La Porteuse d'Eau — Restaurant in Saint-Gilles - Sint-Gillis

A snowy early evening, the place looks extremely inviting. Has an open fire, all lit and art deco, very beautiful indeed.

Upon entering we were greeted, stating this is a restaurant and hope you do not jist want to have a drink or dessert! So we decided to eat. We were hungry after all.

The drinks: ordered a Chimay blue, received a Chimay brown. The hot cocoa for my daughter, we jad to ask 2x, while others were served before us, having enetered after us.

At least two couples came in after us, for just a drink!

Food: a "special" starter, was good: camambert with apples, which we shared. Main dish, a vol au vent and a carbonnade. The vol au vent had no meat balls, maybe vegetables... the chicken tasted good. The carbonade, was a sweet sauce, served in a large soup plate and some pieces of meat (overcooked and hard). The fries were good.

In short, the atmosphere was inviting, the food not at par with...

I went with my partner because the interior looks so nice. At the entrance we were asked twice if we have a reservation, and after they seated us we were asked another 2 times by two other staff if we had a reservation (even after we showed them the email confirmation of our reservation). One staff member was polite when asking, while the other looked at us like he didn't believe us. We understand that online bookings may not update in systems but this should have been resolved before we were seated and before we placed our orders. Personally, I think it's rude to ask seated customers who have already placed their order if they have a reservation (for the fourth time at this point).

Recommendation to the restaurant: You have good potential, be more acceptable for other people, improve your service.

Unfortunately after what we have experienced we will never go back...

Passed by and entered because we were hungry, taken in by the beautiful windows and decor. They apparently managed to squeeze us in whilst having a book full of reservations, however I believe they were not all genuine. The beer choice was fine, with at least what you would expect in Belgium. Unfortunately the food was poor, I suspect cooked mostly from frozen. The chips were not fries as advertised but from a packet. If you like food I would suggest you avoid this place. *Also, we were advised at the end that they would prefer cash as payment for the meal. For me, this is a red flag as I would not expect a restaurant of this apparent quality to talk me into paying with cash. The bill was also a pro forma, which I raised my eyebrows at. I personally was not comfortable with...