De Brasserie

Recently I was home alone with my son on a Saturday evening with the other family members out for dinner so we decided to go for dinner ourselves in De Brasserie in Keerbergen. The name may suggest this is to be a place on the lower end of the culinary ladder but it is actually more of a regular restaurant than a Brasserie. The food is of higher quality than that of a typical Brasserie and prices are in line with this. It is open daily starting at 11 which justifies the name. You can come early or in between typical lunch and dinner times to have a drink or a snack only, it is not mandatory to have food. Only in the afternoon, before dinner time you can have pancakes as a snack. Especially in the evenings the place can be packed and it might be challenging to find a table if you come without a reservation. The have a terrace in front and at the back. and also plenty of space inside. Terraces are (partly) covered so if it would start to rain you may still be safe outside. When we got there on a Saturday evening it was still chilly so we were happy to get a table inside. The menu is limited but there is enough variation in it for everyone to find something to their liking. There are the traditional dishes like steak or pan fried sole on the permanent menu supplemented with changing suggestions. This time of year the suggestions will have a few asparagus dishes for example. I went for Scampi Brasserie with linguine. A little spicy but managable by most, certainly not to be classified as hot. Scampi were good with the spinal cord removed and plenty. I could easily spare a few to give to my son to taste. He had a child portion lasagna which he liked very much. Before your order you get an amuse and olives + bread as well. My son got a child ‘friendly’ amuse, something like a fancy chicken nugget. The interior is a mix of old elements of the building with modern furniture. Staff is always very friendly and there is a lot of choice for drinks as well. The atmosphere is very brasserie like so you don’t have to dress up or be afraid to bring your kids but the quality of the food is certainly a level up.