Café Theatre — Restaurant in Ghent

Cafe Theatre is likeable, with a nice space and a good sense of style. Probably us, but we felt somewhat out of place there, although the staff were friendly and helpful (I suspect most people would dress more formally for the location but I'm not a fan of places that expect a dress code). If you like fish and foul then you will be well served by the menu. If you're vegetarian or vegan you're probably best off going somewhere else. Quinoa and Beetroot being the single vegetarian main. The "Cuckoo Vol au Vent" was unusual in that it was served without a Vol au Vent, however it otherwise presented nicely. The cod was a generous piece cooked to fall into layers at the touch of a fork. I declined the quinoa, and the chef did a mushroom and penne dish instead, which was not that exciting.

For drinks I was surprised to find an affordable 2013 Shiraz that was excellent value.

Overall an interesting location, I could see it working as a "formal date" place, but it didn't make my list of places...

Food was not nice at all and way too expensive. The service was nice, and the setting stays very pleasant as well. More specifically: starters: champignons toast (ok bread and nice ham, but the mushrooms in general didn’t have a lot of taste or were burned, parmesan toppings were not nice either), the fried squid (it’s like eating a donut with a small part of squid inside, tomato salsa was ok); Main dishes: the beef tartare: this used to be my favorite dish here but they have ruined it. The beef was not of good quality, it was cut into too big pieces and had a lot of tendons. The flemish stew of porkcheeks was ok, although it was clear that the sauce was thickened with flour or maizena. You saw that the mayonnaise was already in the pot for a long time as you had a darker upper layer. Dessert: moelleux: the moelleux was ok but the vanilla ice was already half melted when it arrived. The dame blanche was ok. The...

I won a 1€ dinner ticket including an appetizer, main dish, and desert. The restaurant was full, the food looked nice, but it lacked any flavor. My crab appetizer had absolutely no seasoning and was dry and flavorless, the deer main course was dry and overcooked with undercooked potatoes; the only saving grace was the desert, but it seemed like a prepackaged cake microwaved to the correct temperature. We still managed to spend over 60€. I am not sure what the point of having the 1€ coupon was, but I would certainly never pay full price...