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Restaurant Review - De Karmeliet
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| Food Type |
French |
| Food rating |
9/10 (More information) |
| Address |
Langestraat 19
Bruges
Belgium
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| Phone Number |
0 50 33 82 59 |
| Price |
120
(What I paid per head) |
| Average Price |
£120
(Average price per head for meal and house wine ) |
| Website |
Website |
| Last Visited |
01/04/2002 |
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| My Review |
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After passing through a modern entrance there is a lounge, and further back an attractive conservatory looking onto a garden. Here you browse the menu and have a drink. The dining rooms are upstairs, three rooms in a classical town-house style, with high ceilings and traditional Victorian-style décor. Amuse guele included a pea gelee, some red mullet and a little marinated salmon on some excellent cucumber (still, amuse guele only 8/10). Bread is rather ordinary (5/10), both brown, white and seed rolls. However a starter of risotto with morels was perfect, the morels of the highest quality, the chicken stock superb (10/10).
For main course we shared white asparagus with fresh morels, arranged with a smooth creamy sabayon of potato inside the “fence” of asparagus, all in a chicken juice perfumed with nutmeg with a few perfect shrimps, with some basil oil and squid ink juices for decoration (9/10).
For dessert a chocolate soufflé was as perfect as it could be (10/10). Petit fours were stunning: rum baba topped with a single pistachio, a mini apple tart, truffles, a strawberry tart all truly out of the top drawer. Cheese was stunning, the cheeses in perfect condition e.g. superb Munster, aged Comte, some delightful goats cheeses and a soft blue – that rare thing - a 10/10 cheese board.
For lunch the folliwing day a risotto of asparagus was also excellent. For main course I had chicken with morels, six slices of chicken stuffed with truffle on a bed of peas and broad beans, with a single piece of asparagus. Again cheese was stunning. The desserts and petit fours (same as last night) were again the best feature here. Coffee was also excellent.
Service on both days was very good, but not faultless. The wine list was good, with a bargain of Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon. Generally wine prices were less steep than London.
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16/08/2010 19:39:50 - jhminer (usa)
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| my experience was similar to that mentioned in the other reviews. i wish i had read them first and could have saved myself 250 euros for lunch. the combination of flavors of the amuses bouche, the entrees, and the plats was so unimpressive that i can't remember what i ate (despite being given a souvenir menu). the service was stiff and de rigueur. the only compensation was that i met some lovely people at tables next to mine. do yourself a favor and avoid making the same mistake.
if you wish to have a light and flavorful lunch, go to l'hotellerie st-nicolas in elverdinge (outside ypres). much friendlier staff, too. |
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01/04/2010 - Louise (UK)
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| My partner and I have eaten in many 1,2 and 3 star restaurants all over the world and our experience at De Karmaliet was beyond disappointing to say the least. The service was truly abysmal and the food would have been mediocre for a 1 star, let alone a 3 star. Complaints to both Michelin and the restaurant fell on deaf ears. I would advise anyone looking to dine out in Bruges to save £500 (the cost of our meal for two) and have moules and frites at a local eatery instead. On a more positive note, I am really pleased to see that Auberge du vieux Puits - 11360 FONTJONCOUSE, France has finally been awarded 3 stars. Fantastic restaurant, we go every year, the food and service is exceptionally good. |
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23/09/2008 - Leigh (Australia)
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| Dined here on 5 September for lunch with my wife. We both had the veal cutlets which we were both underwhelmed by, to be honest. However, the desserts more than compensated - I had (as I recall) a poached pear with gold foil, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but the millefeulle my wife had (and I tasted) was indescribably good. As if this wasn't enough, we also received an assortment of petit fours which we barely had room for - we took the option of moving to the lounge area outside the dining room, with a view of the garden, to enjoy with our coffees. Highly recommended. |
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21/08/2008 - Dolores (USA)
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| My husband and I dined here the evening of 7 May 2008 and were not impressed with the experience. The food was good, but not worth the 526 Euros that we paid, and that was for a very light meal. The meals we enjoyed at Chateau des Monthairons near Verdun far exceeded our meal at De Karmeliet, at a fraction of the cost. |
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17/05/2008 - sinbarambam ()
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| We had lunch here in May 2008 and were disappointed. This was (by a very large margin) the least enjoyable 3* meal we had. I posted a full review on tripadvisor. We were glad we had opted for the cheaper lunch menu (due to the mixed reports we'd read) but still found it overpriced. |
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18/02/2008 - Mark Thompson (Switzerland)
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| We dined at De Karmeliet in December 2007. Our table ordered the seven course 'Brugge Die Scone' menu. Our group really enjoyed the food at De Karmeliet, in fact it was preferred to Hof van Cleve the previous night, which will surprise many people. My two favorite dishes were: 1)roasted prawns with ravioli of glazed pig's head and 2) venison in a crust of wild mushrooms.
Some of the service was very good, but half the time it was bad. Not at all representitive of any high end restaurant (any star, not just 3). The pacing in between courses was erratic, the main server rarely made eye contact, .. I believe the service is the most controllable part of the dining experience, so it is disappointing when it is so far from perfect. |
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12/01/2008 - Claire & John Boggis (England)
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| having planned our visit here for Christmas day, it was due to be the highlight of our trip and so the mediocrity of the restaurant was all the more disappointing. there was no atmosphere, despite being full and we could only conclude this was because other diners were speechless as we were after a tray of cold "appetisers" followed by four seafood starters, 3 of which were also chilled (clearly prepared ahead for Christmas Day but distinctly lacking in cheer). the first of the starters featured a sea urchin which I passed over but my partner who loves seafood actually retched when tasting it. the faces of other diners and unfinished plates meant we were clearly not the only ones who felt this way. the main course was as small as it was uninteresting and we were left wondering how on earth it achieved any Michelin stars, let alone 3! the 529 euro bill for a set meal with wine was redeemed only by the dainty and delicious desserts and excellent wine recommendations. we would not eat here again, having found a very unpretentious and classy meal at the Duc de Bourgogne around the corner, which with tasteful Christmas decorations and old fashioned top class service was a far cry from De Karmeliet and not far off half the price! |
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23/11/2007 - Cameron Clark (Netherlands)
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| Having eaten here twice this year its clear that the best thing
about this place is its size. 80 covers means that there is a much greater
chance of getting in here than any of the other top places in the Benelux.
That's good to know, but also comes with a price. The very best food, like
wine, is served in small amounts and although this is a great place to
come, its not up to the standard of Oude Sluis or Librije and a 2* rating
would seem to be more appropriate. The standard of the 2 visits also
indicates that consistency is a bit of a problem. At a 7 course lunch in June,
with only 12 or so other guests, the plates flew at us from the kitchen
and we had to pretend to still be eating in order to stop the next from
coming. It definitely felt like the boys in the kitchen wanted an
afternoon off. A dinner on a Sat in Nov was completely different: 5 and a
half hours to enjoy a very good 8 course meal surrounded by the buzz a
full restaurant can bring. Food wise its very classical and the modern
cooking techniques are left well and truly in the cookbooks - only 1 piece
of foam over 8 dishes. The wine list is more modern though and although
there are some terrible mark-ups on Bordeaux and the big names, if you
search you can drink well for a fair price - 60 Euros for 06 Polish Hill
Riesling from Grosset for example. Good, but its going to have to improve
if it is to keep up with the competition.
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