LESS Eatery — Restaurant in Bruges

Way overpriced - more like fast food quality restaurant in Japan or Taiwan rather than fine dining. I’d say the whole meal probably worth €80 instead of €220 we paid.

We had a few dishes - oyster in dashi sauce, hamachi with tacos, Hiroshima A5 wagyu, lobster, fried rice and “dan dan noodle”.

The dishes were presented nicely but the Dan Dan noodle was a disaster! The noodle is definitely a packet of instant noodles (sadly, the cheap ones) and way over-cooked. Too soggy and no texture at all. Perhaps the chef should really go Taiwan or somewhere far east to try a proper Dan Dan noodle out before they serve that to customers. The soup was ok in terms of flavour but way too thick, more like a sauce than a soup.

Secondly, fried rice… I can see they tried to make their fried rice like the Teppenyaki style fried rice from Japan but they have taken their spices and everything else way too over. A good fried rice should be dry, with a little bit of seasoning and perhaps some meat or seafood and spring onions but not filling up the bowl with those sprinkles all over the rice.

The appetizer we had - the oysters were ok but once again all the sauces and flavours added (despite they taste ok) just overtook the main ingredient. Can only taste the texture of oyster but not the taste from it. The flavourings just covered up everything. Same for the Hamachi. Hamachi was marinated to an extent which it looks more like salmon to me and all the freshness and unique taste of hamachi were gone.

Lobsters were ok - at least cooked to perfection - slightly bit undercooked- which is good. But again, too much flavouring. We were like eating some form of meat in a lobster shell covered with sauce instead of an eating a lobster.

What was done really good was the A5 wagyu. Thanks to the chef who didn’t put sauce or flavourings of any kind on it. I can finally taste the really flavour of the food I’m eating and they are also cooked to perfection. Definitely a A5 wagyu steak from Japan.

The service was brilliant - thanks to all your hard work in terms of serving customers - leaving a 2 star review for the restaurant.

I don’t know if anyone from the restaurant is reading, if yes, please pass a message to the head chef… “If you have faith in the quality of the ingredients you used for your dishes, just make it simple, do not add too much flavouring to your food, let the main ingredients speak. Do your dishes like what you’ve done to your wagyu, I’m sure they will be better. I don’t know whether this is the case here but usually most restaurant put lots of flavourings to their food simply because the ingredients are not up to standard or have been in the fridge / freezer for too long and they need sauces to cover up the flaws. Most importantly, remove your Dan Dan noodle - it’s a disaster.”

One last thing, pay attention to your hygiene in food handling - I honestly want to leave after the appetizer as i saw one of your chef handle my food with bare hands after he bite his fingers out of boredom without washing his hands afterwards. (That took 2 stars off service - table service was great though)

All in all, the quality maybe ok for some westerners who don’t really have a long history of culinary culture and not used to cooking but definitely a no no to people who really enjoy and...

Compared to other starred restaurants, this one is refreshingly different. Hip interior design, electronic music, open kitchen and down-to-earth staff.

The tasting menu (100 €) was ok. Not super exciting - some more courageous ideas would be nice to see (and I‘m sure the crew would be capable to do so). Most of the dishes were technically almost perfect, some are a little unbalanced however (especially the tom ka gai dumpling was completely overpowered by the aromatics in it). For a tasting menu the main course was a little too big, I would have preferred it smaller and would add another dish or two instead. The wine pairing (50€) was excellent.

The service was very friendly and besides some minor mistakes well-organized and up to the task. Waiting times between the single dishes were well timed. Although we we‘re seated directly at the kitchen counter, there was basically no interaction between the crew and us/ other guests. This is a lost chance imho, especially for a place that wants to make gastronomy of this kind more accessible to everyone.

So far I would easily give 4 stars for this experience, I however cannot. Biggest negative point for me is the price of the water that is served. I‘m not willing to pay 10€ for 1 Liter of plain tap/city water. Sure, it’s sustainable and I can absolutely identify with this idea and have no problem with drinking tap water even in such restaurants. No need to fly water around the world. If it’s really about that however, it should be much cheaper. I have no problem with paying a lot of money for products with added value, like food cooked with love and passion. This water however has zero added value and it’s just a very nasty way of making money. Talking to the waiter about this, we got the answer, that everybody in Belgium is doing this. Might be, doesn’t mean it’s ok.

If i spend almost 400€ on Drinks, Food and Wine I really don’t want to be charged for tap water and it’s a real bummer that an otherwise good experience is completely shadowed by...

Very desapointing.

Forgetting for a minute the fact that we found the place by looking for a Michelin rated restaurant in a lovely city, the restaurant is an average + asian food restaurant allowing you to eat very efficiently simple and expected plates for this style of cuisine. Very (very) young staff running around gives a fresh feeling, no shame about our outfit we feared would have been a bit underdressed, no waste of time getting bothered by the staff presenting the plates, the restaurant's history or making suggestions and plenty of time to listen to the loud electronic music. 40 minutes later I am finishing my (very) fried rice and my entire octopus leg drawning in its (very) salty garlic butter while having a last sip of my large pepsi max. My wife is finishing her fish she unboned herself making a mess on the table. I use my napkin to hide the chaos a bit but nobody seems to care.

Wait a minute, this sounds like a regular asian chain restaurant experience where everything is designed to cut costs while making sure you have no surprise positive or negative. But we came for a Michelin experience? How did I finish ordering a Pespsi Max because the waiter could not give me any drink suggestion to go with my plates?

50 minutes after entering the place and 200euros lighter, my wife and I eat a piece of chocolate out of the restaurant after skipping the hasard of a dessert. We are now back at our hotel double checking the reviews of another restaurant we booked for the next day.

Conclusion: Not comparable in any way to other Michelin rated past experiences we had. Not the fault of the restaurant to be a Michelin rated place but fully responsible to over price because of it and not give return on the over high value paid by probably a lot of people already... Not a good feeling at all after...