Wagon — Restaurant in Bastogne

Ok so give me a minute here. My first impression from the outside was kind of a pub style place. . . . . right up until you get to the front door and you see the Michelin plaque. Walking through the dining room to be seated you quickly realize that this is no pub. And as the evening progresses everything keeps getting better and better and better. We ordered a prosciutto and mushroom pizza, which had the perfectly wood fired thin crust, almost cracker crisp around the edge, with just enough crunch on the bottom so it wasn't soggy. We also ordered the fish and chips, which in all honesty was alright (it was fish and chips 🤷‍♂️, kind of hard to screw up) BUT, then the tartar...... was unbelievable! I know what you're thinking. . . tartar sauce? But when I tasted it I could not understand how you could make tartar sauce that good. And then there was the filet which came with a pepper sauce that I simply cannot describe. So dinner was good, and the beers were cold.

And then we decided it was time for dessert. We almost all went for the creme brulee, after having an incredible pistachio one in Paris earlier in the week. But a brownie with caramelized bananas caught my attention, so that's what I went with. The creme brulee came in a wide shallow dish so the brulee to creme ratio is definitely in your favor. The crispy crust on top is not so thick that you're still picking it out of your teeth a half an hour later and has the perfect roasted marshmallow taste, that lingers after the smooth and creamy creme is gone. The brownie however was the spotlight of our meal! It came out sitting in a thick and creamy reduction of orange juice with three or four slices of banana placed around it, each with caramelized sugar on top. On top of the brownie was a wafer thin piece of white chocolate. And off to one side was a small scoop of orange sorbet. But inside the brownie, which I was not expecting, was a thick gooey melted chocolate. . . . "something" that I can only imagine was made from angel's wings and unicorn tears. This is a dessert that I would walk half way around...

The three stars result from previous visits with a flawless service and nice food (then: 5* - last visit, see below: 2*).

Last time however, the result was somewhat mixed: the menu in Mid-December 2022 (probably due to being seasonal) offered large selections of red meat, seafood (a bit odd for a restaurant in the Ardennes) - but hardly any chicken or vegetarian option. This resulted in the worst Pizza Margherita we've ever encountered: the tomato sauce spread over the dough seemed to be not seasoned at all - and to mask it up, lots of oregano were spilled over it, resulting in something my wife sincerely tried to enjoy, but had to give up after having eaten quite less than a quarter of it.

She complained, her complaint was taken seriously (if somewhat puzzled) by the waiter(s) and the pizza brought back to the chef who decided that it was just a perfect pizza [remark: dude, it wasn't - in Italy, the owner would have chased you away instantly for this crime against Italian cuisine].

My wild boar stew on the other hand was as nice as always, we did like the amuse bouche - but were somewhat disappointed when at paying the bill, we not only found the disastrous joke of a pizza on it, but also the lady in charge of the place defending the pizza as "one of their bestsellers". Maybe the chef just had a bad day, maybe he just forgot to season the pizza sauce - I don't care, but a small apology for the messup would have been expected.

So go to Leo if you are up to Belgian cuisine - especially for the wild boar, bearing in mind that it is a "fancy" place (which in Belgium means: more expensive). But if you fancy a pizza, do yourself a favor and visit a...

Did the misstake to book the Leo Wagon hotel and restaurant at the same time. What they did not say, at least not in English, was that Mondays are their closed day (Ruhe Tag). Nor did they email me about this. Since good cuisine is everything for us, this restaurant actually was the only reason for going to Bastogne, and actually Belgium at all. So, a detour of maybe 200 km for no use... We were of course very disapointed about this. We started concider other options.

What then happened was even worse! They charged us for the rooms! They suggested we try another restaurant, a tourist place...We said we needed some minutes to look for other options. After maybe 15 minutes I went back and said ”l’m sorry for this, but we will not stay...”. He answered that he was also sorry. I believed him. He did not say anything about that they would charge us for the rooms anyway. So imagine my surprise when I found out that they charged us full price for both the rooms! Such a shame!

And lastly... When writing to them about this (in a very polite way!) they say we did not cone back after we said we needed some time to cocider our options. Which we did! So eighther one of their employees is lying, or not telling the full story, or they are just a bad hotel/restaurant.

So unfortunately, I have warn other people for this place. It might look good on the webpage, but their attitude...