't Oud Handbogenhof — Restaurant in Bruges

We arrived at our hotel in Bruges at 1730 on a rainy evening and asked our hotel owner for a recommendation of a good restaurant close to the hotel. They recommend this restaurant and we made a reservation for 1900.

During our arrival the design of the restaurant is old Flemish 1800s comfortable with a central fireplace small bar and about 7 round tables. The hostess probably one of the owners greeted us as if my wife and I were a bother to her. She abruptly provided us with 2 menus and an explanation of the 2 Chefs specials for the evening. We ordered a bottle of wine and ordered one of the Chefs specials represented as salmon and white fish in a mussel sauce.

The main course was served in a square dish extremely hot to the point that the sauce was bubbling which is dangerous with no notification or warning from our waitress. The sauce was a very thick white cream which was not representative of any type of muscle sauce that i have ever seen with a few shucked mussels encased within the sauce with one or two shrimp. Placed in the center of the dish was a small salmon and cod fillet abutting one another.

The presentation was uninspiring and the combination of the sauce and fish would have been more appropriate to have been served over linguine with with either cod or salmon but not both since the taste of each is so different from the other. My wife also found 5 large bones in her cod which for a professionally filleted prepared fish is unacceptable.

My wife advised the waitress/owner that the meal was unacceptable secondary to all of the bones that were encountered and that the taste was poor. The waitress/owner was abrupt with us concerning our comments and said "fish has bones " like we didn't know that fish has bones how patronizing. My wife then asked to try the onion soup and the waitress/owner said you probably wouldn't like it. She abruptly corked our bottle of wine asked us to pay the check and leave which we were more than happy to do.

My recommendation would be to avoid this restaurant at all costs unless you would like to pay for bad service and overpriced poorly prepared food.

Better service and food for the price maybe found at Vlaminck 14, Le Panire D'Or and La Civiere D'Or in...

Quaint restaurant catering to locals and the occasional overnight tourist. Pleasant jazz covers on the stereo and some historic and classy decor on the walls. As someone else commented you should surely go with the special. Seafood dishes in Brugge have a very flavorful broth that is to die for. Our fish meal today was a combination of salmon, whitefish, mussels, leaks and a bit of cheese is a majestic fish broth that had just a hint of creaminess to it. The Flemish beef stew with a side of fries is good and very mild for those with a sensitive stomach. Both dishes came with fries that go well with the sauce in the main dish. Also, an outlier from our time in Brugge was the exceptional side salad. All other side salads we had downtown should immediately be dumped in the canal as they seem to have all come from the same bag from the grocery. The side salad here however was quite lovely with tomatoes, fresh ingredients and a delicious dressing. Again, this spot is for locals, come with that in mind and you will enjoy some delicious food and a...

Chef's special was obviously a few days old. I attempted to eat it anyway as we had arrived on a cold and rainy Monday evening. But after I ran into the 4th large bone I gave up. I should have taken a photo to show how large the bones were, but it was disgusting.

The rude, miserable waitress woman barked that "fish have bones!"

I admit that we were just arriving from 5 nights in Paris, but I didn't expect that the food would be attrotious. I suppose I should be thankful I didn't get...