Le Grand Cafe Belfort — Restaurant in Bruges

If you're a tourist and wanna try some kwak beer (reccomended) and some typical stuff like waffles / moules frites then this is the place for you. All under one roof you get what you want. You tick all the boxes. Not the best in town. But not the worst either.

All in the centre of town with good access to the sights.

Truth be told I would have given this place a five. We were in Bruges only one night and the waffle shops were all closed. I wanted to try some waffles and s kwak before we left and this place was open and welcoming. Great service. All was good.

Obviously as expected , and is my great qualm of all Belgian resteraunts tap water is not a choice. And all drinks are costly.

However despite that for convenience sake and quite frankly food quality I was going to give it a 5*s that is until the very end..I discovered they have a knife and fork charge for bringing an additional knife fork to your table. I don't know if this is a standard affaire in Bruges. But it was quite sneaky. My partner just wanted to try some of my waffle and it's not like she hadn't ordered anything of her own anyway.

The sneaky so and so's charged us €3.50 for the extra fork and what's worse is they told us only at the very end.

So yes..time for some constructive criticism. Sure..maybe everywhere in Belgium charges for extra knives and forks. That doesn't mean you have to ! Be an innovator. Or atleast warn the people. Sure it's on the menu in small print under the extras section together with other things that no body would read.

But not charging for such things..not being so sheisty would for sure net you more positive reviews. In turn attract more customers over your neighbouring competition and in turn you would profit more in the long game than the €3.50 on the day.

It's quite sad I need to say this.

I knew I was getting myself into a tourist trap as is but not until the end did I realise that they frankly don't care about any of their customers , as being tourists they can't count on their repeat custom anyway!

I mean sure the prices were high as is expected. But come on..who's going to read a menu from start to finish and understand that couvert charge implies extra fork charge.

So yeah. That's pretty much it. Be abit more respectful to your customers and in pretty sure they'll rate you...

I went to this café with my family today. Having had lunch not very long ago, we went in for a small snack and a drink before the ride back to Brussels. We tried ordering a couple of things from the menu, but not everyone was hungry, and therefore only 3 out of 5 people were ordering. The first waiter very rudely pointed out to us that we were occupying a 6-person table, and should order one item per person. We then ordered two baguettes, one ham and one cheese, one waffle, a coffee and a tea (5 items). Somehow the second waiter mixed up our order and brought a ham sandwich and a cheese and ham sandwich (instead of only cheese). We realized this as soon as he brought the order, so we promptly sent it back. When we asked for the check, they tried to charge us for the cheese and ham sandwich, which was two euros more than the cheese sandwich. We pointed out the mistake to the waiter, and he quickly dismissed it saying "it's the same price", which we knew wasn't true. We said we had seen the prices on the menu, and he said we had ordered the ham and cheese sandwich, which also wasn't true. He started saying he should have recorded us when we placed our order and we felt that was very uncalled for. If we really had ordered the ham and cheese, why would we send it back as soon as it got on the table? They finally removed the two extra euros from the check, but I think they were just trying to rip us off. Too bad for them, because if the service had been good we would...

[ENG-FR-NL-DEU]

De enige reden waarom dit restaurant nog bestaat, is door de mooie locatie op de markt. The only reason this restaurant still exists is because of its beautiful location. La seule raison pour laquelle ce restaurant existe encore est sa belle vue sur la place. Der einzige Grund, warum es dieses Restaurant noch gibt, ist seine schöne Aussicht auf den Markt.

[English] First of all, the prices on the signs outside the restaurant are not correct. This is just to lure tourists. The prices on the menu are much more expensive and is the price you will pay. If you do get so hungry that you want to eat here, you will be served by the most unfriendly waiters the city has available. The staff struggle to communicate and you won't see a smile either. Hopefully you will bring some board games because it is a long wait for your food and drinks. To end the experience, you will have to go to the local bank if you don't have enough cash with you. Although we’re living in 2022, this restaurant does not have an electronic payment option. Going to the toilet is better done after eating because you'd rather not eat after seeing the toilets.

[Nederlands – Dutch] Om te beginnen kloppen de prijzen op de borden aan de buitenkant van het restaurant niet. Dit is enkel om toeristen te lokken. De prijzen op de menukaart zijn veel duurder en is de prijs die je zal betalen. Als je toch zo’n grote honger hebt, dat je hier wil eten, zal je bediend worden door de meest onvriendelijke obers die de stad ter beschikking heeft. Het personeel heeft moeite met communiceren en een glimlach zal je ook niet zien. Hopelijk breng je wat gezelschapspellen mee want het is lang wachten op je eten en drinken. Om de ervaring af te sluiten zal je naar de lokale bank moeten gaan als je niet genoeg cash bij hebt. In 2022 heeft dit restaurant namelijk geen elektronisch betalingsmogelijkheid. Naar het toilet gaan doe je beter na het eten want je eet liever niet meer na het zien van de toiletten.

[français – French] Tout d'abord, les prix indiqués sur les panneaux à l'extérieur du restaurant ne sont pas corrects. C'est juste pour attirer les touristes. Les prix indiqués sur le menu sont beaucoup plus élevés et c'est le prix que vous paierez. Si vous avez faim au point de vouloir manger ici, vous serez servi par les serveurs les plus antipathiques de la ville. Le personnel a du mal à communiquer et vous ne verrez pas de sourire non plus. Je vous conseille d’apporter des jeux de société car l'attente pour la nourriture et les boissons est très longue. Pour terminer, vous devrez vous rendre à la banque locale si vous n'avez pas assez d'argent sur vous. En effet, en 2022, ce restaurant ne disposera pas d'une option de paiement électronique. Il est préférable d'aller aux toilettes après avoir mangé, car vous préférez ne pas manger après avoir vu les toilettes.

[Deutsch – German] Zunächst einmal sind die Preise auf den Schildern vor dem Restaurant nicht korrekt. Das ist nur ein Lockmittel für Touristen. Die Preise auf der Speisekarte sind viel teurer und das ist auch der Preis, den Sie zahlen werden. Wenn Sie so hungrig sind, dass Sie hier essen wollen, werden Sie von den unfreundlichsten Kellnern bedient, die die Stadt zu bieten hat. Das Personal hat Mühe, sich zu verständigen, und ein Lächeln sieht man auch nicht. Hoffentlich bringen Sie ein paar Brettspiele mit, denn die Wartezeit auf Ihr Essen und Ihre Getränke ist sehr lang. Wenn Sie nicht genügend Bargeld bei sich haben, müssen Sie zum Abschluss zur örtlichen Bank gehen. Das liegt daran, dass dieses Restaurant im Jahr 2022 keine elektronische Zahlungsmöglichkeit haben wird. Auf die Toilette geht man besser nach dem Essen, weil man nach dem Anblick der Toiletten lieber nichts mehr...