Belgian Beer Cafe Oostende
On Rundle St, in the oost ende of the city.
Traditional Belgian seafood cream bisque w local fish, shellfish, garlic croutons, fresh herb & rocket salad.
I should get extra croutons for my correct pronunciation VAH-ter-zoy.
The base of the soup is pleasant and creamy, if slightly basic. The problem here is that nothing goes together to form something bigger. The big rings of squid are tasteless, and the rocket is bitter and a completely different texture to the soup.
The creamy soup is the major component here, but it just doesn't have enough flavour to make all kind of other unflavoured items (squid, rocket, prawns etc) tasty.
The garlic croutons are potent and off putting, and there's just far too much seafood on this dish, most of which is squid.
Chocolate cup filled w Belgian white chocolate mousse, fairy floss & strawberry mint salad.
The star of the show here isn't the mousse, it's the strawberry and mint swamp in the bottom of the plate. The preserved strawberries and mint combine to create a kind of a liqueur taste. The mousse gets completely lost here, and could just as easily have been ice cream. This fine Belgian mousse did do its job as a bulking agent for the much more interesting strawberry tastes, however.