Le Zinneke — Restaurant in Schaerbeek - Schaarbeek

I am actually writing this from the Italian restaurant across the street after having to leave the restaurant due to the fact they had no mussels. Yes, you heard me, the place that boasts 69 mussel recipes had no mussels. First, we called the restaurant asking if they had any reservations. We were promptly told 8:30 pm was the earliest they could seat us. We could come no earlier, not even for drinks. So, happy to enjoy "the best mussels in Brussels" for the last night of our trip, we honored their request and arrived promptly at 8:30. Upon peering through the windows of the restaurant, we were greeted kindly. We were seated at a nice 5 person table in the courtyard. Menus were given, drinks were ordered, and all was well. Even I ordered mussels, though they aren't my favorite food, but I wanted to try the best ones in town. Being gluttonous Americans but also deeply hungry by 8:30 pm, my entire family of 5 each ordered their own pot of mussels. We sat for about 5 minutes in the sparse ambiance when a new waiter fearfully stated that he had bad news. Somehow, they were out of mussels. You may ask, how does that happen? This is a mussels restaurant that is open after 8:30 and they don't have what they advertise? or even why would they seat you and have you order if they had no mussels? I also ponder these questions. Unfortunately, I will never get an answer, because I decided it was time to leave the restaurant. Half of my family stayed behind to pay for the drinks, and I will admit they absolutely did not make us pay for the drinks and were very apologetic, hence the second star. That second star truly only goes out to that singular man who comped our drinks. All of the other stars I have to give go out to the Italian place across the road, which thankfully, had the food they advertised. So yes, that's my adventure with the best mussels in Brussels. If anyone reading this review knows where I can find them, please let me know. I'd like to try them. Seriously.

P.S. I do know the owner tends to reply to these reviews, so if he sees this and wants to let me know when they get some of the best mussels in Brussels back in stock, that would be awesome. Thank you in advance.

Still...

Bad.

We came here because we saw it on Travel Man - a UK TV show - and we wanted to have authentic moules frites in Brussels.

Ordered two moules dishes, one with saffron cream, the other white wine, garlic and cream. Both delicate, subtle dishes.

Received two very different meals. We flagged this to the waiters who merely swapped them over between me and my wife. What we actually had was Moules Congalaise (hot African chillies) and another dish. It’s very hard when you are trying to order and speak in a second language to feel confident enough to complain or to flag that you’ve been given the wrong thing. I mentioned to a young waiter but he was dismissive that it was correct.

At the end of the meal, the maitre d’ / owner acknowledged the dishes were completely wrong (it would be difficult to be more different). We had no replacement dishes offered or different moules whilst we were eating - the conversation waited until the end of the meal. They did take off the bill the aperitifs we had and the water for the table (which was less than the price of the moules) but we still paid for the food and the wine. They also said the few sweets and liqueurs / digestifs were free, but that was clearly the case for everyone else as well.

It’s made us really sad and is very disappointing, having moules and frites in Brussels was a special thing for us. It took us hours to get here (UK trains - not the fault of the restaurant) and we had very high hopes.

Finally - I’m always really hesitant and careful to write a poor review of a family run / local restaurant, but this was bad and then wasn’t handled very well or generously. Team could have changed the food as soon as they realised the error or given the food for free. I would have happily paid for wine and...

Worst restaurant experience of my life. Not only is the customer service appalling, the food is mediocre and extremely overpriced.

They ran out of their house speciality, the famous 69 varietes of mussels (which they brazenly advertise on their website), so we were forced to choose from the ubiquitous steak/lasagne. Exactly the kind of typical Belge food tourists are looking for!

Worst of all was that the owner/manager belligerently blamed us for not knowing that mussels were out of season, took an hour to get us our appetizers then, cherry on top, forgot to fire up the entrees for our 9 top table. We went in at 8:30, as per our reservation, and left at 11 with no food in our stomach.

They absolutely refused to take any responsibility for their screwups.They even had the gall to argue with us and tell us that it's our 'bad luck' that we didn't get any food.

I've eaten at great restaurants, not so good ones and terrible ones. But after this experience, even the worst restaurant seems like a great alternative. Le Zinneke has pushed the bar of terrible so low that I doubt it'll ever have competition.

Forget about getting decent food, if you want to be treated like a decent human being, then don't even think of setting a foot in...