Pietje Pek — Restaurant in Bruges

This is a traditional Flemish cuisine restaurant - to the point of holding on to certain traditional food misconceptions from an earlier generation. Other than that, the food is tasty and of sufficient quality and you do get a 'traditional Flemish home-cooking' experience.

The stoverij/stofvlees/carbonade was tasty with tender meat and traditionally good fries. It was the equal of good home cooking, but not the highest level that I have had in Belgium. It was probably about average for a café or bar and slightly below what I'd expect of a restaurant. The onion soup is an onion soup. In a direct translation to French, this is "soupe à l'ognion", but this is not a traditional French version. Unfortunately, the translation is correct, but if you've had the French version, the concept here is not nearly the same. That does not mean that it is not tasty. As a onion and herb soup, it definitely fits that bill and is successful. However, it was served with little mini toasts that come straight from a supermarket packet and a little bowl of grated cheese - toast and cheese being integral to the French onion soup. This is what makes me think of an older generation's food misinterpretation - just like when the British used to make duck à l'orange with orange juice poured into the frying pan or the Belgians used to serve a cappuccino as a black coffee topped with whipped cream. In this case, the onion soup, in mimicking a French onion soup, was too pale and the onion segments were not translucent enough meaning that they hadn't been sweated down enough nor slowly caramelised. The topping of toast and cheese is, at a minimum, supposed to be browned under a grill, not provided cold, separately. So, it fails as a French soupe à l'ognion. However, once again, as a herby onion soup it was tasty and I finished it all. I've attached pictures.

In other terms, the service was friendly and efficient. We could hear the oil/meat fondue bubbling away on another table with contented looking patrons. The people on another table seemed happy with the mussels - and knowing how mussels are traditionally made, I'm sure they lived up to expectations.

It is advertised as good home cooking and they 100% live up to that. Just don't expect modern cooking and expect traditional Belgian "home" cooking (I was almost expecting to see a dishes like tomatoes stuffed with mini-shrimp) from 20, 30 or even 40 years ago. If you wish to experience traditional home cooking from a generation or two ago, then they've probably hit the nail on the head here, just don't expect...

I’m giving one star only because I can’t give zero! Everything in the restaurant is a complete disaster, from the food to the service. The food was tasteless, the fries were raw, and the shrimp were tough and everything was also very expensive… but the worst of all was the extremely terrible service. After we sat down, it took the waitress 20 minutes to serve us, even though the restaurant was almost empty. When she finally approached us, she interrupted us halfway through ordering, saying she had to take a phone call. After we finally placed our order, we waited an hour for the food. When we politely asked the incredibly rude waitress when the food would be ready, she sarcastically replied that she could bring it right away if we insisted. A few minutes later, she brought the food and THREW the plates onto the table, saying that this is the kind of service we get when we rush her. Extremely unprofessional and rude behavior, and as I already said the food was even worse. Avoid this place...

We had a reservation at Mozart near by, but as soon as we arrived, the atmosphere completely put us off. It felt more like a canteen – hot, stuffy. Despite the weather outside being mild, it was uncomfortably warm inside, and after just five minutes we knew we didn’t want to stay, let alone have dinner.

On the way in, we’d noticed another restaurant just nearby. It was almost empty, which usually isn’t a great sign on a Friday night – but something about it caught our eye, so we gave it a try.

We’re so glad we did. The Pietje Pek was amazing. ❤️

The chef sent over a few complimentary bites, and the food was just wonderful. 🥰 The wine was beautifully selected, the beer was great, and the overall experience far exceeded our expectations.

It’s a real shame the place wasn’t busier – it absolutely deserves to be. I’ve been to the Brugge four times over the past couple of years, and this was easily one of the best dining experiences I’ve had in the area.

Highly recommended -...