Bistro Refter — Restaurant in Bruges

My husband and I have gone to Bistro Refter before and had such a great meal we decided to go back on our second trip to Bruges.

Food: The menu is filled with traditional Belgian dishes you would eat at home. The nice thing is that they take a classic and bring it to restaurant quality without overdoing it. We ordered the main/dessert combo. For mains we ordered the Bouletten and the Kalfstong. The bouletten dish had three large meatballs and the tomato sauce was very tasty with mushrooms. The kalfstong (veal tongue) was in a maderia sauce and absolutely delicious. We both ordered our mains with a side of french fries which were cooked to perfection. I can still still taste the mayo that they served the french fries. It was so yummy and like no other I¹ve ever had. For dessert we both ordered the dame blanche which is vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce which was great. It¹s a classic that they did beautifully.

Drinks: We ordered two glasses of cava and two bottles of flat water.

Price: 79.00 EUR for two people.

Ambiance: The restaurant is very casual and has a buzz to it as soon as you walk in. It doesn¹t feel like a tourist trap like many of the other restaurants in Bruges do.

Service: The service is very friendly. It may feel like they're a bit short staffed because the people there are working like crazy and you never see them stop moving. So yes, it may take a little time to order or find someone if you have a request, but be patient because someone will get to you.

Would I go back? Definitely! It's one of our favorites now in Bruges. The menu changes so it will be fun to see which classic they bring back next. And my husband who is Belgian gives Bistro Refter a big...

Well, I guess it was a hectic evening, though I didn’t have the impression it was that busy. We wanted to celebrate an anniversary, but instead of celebrating, we were distracted by the restaurant staff. It all started pretty good, but then the blonde waitress that appeared to be in charge, started stressing out. We got our wine way too early (before our pre-dinner drink (aperitif) I reacted saying I didn’t want the wine before the apertif). At first she was the only one stressing out, but soon she infected the rest of the staff. The staff started to hurry, running around the restaurant, one of the waiters told us he didn’t know what to do first, which I prefer not to know, they tried to open wine bottles more quickly, which didn’t make it go any quicker, instead it changed the atmosphere in the restaurant. Allthough we got our wine too quickly, another table didn’t get their wine and when the dishes were also brought too slowly, they canceled the rest of the meal and asked for the bill. Soon another table did the same. The staff was really running around, first we got two refills of wine by different waiters within minutes, after that we had to poor the bottle ourselves. The food was very good and so was the wine, but the service was a complete disaster. Result? Worse experience in this type of restaurant in years. I wouldn’t recommend...

It was ou 3rd time back to Bruges, and we have sort of make it a tradition to come back to Refter. We love fine dining and always thought the menu of the day never disappoint and is good value for money.

Starters: the samosa were really small and had nothing special about them. the cattle fish, really nice. The gazpacho, nice but too much pepper

Mains: Pork, good Fish sea bass/celery: very disappointing, too much pepper again and apart from that even with the sauce very bland.

dessert: We both went for the chocolate mousse. I personally did not eat it. Not a fan of it overall. I’d rather have a classic mousse but that’s my own personal taste. It was disappointing.

What overall was disappointing was the service. The blonde lady was really stressed, yelled at the kitchen, the bar and as we were sat on the high table we saw all of it which made the overall atmosphere awkward. Delays in service between courses.

Even if there’s an issue with the different teams, all matters should be addressed in private and discreetly.

We will come back next year for another try hoping that this was just a one off and that this constructive...