Karen Torosyan | Bozar Restaurant — Restaurant in Brussels

A French restaurant located right next to the Royal Palace of Belgium. The atmosphere was calm, refined, and elegant. The tables were covered with double tablecloths, with leather underneath, and even the trays for serving dishes were leather as well. I really loved the overall ambience.

About the food: The meal began with three starters. At first, the slightly jerky-like flavor made me wonder, “Is this really French?” But then I realized it was very Belgian in style, designed to pair perfectly with beer. Indeed, the first drink menu offered an overwhelming selection of beers. Thinking of the starters in that context, they made complete sense and were very enjoyable. That said, the third starter—dashi, daikon, and oyster—didn’t quite work for me. The temperatures of the broth and the daikon didn’t match, the oyster had a noticeable fishy taste, and although the presentation was beautiful, I felt the sesame didn’t quite fit.

I ordered the seven-course menu, and overall, it was excellent.

The second course, a terrine, was beautifully presented and simply delicious. The accompanying pickles were also elaborate, and eating them between bites of the terrine refreshed the palate nicely.

The third course of miso and eggplant with clams felt a little mismatched. (Perhaps because the other dishes were so strong, this one stood out more.) Eating the clams separately and then the eggplant with miso on its own reminded me of Japanese nasu dengaku, which I loved. I’ve often seen French chefs incorporate Japanese ingredients or techniques, but this dish truly captured an authentic Japanese flavor. I found that both impressive and delightful.

The shrimp was fresh, crisp, and springy, while the bisque had no unpleasant aftertaste—light in texture but rich in flavor. Very satisfying.

The main course was veal, which was tender and delicious, paired with a lovely sauce. The only letdown was the ratatouille, which tasted too similar to the earlier eggplant and miso dish with just tomato added, making it feel a bit repetitive.

Dessert was a blueberry lemon pie. Normally, I’m not a fan of lemon pie, but here the tartness of the blueberries balanced out the sweetness of the cream and meringue beautifully. At the same time, the sweetness mellowed the acidity, creating a light and refreshing dessert despite the richness of the cream. I really enjoyed it.

What moved me even more was its presentation—it reminded me of the very first dish with caviar. The blueberry pie brought back the elegance and flavor of that opening plate, which made the dessert feel like a thoughtful closing to the course.

The final crème brûlée was outstanding as well! I only wished I wasn’t so full, so I could have savored it even more.

About the service: Perhaps because it was August, the staff seemed short-handed, and at times I felt a bit forgotten. The servers didn’t check in often, and I had to call them over a few times after waiting. Other tables seemed to be served smoothly, so perhaps it was the seating location or just the staff member assigned to us. We were also kept waiting quite a while for the bill, which was a shame since the food had been so good.

Overall: The food was excellent, and I left with a high level of satisfaction. I would definitely return the next time I’m...

I eat at the restaurant with two friends last Tuesday. We order 5 course menu which came additionally with appetisers and mignardises. What an amazing experience! THANK YOU! Arguably the most INTRUIGUING moment: the FISH! The hamachi was buttery, complemented with distinct sharp sour taste of sorrel. The dish featured a CONTRSAT in colour between light button and darke top. The butterfly-like sorrel created the impression of ASCENDANCE and LEVITY. Velvety soft, mouth-watering but rich SCALLOPS were perfectly associated with pepper watercress. The way the texture of white cubes in the farce made of guanciale MIRRORED the texture of scallops was genius! The two DESSERTS stood out thanks to their ANALOGOUS, if not even MONOCHROMATIC compositions. The blood orange one was possibly the most MULTI-TEXTURED and MULTI-LEYERED of all what we ate that evening and very seductive in taste, the cauliflower one refreshed our palates with a delicious (and beautifully executed) cold pear-based sorbet quenelle. EXECUTION was EXQUISITE throughout. The DUCKLING breast had homogeneously CRISPY skin, perfectly cooked, kept its moisture. The sauce was homogeneous, smooth and reduced to EXEMPLARY DENSITY (and it was not a juice as one of the waiters accidentally named it). Poured at the table. The potato grain had beautifully craved cuts in puff pastry. I love the idea of reviving the salsify! I wish I had asked what was it cooked with for that flavour and colour. PRECISION CUTTING was consistently applied (even and tiny cubes of ham in one of the appetizers. The same appetizer featured a tuille imitating salicornia (perfectly STABILISED GREEN colour with no signs of fading). Except for the duckling, plates were dressed to a large extent based on a concept prioritizing CIRCLES and CENTRAL POSITION of food on the plate, very pleasant to the eye but somehow requiring little effort from the recipient to appreciate it. Some circles, transparent (and of different convexity and texture) enhanced the overall elegance, other proved INSTRUMENTAL in creating the effect of SURPRISE (i.e. uncovering circles to discover what was below). Best example: delicious Gillardeau oysters under daikon lid. I wonder why it was not served cold instead? The SURPRISE was not only VISUAL (i.e. uncovering hidden elements), and GUSTATOTY (e.g. the taste of salsify) but also TACTILE: one mignardise crumbling once touching the mouth tissue and releasing a beautiful creamy interior. It was so fragile that it required focus to carry it to your mouth without breaking it, let along making it! The chef’s culinary personality is impressive: it combines precision, technique, Armenian authenticity and mastery! The choice of red WINE suggested matched our expectations and request. The young, dynamic TEAM responsible for the service EN SALLE remained very responsive to the multitude of questions we asked throughout the evening. We recognised their attention to details (which materialised even in the choice of mineral water glasses distributed depending on their pattern: different for sparkling and different for still water). Men’s toilets needed more care. We do recommend without any...

An enormously disappointing experience to a restaurant we were extremely excited to visit.

Given Bozar’s reputation for both its food and service our experience was disappointing from the outset. Our small table appeared to have been wedged into what was normally a walkway, right next to a service station (meaning we spent much of our meal whispering to avoid being overheard by the staff) and a flight of stairs which one of us sat at the top of. We felt very exposed and asked to move immediately but were told it was impossible.

Given the accolades achieved we were expecting great things from the food to turn around this disappointing start. However it consistently failed to live up to the hype. We’ve been lucky to eat at some other amazing places, and never before left large parts of numerous courses uneaten. There were some highlights but to our taste more lowlights, a ginger and pear sorbet which managed to retain all the graininess of a pear whilst at the same time completely ignoring it had ginger in it, a crab course impossible to eat with only the spoon provided and cold lobster course accompaniment which combined a thin cold congealed generic gravy with lumps of floating lobster and literally left a nasty taste in the mouth.

The service whilst friendly felt the opposite of slick. We went 20 minutes before our wine pairing began with empty glasses without being offered a drink, and dirty bread plates were left on the table throughout. The gaps between courses were too long (on one occasion more than 30 minutes between finishing a course and being served the next wine pairing and actually receiving the associated dish, by which time the little wine we’d managed to resist drinking was room temperature).

We spent much of our meal frankly desperate for it to end in order to go home. We raised some of these issues to the staff when asked how we found our meal, including with the head chef who seemed baffled by our temerity rather than unsympathetic.

Given the eye watering price tag and the expected special occasion our Saturday night at Bozar was quite an...