Brasserie Correspondance — Restaurant in Brussels

From the moment we arrived to a locked front door although the restaurant was quite clearly open, we should've known there would be issues.

The restaurant has two sections (we learned later): a drafty, cold, impersonal downstairs where the waiters forget you, and a warm, cozy upstairs section with soft seats and an open kitchen that is buzzing with activity. Having been seated downstairs, we were forgotten by our waiter most of the time and had to resort to waving at him desperately to flag him down whenever we caught a glimpse of him.

The white wine we ordered was room temperature and sloshed into our glasses without our being asked to taste it first; it was placed in a cold wine bucket, which improved it, but so was the bottle of red we ordered afterward (maybe the waiter's never had wine before? had he received any training?).

We had an hour's wait for our starter -- and be aware that if half the table orders oysters and the other half a regular starter, they're brought 45 minutes apart, regardless of whether you ask to have them brought at the same time.The starters were small, if beautifully presented; we had to request bread to accompany the oysters and were given it only begrudgingly. Then we had another hour's wait for our mains. Considering there are only three starters and three mains and the restaurant was only half full, this was surprising. Of the mains, the ris de veau was cold, and the duck had a mealy texture.

All in all, a 350-euro dinner for four people that was mediocre and downright laughable at times (mainly because of the locked door situation that most of the patrons...

From all the Chef San Degeimbre’s restaurants I’ve had the pleasure of dining at , this was disappointing.

Cold welcome, we were shown to our table in passing and server disappeared, having to find our own way to the coat closet. Our table was in the front area, where most tables were not set and there was only one other table dining - it looked and felt less like a restaurant and more as an after thought or side of a hotel reception. There was no vibe at all - at the back they do have more seating which did seem to offer a more lively atmosphere but with an open kitchen and terrible ventilation it felt like being in fritur so didn’t mind the front seating so much in the end.

Service was sub-par throughout long wait time for starters about an hour, had to ask for the bread.. waiter wasn’t present at all. Second bottle of wine was poured directly into the glass with wine from previous bottle without tasting.

The food in itself was excellent, as you would expect - oysters to start were super fresh, steak tartare and ceviche were exceptional. Steak poivre and duck mains were wonderful too. Desserts were also good, Dame Blanche with vanilla ice cream was fantastic - rice pudding and coffee flan were also good but not amazing.

Overall, the food was very much to expectation - but for the price range the service was extremely disappointing and it really left a bitter taste on the overall experience.

I would suggest going for lunch at a smaller price point, as for the dinner it is an experience that will leave you...

I have very mixed feelings about this place. On one hand, the food and the quality was really top notch. Everything tasted great and delicious. We started off with oysters and tried several of the starters and main dishes. The oysters with kiwi was amazing and a first for me personally. The steak and duck were really amazing and everything was presented beautifully. The service however was a bit strange. Everyone was really nice, but for what we pay for I expected something different in terms of service. We had to ask for a bread basket which should be automatically the case. We entered the restaurant and no one took our coats and had to do it ourselves. Long wait time for the food. No revisiting of the table. Second bottle of wine was poured automatically over the old one (even though it’s the same but still you don’t do that). I think if these small things are fixed it would be much better. We also got seated near the entrance which lacked the vibe of the area next to the kitchen. I will however highly recommend because the food was...