L'Amour Fou

Date of visit: January 2012

Cuisine: Belgo-American

Price range: $

Rating: 3/5

Ambience: this little restaurant is located just opposite the Place Fernand Cocq, in the Ixelles area. The concept is that of an American diner serving Belgian food and the atmosphere is very informal, with large and small tables grouped quite close together, no tablecloths and bottles of mayo, mustard and ketchup as the only centrepieces. When we visited it at lunch time, the customers were mainly families with children and young people. There is only one main dining room, which is part of a period building and has high ceilings with cornicing and ceiling roses; oddly enough, someone has decided to hang massive planks of wood from the ceilings, covering up the splendour of the original décor and obtaining a final effect that leaves a lot to be desired. This is the only fault I could find, other than that the walls are decorated with cool prints in bright colours and as long as you avoid looking up at the ceiling, the place looks cool and pleasant.

Food: the restaurant's speciality are the burgers, with 13 different kinds on the menu. Most of them come with divine Belgian frites (fries), made fresh and with the skin on - this place is worth visiting for the frites alone, I reckon! A few of the burgers come with cajun wedges, which are soggy and disappointing. The menu includes small dishes to share such as nachos, quesadillas and mezzes, a few salads and three or four main dishes that are not burgers. I ordered the "Pêchon" burger, i.e. a deliciously fresh white fish fillet in a light, crispy batter, sandwiched between a fragrant bun, with a home made tartare sauce and baby watercress leaves. It was faultless, to the point that although I always try to order different things from the menu when I visit a restaurant for the second time, in this case I will have to chose this dish again! My boyfriend went for the "Canard déchaîné" burger, which consists of a patty made of duck meat, served with hoisin sauce, spring onions and cucumber in a white bun. He loved it, but thought there was still room for improvement: one, the cucumber came in a single, massive thick slice which did not blend well with the other flavours; and two, it was served with the mediocre potato wedges instead of the outstanding frites.  

Service: the staff were all people in their early twenties, who apparead to struggle a bit to keep up with the orders once the restaurant became full. They did not seem prepared to make any particular effort to please the customers, either: when my boyfriend asked whether his duck burger could be served with frites instead of potato wedges, the answer was just "sorry, no changes". How difficult could have been to accommodate this small request? Instead, they suggested he ordered an additional portion of frites, which he did; however, the waitress failed to communicate this to the kitchen with the result that we had to remind her that we were still waiting for the frites, and they were brought to the table once we had finished our meal, with no apologies. Poor. 

Drinks: good selection of Belgian beer, wine and soft drinks. The mint tea is made with fresh mint leaves and the coffee is really good, too. 

Damage: Our bill for two burgers, one portion of fries, two Oranginas, one beer and two coffees came to €44. 

Verdict: this is a great place to visit for an informal lunch with friends, when you are not afraid to use your hands to eat, you don't mind waiting a while for your food and don't expect silver service. With these conditions and because of the delicious food, I would go again. 

Address: 185, Chaussée d'Ixelles, 1050 Brussels. www.lamourfou.be