Restaurant Nonam — Restaurant in Ghent

We were surprised that in 2023, a restaurant overcharges 12 euros to "adapt" dishes (ie remove, not replace, ingredients) for pregnant women.

On Friday nights, the restaurant only serves a 6 courses menu with no other options. After receiving some explanations on the menu, we discovered that one dish had raw oysters, and another one a raw egg. My wife therefore asked them to adapt the dishes as she cannot eat raw oysters or eggs. We were quite surprised to hear that they overcharge 12 euros for this. We checked on their website and indeed they mention that they overcharge 12 euros to respect dietary requirements (even though one could say that mentioning it in small prints on the bottom of the page seems a bit dishonest), but we booked through the Yeat app and this mentioned nowhere.

The waitress was also very rude as she switched to Dutch to try to explain to me that we were wrong in complaining for the overcharge when my wife expressed politely her surprise (in English) (I don't speak Dutch either, but I assume that since my wife is of Asian descent the waitress imagined that I could speak to her...).

Now talking about the food:

All dishes are very similar and everything is prepared in advance, with little to no cooking being done by the Chef during the evening.

The first dish was a bit of raw oysters with cucumber and ponzu, sunk in an espuma. It was very bland, with the cucumber overpowering the whole dish. For my wife the adaptation was that they simply removed the oyster and added a slice of cucumber.

Second dish was mossels again in an espuma of buttermilk with some mayonnaise. Again, very bland.

Third dish was pig's head (pate) with some mousse. The pate was okayish but the rest of the dish was again very bland.

Fourth dish was the first dish that was not cold. It was a mousse of butternut with wild mushrooms and a raw egg inside. The raw egg was removed for my wife. This dish was lukewarm. It felt too creamy and did not taste like butternut. I also think that the wild mushrooms are rehydrated shiitake as can be bought in any asian supermarket. This dish was the worst.

Fifth dish (received 3 hours after the first one...) was hare with blood sausage cream. This is the only cooked dish of the meal as the hare is cooked by the chef's assistant. However the hare was not well cooked as it was not warm, and served blue (which is weird for hare meat). It was not great but the best meal out of a bad experience.

For my wife we had asked them to remove the blood sausage and they simply then said they would serve something else. They therefore served cod and this was the best dish (although not part of the menu). the cod was however only one bite.

Dessert was OK but too sweet to my taste. All in all all dishes were not great and one was quite bad. The staff is undertrained and it seems that the chef cares more about money than treating well...

I think long and hard before giving a bad review as perhaps our experience was uncommon - but I wish I'd read more reviews before staying here, so here goes...||||There are a few good things to be said about this hotel - it's lovely on the outside, there's free tea & coffee, and it's close to the town squares and gastronomic area.||||Then there are a few in-betweens that didn't suit us, but might be fine for robot-loving Gen-Z's, like the lack of receptionist, no safe luggage store for early arrivals, light switches that seem to operate through a Red Dwarf type randomizer, and a 'Virtual Concierge' which we assumed connected directly to Rimmer so we avoided.||||Then come a few confusing features - like why the lights at the basin mirror are designed to show the wallpaper behind the basin to best effect while casting only shadows on the face of guests trying to shave or apply makeup (or indeed both if that's your thing).||||But the one feature above all that I find entirely beyond comprehension is why, in a space so large, the toilet is positioned IN the bedroom, 2m from the bed and entirely without any separating enclosure. Yes, that's the actual toilet bowl (WC), not just the sink and shower, but the actual toilet itself.||No door of any type, not even the currently trendy but functionally inadequate glazed doors of the modern chain hotels - just a toilet in the bedroom.||||So, a robot-controlled reception (although surely the word 'reception' in the hospitality trade implies some form of welcome?), a virtual 'concierge' and a layout utterly lacking any comprehension of human bodily functions and societal norms can lead to only one conclusion - that no actual human intellect was exercised in the design of this 'hotel'.||||Look, if you're travelling alone (or are in a very modern, unusual, open relationship with your travelling companion), love an app, hate human contact (except those unusual toileting contacts with your said companion), and need to neither shave nor apply makeup then this could be a great wee spot for you.||||It just wasn't for...

I think long and hard before giving a bad review as perhaps our experience was uncommon - but I wish I'd read more reviews before staying here, so here goes...||||There are a few good things to be said about this hotel - it's lovely on the outside, there's free tea & coffee, and it's close to the town squares and gastronomic area.||||Then there are a few in-betweens that didn't suit us, but might be fine for robot-loving Gen-Z's, like the lack of receptionist, no safe luggage store for early arrivals, light switches that seem to operate through a Red Dwarf type randomizer, and a 'Virtual Concierge' which we assumed connected directly to Rimmer so we avoided.||||Then come a few confusing features - like why the lights at the basin mirror are designed to show the wallpaper behind the basin to best effect while casting only shadows on the face of guests trying to shave or apply makeup (or indeed both if that's your thing).||||But the one feature above all that I find entirely beyond comprehension is why, in a space so large, the toilet is positioned IN the bedroom, 2m from the bed and entirely without any separating enclosure. Yes, that's the actual toilet bowl (WC), not just the sink and shower, but the actual toilet itself.||No door of any type, not even the currently trendy but functionally inadequate glazed doors of the modern chain hotels - just a toilet in the bedroom.||||So, a robot-controlled reception (although surely the word 'reception' in the hospitality trade implies some form of welcome?), a virtual 'concierge' and a layout utterly lacking any comprehension of human bodily functions and societal norms can lead to only one conclusion - that no actual human intellect was exercised in the design of this 'hotel'.||||Look, if you're travelling alone (or are in a very modern, unusual, open relationship with your travelling companion), love an app, hate human contact (except those unusual toileting contacts with your said companion), and need to neither shave nor apply makeup then this could be a great wee spot for you.||||It just wasn't for...