Eating out in Bruges

To describe Bruges as the Venice of the North is about as daft as positing poetry as the new rock ‘n roll, or the colour grey as the new brown, or skate as the new monkfish. Bruges is brilliant because – well, because it’s Bruges. In 2002 the city shared with Salamanca the laurels of European City of Culture. Once the associated jollities were over, the worst of the tourist throngs retreated, things settled down again and collections (such as that of the Groeninge Museum) which were out on loan to make way for special 2002 exhibitions came home to roost.
 
Bruges is accessible – Brussels is next door, Paris is not far, and you can do lunch from London. Best of all, the city has some excellent hotels and restaurants in which to take refuge from its frequently dismal weather. The Hotel De Snippe is more of a restaurant avec chambres than a serious hotel. The rooms are fine, but that’s not really the point. If you’re overcome by lust at lunchtime, or if you simply want to lay your head somewhere after a spectacular dinner, De Snippe will do the business. But it’s the food that will probably draw you back. 

Don’t come here if you want minimalist Starck-chic décor and char-grilled bits of this and that. The experience is more akin to dining in someone’s home – an eighteenth-century mayor’s town house to be precise,  complete with swags and chandeliers, deep plush carpets and candelabra. Chef Luc Huysentruyt’s speciality is seriously skilful French cooking using local ingredients. The handful of employees have clearly never heard of demarcation disputes: everyone turns their hand to almost everything. The same cheerful, smiling, multilingual chap (proficient in Flemish, French, German, English and doubtless other tongues) who carried our bags upstairs on arrival was reincarnated as head waiter and chief carver later on. The next morning he was on breakfast duty too.  

On our last visit, the €71 (£45) menu, while not exactly a snip, represented good value for money: first there was a marbled affair of foie gras and oxtail surrounded with tiny diced beet, followed by a gorgeous galette of scallops and potatoes with an intriguing white balsamic vinegar jus. The John Dory was crusty and spicy and set on a bed of vegetable spaghetti with sun-dried tomatoes. Game is a high point at the restaurant (Snippe means snipe), and our main dish was a saddle of venison shaved with great dexterity before our eyes onto piping hot plates and served with candied prunes, wild cranberries and salsify. 

The pudding (iced cassata with soft meringue and crème brulee with raspberries) would appeal to those who favour variations on the ile flottante theme. For an additional €25 (£15) you can have wines to match the dishes. Our eclectic selection included a Loire white (Reuilly), a curiously successful Belgian Chardonnay (yes, really) and a fruity Barbera from da Alfieri.  

A visit to Bruges would be unthinkable without a modicum of moules and frites. The best are to be had just off the market square at Breydel and De Koninck, a small, cosy restaurant named after the town’s best-known heroes. The portions of moules are heroic indeed – 1.2kg of mussels per person (the restaurant gets through between 70 and 100 kilos of molluscs every day). Old hands order one between two and the waiters barely raise an eyebrow. 

To drink, you can go the usual Muscadet-with-shellfish route, but a zappy Brugs Blond, brewed in the town, is much more fun with your mussel feast. Also delectable is the classic Flemish fish stew waterzooi, featuring five different kinds of local fish (sole, salmon, langoustines, shrimps and monkfish on a recent visit) bathed in a velvety stock-based sauce richly mounted with butter and cream, and so yellow you’d swear it was groaning with egg yolks.  

Skip the puddings and head round the corner to Robert van Oost’s terrific chocolate shop on Wollestraat to stock up on superbly packaged pralinés before you head home.

Hotel-Restaurant De Snippe, 
Nieuwe Gentweg 53, 
B-8000 Brugge
Tel. +32 50 33 70 70
Fax +32 50 33 76 62
desnippe@relaischateaux.com

Breydel & De Koninck,
Breydelstraat 24,
B-8000 Brugge
Tel. +32 50 33 97 46
Fax +32 50 34 61 74