Fiskebar in Antwerpen

In 2012 in November (c.4 years ago as I am writing this) we did a small road trip in Belgium to Bruges and Antwerpen. I did not find any places to rave about in Bruges but I did enjoy a very nice dinner in a restaurant in Antwerpen called Fiskebar. I have checked the more recent reviews now and as they are still good, I figured I would jot down our experience quickly too. 

Marnixplaats 11

2000 Antwerpent

tel: 032571357

http://fiskebar.be/

We like lively venues and this was just that. It also got livelier as the night went on, which was absolutely lovely. The ambiance was of a wine bar/ cosy restaurant. Rather dark but not too much. Not too fancy. Relaxing. The staff was great! 

We started with a plate of oysters and some nice white wine. 

Then we got some...you guessed it! Fish! 

It was not revolutionary but it was well prepared and cooked and the flavours worked together. We loved the restaurant! 

would love to go back to see how it is now. 

Restaurants to try: Antwerpen

As usual, we turned to the NYTimes travel section when looking for travel tips and advice before our Antwerpen trip.I did not make it to all the restos they recommend so I quickly quote them here, as I want to remember to go there next time

This is from the article A Fashion-Forward guide to Antwerp: 

"Graanmarkt 13’s restaurant is overseen by the young, talented chef Seppe Nobels, who trained at Michelin star establishments (Graanmarkt 13; 23-3-337-7991;www.graanmarkt13.be). By day it serves country club food like caviar and club sandwiches; at night Mr. Nobels offers modern versions of European classics like beef carpaccio with foie gras and pork cheeks cooked sous-vide with spring vegetables.

Antwerp’s local fashion crowd and academy students tend to hang out and drink coffee at either Biologisch Dynamische Bakkerij (Volkstraat 17; 32-3-216-0042), a cozy organic bakery and cafe, or the Cafe ‘In de Roscam’ (Vrijdagmarkt 12; 32-486-425-606), which hosts a festive Sunday brunch.

Almost a year before the anticipated May opening of the Museum aan de Stroom, the museum’s ground-floor Storm cafe (Hanzestedenplaats 5; 32-3-231-4300; cafe-storm.com) started drawing crowds of locals curious to check on the building’s progress. And they keep returning — for the harbor views, tasty sandwiches and, on occasional Saturday nights, live music."

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised when now I saw from 'restaurants we recommend' in the NY Travel section Chez Fred being one of the 8 top restaurants and having a New York Times pick. Go Fred!  

Antwerpen: Chez Fred

So I discovered a new city - Antwerpen. I had been reading about it for a while and people keep telling me to go there. So we went. A mere 2.5h drive from Luxembourg, it is a perfect weekend getaway destination.

We stayed in a wonderful hotel (more about that in another post) and they recommended great places to eat. For Sunday lunch/ brunch we ended up going to Chez Fred. It felt a little bit ironic, driving to Amsterdam, to go to a French restaurant, but it looked wonderful and had nice french old music as the background, and we stayed.

Oh, were we glad we stayed!  We saw two women by the window having the most delicious looking breakfast. That's exactly what we wanted after a night out! So I asked,"what are they having".Our waiter guy answered: "breakfast". It could have been snobby but, no, he was just honest, and it was what he said... breakfast. We have not found many places in Luxembourg where to get breakfast on a Sunday at 12 so we wanted that, breakfast.

And this is what it was.

We started off with fresh orange juice.

Then we got the breakfast platter + an egg (not seen in the photo)

A glass of cherry beer:

After which they brought a basket of croissants and jam. They were sooo fresh and warm that I completely forgot about taking a photo. And then, of course, coffee:

For the admirers of women in lingerie, this place is a special treat as there were huge photo prints by Marc Lagrange. If you do not know him, google him! I'd like to say that a style close to Helmut Newton....

A place to remember, and to return!

Chez Fred
Kloosterstraat 83
Antwerpen