One of the most entertaining pieces of food writing this year involved an American journalist attempting to spend an entire day eating unlimited appetisers at a well-known United States chain restaurant.
Tragically, any ambitions that we had of emulating such culinary feats at the Belgian Beer Cafe were dashed almost immediately upon our arrival at the Novotel Abu Dhabi Gate’s Flemish-flecked bar/restaurant, which opened in April.
Wednesday is unlimited mussels night at the second Belgian Beer Cafe in the capital, but before we could order, our waitress informed us that they were out of mussels. Which mussels, we enquired? All of them, she replied – which, troublingly, wiped out two pages-plus of the food menu before 9pm.
Disappointment aside, the highest compliment that you can pay the Belgian Cafe is that if the signage were removed from its Abu Dhabi and Dubai outlets, visitors would struggle to notice that they are all part of the same mini-chain.
Each has its own particular character and charms: at Dubai Festival City, it’s a darkened and almost romantic haunt; the Madinat Jumeirah version has a lovely terrace; and Abu Dhabi’s long-standing contribution, at the InterContinental Hotel, feels more like a straight-up continental pub. Full disclosure: we haven’t visited the Grand Millennium’s incarnation in Dubai.
At the Novotel, higher ceilings, floor-to-ceiling glass walls and an open-plan seating conspire to make the Belgian Cafe immeasurably airier and less claustrophobic than its InterCon cousin, with a subtly different menu.
Those familiar with the Belgian Cafe concept will know the food drill: hearty continental bar-food fare with an unmistakable flavour of the country that inspired the cafe.
We decided to gain a broad taste from the variation of the Belgian “hoppetizers” platter: chicken lollipops, bitterballen, cheese and beef salami “cubes” (shape-pedant observation: they were Dairylea-sized triangles) and Belgian beef skewers. The pick of the bunch was the hefty lollipops, which were at least twice the volume of examples that we’ve sampled elsewhere.
Alongside that mini-feast, the North Sea crab cakes, topped with a hearty dollop of tomato marmalade, were pleasant though a mite bland.
Faced with that mussels shortage and a choice of five main courses that weren’t hugely inspiring, we instead turned to the grills page. The giant tiger prawns, marinated in “the chef’s secret spices”, resolutely could not be accused of breaching any trade descriptions – any larger and they conceivably could have been given their own series on the Discovery channel. The presentation was traditional but spot-on, served with garlic mayonnaise, salad and Belgian fries.
My carnivorous dining partner was entranced by the amount of cooked flesh within the surf- and-turf mixed grill: bone-in mini lamb chops, a couple of choice cuts of steak, (slightly over-salty) chicken and two king prawns for good measure. He also kept things simple, opting for another side of Belgian fries (when in, um, Brussels...) instead of the standard baked potato and maître d’hotel butter. At Dh150, it was nothing if not meaty value for money.
Continuing, culinarily speaking, in the Belgian capital, the Brussels waffle with chocolate sauce and banana arrived a little singed around the edges, but was otherwise flawless (unless you’re counting the calories). The same couldn’t be said of the apple crumble “Belgian Cafe style” with vanilla ice cream – you could have grouted a wall with the overdone crumble, while the fruit beneath was similarly dried out.
It was a disappointing finish, then, to match the (un)limited mussels downer. If such blips can be ironed out, however, for ambience and general satisfaction, this particular Belgian Beer Cafe will comfortably usurp its across-city cousin.
• A meal for two at Belgian Beer Cafe, Novotel Abu Dhabi Gate, Abu Dhabi, costs Dh638. For more information, call 02 508 9999. Reviewed meals are paid for by The National and conducted incognito
aworkman@thenational.ae