Zilte (3*, Antwerp)

Ate at Zilte tonight.

First the space is really gorgeous. Great views all around the restaurant. Cozy and the vibe is good. Also love that they use real vinyl records for background music.

I started in the lounge (some people decided to go straight to their table) with a glass of champagne. The first 4 snacks were served there and then the 5th was at the table. Bread came (3 different types) and then the actual 8 courses started. Ended with 5 petite fours in the lounge with tea (I skipped cheese). Chef came around at the end of the meal and said hello to everyone

Food was very, very good. There was one course that was a miss for me. Technically very sound, but it had pickled things + morels, which are two of my least favorites; I obviously can't fault them for my personal taste buds.

Service was good (very warm and cordial + spoke perfect English), but they missed one small thing during the evening. I ran out of water around course 5 and they didn't open a 2nd bottle automatically or even ask if I wanted one: this is a tiny thing, but someone spending ~500 euros for dinner probably isn't penny pinching the 10 euros for water.

I would note that the timing between courses is pretty long. Something like 20-25 minutes. So if you eat in like 3 or 5, then you are sort of sitting there for a while. It seems this is just their style though. I was there for 4.5 hours and one of the first upstairs. When I was in the lounge on the way out, people filtered back in pretty close to how they had arrived. Me being solo probably magnifies the time as a group would be talking/drinking while waiting for the next course.

Having eaten at Epicure, Yam'tcha, and Alliance in Paris on the first part of this trip (and knowing I have De Librje, Jordnear, and Lyst still to go) this was the perfect mid stop as Zilte doesn't do a set wine pairing, but prefers to bring you glasses whenever you want something new. The somm recommended a wonderful glass of Greek wine (super minerally and dry) for the seafood courses and when we got to mains, was able to put together a non-alcoholic red wine substitute for me. The flexability was wonderful as my liver needs a little time to dry out.

I was told that chef was going to be one of the guest chefs at Ikarus in Salzburg for April, so if you are closer to there than to Antwerp, that might be another great option to try his food.