For my birthday this year, I wanted something extra special for dinner. I had my daughter visiting from Montreal and it was the first birthday in 5 years i was spending with her. So needless to say, it had to be a good one!

I’d repeatedly heard about La Bonne Chère from different sources and they always came back with very positive comments. But once I read Cedric Dassonville’s (chef and part time Viking at Coquum) account of his incredible meal there, that was it, I needed to book a table. I also loved their motto on their website: “Dieu donne la viande, le diable les cuisiniers”. Translation: “God gives us meat, the Devil gives us cooks”. I knew I was in for a good time!

La Bonne Chère now inhabits the previous l’Idiot de Village restaurant. The name had always stuck with me, since in english it means: The Village Idiot (which is an expression I’ve been known to use!). It’s situated on a side street of rue Haute in Les Marolles, near La Chapelle and Sablon. A small room welcomes you with intimate lighting a just a few tables. There’s a small closed terrace in the back as well. In the evening, you can choose from a eight course menu for 80 euros or choose à la carte. Since we wanted a little of everything, we went à la carte.

The chef started the meal with a beautiful creation as an appetizer, which was a little piece of art all on it’s own. We were presented with crunchy mini-cones filled with goose liver and fish roe and a meat filled salty waffles. The starters were absolutely mind blowing. I was very happy for braving the roasted octopus and black pudding, the flavor combination was incredible. At the table we also had ox tail in celeriac cannelloni and pork filled raviolis with lovage and bottarga. Since it was hop shoot season (which only lasts a couple of weeks a year), we had the honor of having this delicacy served with an oeuf parfait and a mousseline sauce.

As mains, we shared sweet breads, which were beautifully crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, aged beef with pommes Anna, skrei (winter cod) with wild rice and the biggest pork chop I’d ever seen, it felt like it was from an episode from the Flintstones! Needless to say, everything was cooked and presented perfectly.

I won’t go too much into details for desserts, otherwise I’ll need an extra page to write on! But it’s a beautiful thing when at the end of a meal, you trust the kitchen so much that you can say; “Bring one of everything!” There was chocolate mousse, a Herve cheese cake, sorbets and even a pain perdu flambé with kirsch. We ate it all!

La Bonne Chère is high up on my list and should be tested and retested without moderation. Not only was the food spectacular, not to mention the wines, but the staff was great. They really made us feel at home and they really enjoy their work.

Congratulations to you La Bonne Chère, you deserve all the success hard work and passion merits!

La Bonne Chère
Rue Notre-Seigneur 19
Brussels, 1000
Call them at 02 523 75 55

Open Tuesday to Friday for lunch and Tuesday to Saturday for dinner.

A special thanks to Shamless_days for her food photography.