NORMA - Trattoria — Restaurant in Brussels

Due to the raving reviews we decided we wanted to try this place. It was fully booked online so I signed us up for the wait list. 5 minutes later I received an email saying a spot freed up and we had a reservation at 7pm. When we arrived the place was almost empty and had not filled up by the time we left, so we are not sure how ‘fully booked’ they really were (good marketing trick though!). Service was uninterested and unhelpful, looking annoyed to be working. Food came lukewarm and very fast. We ordered the polpo (16.5) and crostino (11.5). Nothing special and a little bland. Focaccia was very oily and crunchy all the way through, like toast. For mains we had the paccheri (21.5) and rigatoni with truffle (21.3). Also very underwhelming. The paccheri was very bland and tasteless. The rigatoni was very oily. Skipped dessert because we didn’t want to be disappointed and again. All in all an underwhelming experience and definitely not the ‘best pasta’ we have ever eaten. In addition is was quite expensive for Brussels standards. We also never saw the bill as you pay at the counter and the waitress just put in a number on the card machine, so no idea if there were any mistakes...

Loved the pastas! I had a rigatoni carbonara with quite a lot of truffle - and it was delicious. Big plus to a place that does not hold back on the truffle. So far the best pasta I’ve found in centre Brussels.

Had focaccia as a starter, but the bread was definitely not the best. It felt like it was made of wholewheat and it was very compact. The mortadella was however of course super, as mortadella always is.

Fair and nice selection of reasonably priced wines. The food menu is small, but good. No need to have a huge food menu and this place has definitely understood that.

Service rushed - the women did what they had to, but nothing beyond that. Do definitely book a table cause this place fills up!

Overall very happy with my dinner here, despite few things that could have been better. Regardless I would recommend stopping by for a late evening pasta dinner...

I was looking forward to visit this place based on the previous reviews. Unfortunately it has some rooms for improvements: We waited for a long time to get a menu, and after the waiting time we just got a QR-code. They are an Italian place but only with one red wine on glass. Only one dessert wine, a mostato de Asti. Nothing heavier, or more traditional sweet wine. the Ragu just taste like a simple(!) bolognese. No taste of the spicy Nduja. I need to ask for both salt and pepper to get some taste... It was more a regular lunch pasta the size of the main course is to small. It could max be 60g of pasta. the tiramisu is not a tiramisu, it more like a peach-cake-dessert. No coffee, no marsala wine.

A place that has potential and could be good if they do some enhancements on both services, assortments and...