The meals were all beautifully presented, perfectly cooked, flavoursome, fresh and it was obvious that pride was taken in the delivery of each dish.

Jane also had a selection of desserts to finish that she enjoyed.

In terms of service, in general the wait staff were superb except for one waiter who in addition to not correctly taking our order also missed off putting an item on it later (which we pointed out). The food all arrived in a timely manner.

We would very happily return.

Sidart, Ponsonby

I hadn't heard about Sidart until I saw them receive the accolade of Metro's Best New Restaurant in Auckland for 2010, early in the year.  Since then, they had been on my To Do list and for my birthday Jane booked us in for what was to be a superb meal.

Located upstairs in the dated Three Lamps Plaza in Ponsonby overlooking Auckland city, Sidart has seating for ~34 people.  Seating is not as private as some other top restaurants in Auckland, however this did not detract from the meal.

A 7 course tasting menu was on offer, of which we could order any items as entrees or mains if we desired, but we opted to go for the 7 course degustation; I also decided to go with the accompanying wines.

Each dish was prepared with love and a lot of thought.  The accompanying wines also worked well, and were generously poured.  From manuka & coffee-smoked dishes where there was a glass over the meat and the smoke released at the table to creative morsels such as crab ice-cream, soy & mirin whip and inky black parsnip puree, each dish was something special.  I was expecting a bit more molecular gastronomy but was not at all disappointed in each of the fine dishes I was presented with.

We thought there may have been an amuse bouche and possibly a palette cleanser such as a sorbet but this was not to be.

From a service perspective the wait staff were exceptional and explained each dish in immense detail including being able to answer any probing questions we had along the way.  In terms of the wine, our waiter explained the characteristics of each wine and why it was a good match.  The food arrived in a timely manner and the wait between courses was quite appropriate.

It was a magnificent meal and we will very happily return.