Osteria 45 — Restaurant in Bruges

We were lucky to stumble upon Osteria 45 on a recent visit to Bruges. The exterior of the restaurant is deceiving because inside is a culinary experience!

A small restaurant with a handful of tables offers a fabulous wine menu to accompany the meal. We chose a Sangiovese wine for our selection of the Diavola pizza: tomato, mozzarella, spicy salami, red onion, black olives, and chili pepper on a perfectly baked thin crust.

I enjoyed the evenings seafood linguine, featuring Calamari and Clams in a tasty seafood sauce (broth) over the linguine.

The pizzas are a staple, but the pasta menu changes.

We were served by one of the owners, Salvatore. We inquired about the flavors of our dishes. Salvatore told us the recipes are from his Sicilian heritage.

At a neighboring table, an order of Bruschetta was delivered. The biggest red tomato bruschetta I have ever seen! Yum!

The evening was fabulous, with a cool breeze coming in through their large open windows and soft Italian music in the background. Lucio Battisti and Lucio Dalla.

We topped the evening off with a...

I will never visit this deceptive restaurant again!!! Yesterday, I went there with two friends, and the three of us spent 132 euros. I encountered the following two issues:

When it was time to pay, the owner refused to let me pay by card, saying that cash was more helpful for him. So, in the end, he accepted cash from my friend. I believe that as consumers, we have the right to choose our own payment method.

We ordered quite a lot, and in the end, there was a black truffle pizza that we only ate half of. I asked the waiter to pack it up for takeaway. However, when I opened the box at lunch today, I was shocked to find that my black truffle pizza had only one small piece left (there was originally half a pizza), and they had added two pieces of pizza that didn't belong to me. As shown in the picture.

I've been living in Belgium for ten years and have never encountered such service. Please...

Sure, the pizza’s are fantastic, as is the restaurant itself, but this could easily have gotten 1 or 2 more stars if the service was better.

My wife and I walked into a nearly empty restaurant. When we told we didn’t make a reservation, the server seemed irritated. We got a seat directly next to another couple (while there was plenty of room left).

The server seemed irked we didn’t want any starters, just a pizza. Then, when two goodlooking young women came walking in, he made a complete 180 in personality. They also didn’t have a reservation, but the server happily seated them at a much more private table without any problems.

The female server who helped us when we left, was very kind. But sadly, the male server left us with a bad taste as we left...