L'Epicerie, Liège...

... Or how to enjoy a refined dinner with refined minds,...

Rue de la Boucherie 9

4000 LIEGE

Tél. : +32 4.223.02.22

http://sites.resto.com/lepicerie/

Some weeks ago, I finally accepted the invitation of my Belgian friend, Christian, and we headed to his home town, Liège, 2h driving from Haarlem.

We arrived for lunch and ate with hunger a beautiful and tender steak with french fries, in a bistrot in the center!

After a long and nice tour in town, we joined some friends of him for dinner at l'Epicerie, a new restaurant with an Italian style.

I have to say, that the first thing I liked was the place, an old butchery place from Middle Age, where we can still see the appearing stones,... the renovated work was elegant and modern, but letting all the expression of history everywhere.

Nadia and Thomas, were the friends that brought us there, I have to thank them for this great choice! 

The service was a little bit sharp at the beginning, but the verve of Thomas, and his delicate sense of humour based on a artistic use of the language (a quality that all French speaking Belgian seems to inherit), broke the ice and achieved to make our waiters relax and smile!

A second obstacle to our enjoyment was in the menu,... the menu was saying that if someone wants to take the menu, everybody at the table has to do it. Strange and new rule to me!!!! The menu was looking great, but I found further, a couple of amazing dishes, that literally induced me! We politely asked if we could have 3 menus and 1 "à la carte" dinner,... the waiter went to ask to the chef in the kitchen, we all hold our breathe 5 minutes, before, we were finally said that there was no problem!!!!

Then, I just went to 2 dishes that was sounding really appealing: salade de homard à la truffe et herbes folles, (lobster salad with truffles and baby leaves) and ris de veau, émulsion de topinambours et ravioli au boudin (veal sweetbread, jerusalem artichoke espuma and black pudding ravioli),...

Dishes came, with the just in time timing, the wine was nice, and the conversation was smooth and exciting!

Our starters were made with truffle oil,... the flavour was so strong,... I love truffles! I love this delicate and strong at the same time flavour, this luxury product coming directly from the earth, well hidden at the bottom of the trees,...

My dinner was surrounded by this flavour all the time,... and I just let my mind flows and enjoyed this perfect moment: warm and smooth wine, intellectual and funny conversation, delicate bites,... 

I perhaps did not say that I really liked it? I do have a drawback, for the sweetbread dish,... it was great prepared and cooked, but, the black sausage ravioli was too strong to go perfectly with it,... sweetbread and Jerusalem artichoke were making a very nice match,... the black sausage was too much,... some crumbs spread on the top of the sweetbread would have been enough!

Don't forget to book my first wine tastings in May in Haarlem! For more info click here!