OLD BOY — Restaurant in Ixelles - Elsene

Please read my review as an honest personal experience from a person with Asian roots.

Each time I provide you the reasoning behind my review score.

We came here for dinner for two people and ate following (127,50€):

FOOD: 2/5 SMALL -- Moo ping skewer over the grill. Very succulent and tender porc meat. The meat glazing was beautifully caramelized with a very safe and balanced taste. However, some of the porc pieces were not well cooked, showing a "saignant" cuisson.

LARGER -- Tod man corn fritters. The description on the menu made us think the red curry was the main taste, but it's only the sauce. The sauce itself was good consistency and well balanced in spiciness and sweetness. The fritters were made of corn and batter, giving a cheap impression though. -- Beef Koi salad: High beef quality from Dierendonck. This dish gave a steak tartare impression with a spicy and soury taste. Within the tartare marinade there seemed to be a fishy smell, hinting to fish sauce, giving it a thai vibe. Overall well balanced and nicely spiced, the two chili symbols are accurate for the spicy level. -- Pad See Ew (Thai stir fried noodles). An expensive (17€ - small portion) and bland Thai cuisine attempt but a safe choice.

SPECIAL/MAIN: -- Iberico Pork Collar Char Siu. This is one of my favourite Chinese dishes, translated to Chinese BBQ pork. This special dish was well executed and showed true to its origin. good outside caramelization, juicy and a generous portion (we took the 250 grams).

DESSERT: -- Strawberry thai basil ice cream. Very fragrant and fresh ice cream. It was not too sweet which allowed the ingredients to speak for itself.

DRINKS (cocktail): -- Sagat and Han. Recommendations from the waiter. These proved to be very fresh and light, even though one had Mezcal in it (tequila like) and the other had Wasabi in it. Nothing was too pungent or strong, they portioned these ingredients well into harmonious and unique cocktails.

SERVICE: 4/5 The service provided good knowledge on the food and well explained recommendations e.g. cocktails, à la carte for two people: two small, three larger, one main dish proved to be a perfect quantity. We were here for an anniversary celebration and they very attentive to provide a candle on our desert. The staff was very friendly and helpful.

ATMOSPHERE: 4/5 Trendy and hip interior with a nice view on the kitchen and the action. Good music acoustic and music choice was pleasant; house and soul vibe (similar to dj sets of Tinzo) However not sure why they use plastic plates, the ones similarly used in the Hawker centers in Singapore / asian food markets where similar food and portions are sold for 3-5 euros ...

CONCLUSION: I would not recommend the place if you're used to good value asian restaurants like in Asia. However, I could see it as a decent (but expensive) gateway to asian cuisine. The place is not for culinary explorers. Having visited asian countries (China, Japan, Singapore, Hongkong, Indonesia), this restaurant is in my view not positioned as a representation of these countries' local cuisines. However, overall, not bad but expensive which makes it in the end below our expectation ( + the anticipated hype also...

A pretentious waste of money.

I'll start by saying that the taste of the food is excellent. Apart from the fact that the prevalent flavour seemed to be lemongrass for all of the courses, I have no complaints.

My main complaint about Old Boy is that the portions are TINY and definitely not worth 50€ (drinks excluded). The squid tacos, which were my favourite of all the courses, were minuscule. Gone in literally one bite. You can't spend 50€ to leave the restaurant still hungry, go home and make yourself a sandwich. The biggest course was the mussels, which is mostly shells, and then what you get out of it isn't much, really.

Secondly, this Brussels obsession with "food to share". Every new place in Brussels takes pride in this sharing/partager/conviviale fad. I wonder if they all attended the same marketing course where they taught them this trick. The plates they bring at Old Boy are not "to share". It's literally ONE plate with TWO tacos, one per person. We are NOT sharing them: we are having one each, and you, restaurant, are using one dish instead of two, that's why you tell us about "sharing". This sharing nonsense also means that, without warning you when you book, the restaurant seats you at the counter, since tables are limited. When I book, I would like to have the choice of where to sit. Luckily we got there early enough that we could sit at the corner of the counter and not be glued to other people. Especially since a couple close to us spent half of the night making out. In an overcrowded city like Brussels, I think nobody wants to go to dinner and relax, and end up hitting the elbows of a stranger.

Thirdly, you sit at the counter around the kitchen. This again is sold as part of the "concept" (why do restaurants need to have concepts now?) but let's see it for what it is: making the most out of a tiny space and maximizing profit. However, if I pay 50€ for a menu, I don't want to see the staff whipping food out of Tupperwares and rolling out garbage bags when they finish cooking.

Lastly, there were three waiters. The French speakers were lovely and incredibly kind. Congratulations to them! The Flemish/English speaker was obnoxious. Apart from getting way too close to our faces when explaining the dishes, he kept on shaking my friend's beer can to see if there was any left. He must have done it at least 4 times. This was really annoying, just let us finish and you'll collect it at the end. Again, we're talking about a 50€ menu restaurant, not a countryside tavern.

Bottom line: for a total of 68€ per person, in another restaurant I can have: decent portions my own table a choice from the menu and not set courses a waiter that doesn't touch our drinks all the time a view over something else than Tupperwares and garbage bags real spoons that are not made of plastic

I definitely...

Mixed feelings. We ordered the meat/fish menu and the veg/fish menu. There was a problem with the equipment to make the veg. starter so this arrived a lot later than the meat starter. Instead of waiting with the other courses and synchronizing the menus again different courses were given for the meat menu while the other person was waiting for his food. Food: some of the dishes were very tasty and inventive (fried broccoli starter, black pudding fried dumplings, soup with shrimp gyozas), but often I was underwelmed. After reading so many positive reviews I was expecting more special dishes. So overall tasty but not that surprising. Drinks: the drink menu is not up to date, they mention paired wines while this is not available anymore. I tried a cocktail with wasabi which had an interesting flavor profile. They have some interesting fermented white wines (orange wine). On the table, the glass for water was damaged at the brim, when exchanging my glass they didn't provide new water, especially since you pay 4 EUR for water. Two more comments: I have are the place is pretty small for the amount of people eating + people working, the music was early 2000 hip hop, the general atmosphere was pretty cramped. The pace is pretty high since there are two shifts per night this makes eating feel like rushed. While I understand that the last two comments are ways to keep the price low I think it is important to keep in mind when booking this restaurant.

Overall: if you look for a trendy place with tasty food (but not particularly innovative) and don't mind the rushed service it is worth a visit. Especially for a...