Restaurant Review: Fin du Siècle

This is the last of my Brussels series for now, but it looks like I'm set to spend a lot more time in Brussels, so there may be more later.  I went to this little French gem, Fin du Siècle, after a work meeting with a couple of work colleagues and a Spanish gentleman from my client's side too. It was actually his suggestion to come to this restaurant, and we happily followed. After all, who says no to good food? 

The restaurant is quite spacious by Brussels standards, but it was rapidly filling up and we somehow managed to get in early enough before queues started forming. What a lucky break! We even got a table where I could fit my little rolling suitcase and all our backpacks of stuff. There's no menu at the restaurant, so the thing to do is stroll to the bar area and read the chalkboard with today's items. Or, as our Spanish dinner companion ingeniously did, take a picture of the board and bring it back for the table to read together. 

I ordered the Lapin à la Kriek (Rabbit in Cherry Beer), pictured above. When I seemed hesitant about ordering the Rabbit because of the beer, the hostess was quick to assure me all the alcohol would be burned off. She must have somehow noticed my religious affiliation, because when I inquired about the Jambon Os (Ham on the bone), she immediately told me it was a pork dish. So I went with the rabbit, which I thought had a nice balanced, light flavour. I was glad it came with lots of vegetables on the side, because I feel like restaurants never serve you enough vegetables. My only complaint on the rabbit is that it was a little chewy. Rabbits have little fat, so they must be cooked for a long time in order for the meat to be tender. 

My Spanish dinner companion, definitely went for the Jambon Os, pictured below. I was rather impressed he chose to eat a ham dish in Belgium. Spaniards are some of the pickiest ham eaters on the planet. This was his usual dish at this restaurant, so definitely knew what he was getting into. Ergo it must be superb. 

My colleague L went for a Vegan Moussaka. I must say, I spotted a lot of restaurants with this on the menu. It must be quite the trendy dish. It does look delicious. Plus, hey....salad!!! Woohoo, another score for vegetables with dinner.

My colleague H, who seems to have a palette for good food, went for a steak with salad and vegetables. Another score for vegetables served at restaurants! He was quite pleased with his dish too.

In fact, we were all so pleased that we decided dessert should be our natural next step. There were a lot of interesting desserts on the menu, and we unanimously decided to order 4 different desserts and share. So we ordered a creme brulee, a speculoos (spiced shortcrust biscuit) tiramisu, a chocolate cake, and a chocolate mousse. 

We also had a little social experiment with our dessert. We started by having the dessert we ordered and after 3 bites, rotated to the right. After two full rotations, we consulted on who preferred which dessert. Magically, in nearly all cases, we preferred the dessert we had ordered and the last half of the dessert was eaten by the person who ordered it (with one welfare improving switch between two people). 

So naturally, I preferred the creme brulee I ordered. In fact, it was the only sweet food in Belgium I actually enjoyed. That perfect caramel crust, with the soft vanilla custard underneath. Not too sweet, and so balanced. The speculoos tiramisu was a great idea in theory, but in practice it was too bland. It needed coffee and something a bit acidic to balance out the richness of the mascarpone. 

The molten chocolate cake had a lovely texture and was perfectly cooked, but I felt it was much too sweet and couldn't manage more than one bite. The chocolate mousse was really bland and the chocolate wasn't dark enough for my taste. When I eat a chocolate mousse, I expect a dark chocolate, and I also expect to feel a mousse texture, rather than something quite buttery that slides around your mouth with no distinction. I thought that mousse was more chocolate pudding than mousse. 

The service was ok, but a little rushed and inattentive, likely due to the small number of staff compared to the large number of diner patrons. They also only take cash, which is pain when you're travelling in and trying to make sure to find a cash machine. But overall, definitely a restaurant to return to, given the quality of the food. Try to get an early seat before the crowd arrives! Google tells me the wait time can up to 45 minutes. Prices here are also reasonable for Brussels. 

Fin du Siècle

Rue des Chartreux 9, 1000 

Bruxelles, Belgium