La Cantinetta — Restaurant in Ixelles - Elsene

My fiancé and I ate here on the 24 December. They lied to us about allergens in the food, and he suffered a severe allergic reaction as a consequence.

We had reserved a table for lunch to celebrate Christmas and my partner's birthday. Before each meal, we asked about whether the food contained any nuts, almonds or sesame, which he is severely allergic to. When we ordered dessert, we asked again, and we were told that it was nut-free.

The dessert, in fact, was full of almonds (which we could see), and possibly also hazelnuts (based on the type and severity of the allergic reaction, though we couldn't confirm this). We only realised after we'd started eating, when my boyfriend's throat began to block. We got the waiter and chef's attention and they confirmed there were indeed almonds. It is against EU law for restaurants not to list and disclose allergens on the menu, and criminally negligent to lie, or not to even bother to check, when we ask about the presence of nuts in the dish.

The worst part was the dismissive and unhelpful response we received from the staff. First, we were told to just not eat the almonds, and we explained that any contact with the dish is enough to trigger an allergic reaction. Second, we were blamed for not clarifying that we were asking about nuts due to being allergic (why else would you ask about it? Shouldn't the chef and waiters know anyway what is in the food they serve?). There was no apology from Cantinetta, and we were asked to pay for the entire meal, including dessert. At this point, we had to leave to go to the hospital and get my partner urgent medical treatment.

My partner had an extremely serious allergic reaction. We rushed to the hospital, where he could hardly breathe, had extreme back, mouth, chest and throat pain for several hours. Medicine to treat allergic reactions has severe side effects like sleeplessness and depression. If we had been less lucky or less quick to notice, my partner could have died. La Cantinetta needs to take responsibility for that.

We received a shameful and illegal service from La Cantinetta. We hope this never happens to...

To be honest, I don’t understand why in a big city which is bilingual “french/dutch” with a big majority of people they speak English you have a menu in Italian only? Is that even legal in Belgium? I understand it’s an Italian restaurant, maybe there are some common words that people might understand a bit, but not everyone in the world must understand Italian. When I asked the waiter do you have another menu in french or English, he said no, someone will come to help translating the menu. Another guy arrived, with an arrogant attitude saying did you chose? ”Of course we didn’t because we were waiting for some help” we asked him about if he can translate what’s in the menu, he was very unhappy and unfriendly and only translated one sentence and he left immediately while the restaurant had only three clientes!!! Seriously if you want to help your clients, at least you can be a bit friendly and be patient, smile and be happy that you will make some money, have a menu that everyone can understand without any need of being treated in an arrogant way or begging you to help us. What a pity of wasting our...

Review of a wonderful Italian restaurant:

First of all, I have to say that I haven't had such helpful service and such good pizza in a long time!

When I arrived in Brussels, I didn't really know what to expect from this city. But when I started to explore the surroundings of the parliament, I found out that there are so many wonderful restaurants and places with an amazing atmosphere. Well, since it's about 30 degrees outside and you can sit outside, Trinity and I went to an Italian restaurant for dinner, which is owned by a very nice family from Italy, the lady owner was really wonderful. This place is called La Cantinetta and it is about a 10 minute walk from the European Parliament. We had Bruschetta, pizza and excellent pasta with eggplant. We sat by the cathedral and local artists play guitar for you at dinner. I am very glad that I could move here for a while.

I give this restaurant 10/10 and it certainly wasn't the last time I visited this...