De Markten café

De Markten cafe

5 Oude Graanmarkt

1000 Bxl

http://www.demarkten.be/café

Unexpectedly great atmosphere

From the outside, this place does nothing to inspire you to go in. The windows reflect most light, so you only get a brief glimpse at the inside, and it's on the middle of a square so you assume that it'll just be a rather touristy spot. The amount of cool looking people that I could glimpse inside though, convinced me to give the place a shot.

Once I walked in, I immediately regretted not stepping in before. Maybe it was the fact that it was a lovely sunny day but the lights was so amazing. It came through those big windows (that blocked the outside view) in long warm streams and just made you want to hang out in there for a good few hours. There are lots of tables but with enough space between them, could be a bit too close with the whole cafe full, but it was about 3/4 full when I went and it was completely breathable. Very sleek style to the place, the walls are mostly white with one black wall with a chalkboard along it with all of the specials on it as well as most of the rest of the menu. There's also a bar area, that seats about 4-5 people on high-chairs. There's a nice hum of conversations but it's rather a quiet place, you could easily sit down and read for a while. 

See what I mean about the light?!?!?!???

I got seated and there was a little menu on the table, presented like a mini chalkboard with all of the different lunch choices on it. It was rather difficult to read, the print was a bit chubby for such a small format. There were multiple options for salads, sandwiches, tartines ,omelettes, the usual lunch go-to's. They also had a few specials: veggie lasagna, soup of the day and topping of the day for the tartines and others. I again went with a salad, smoked salmon this time! The salad was absolutely huge! I had again, very little time to lay back and really finish but even having had the time, I would have barely made a dent in the pile of lettuce and toppings. I really liked that they had some beetroot and apple in the mix as well, not just putting smoked salmon on top of a leaf tower. It was simple and to the point, 11,50 euros for my food which may have been a bit more of a touristy price as in the summer, they tend to have loads of tables set up out on the square.

As for the service, the waiters are all mother tongue dutch speakers, as De Markten is actually a Flemish cultural center of Brussels. They all speak French and will probably just as easily serve you in English. My server was hilarious, when I asked to take pictures of the place, he said it was fine and then just started striking different fabulous poses. It was great.

The super waiter

Overall, It's a good place with a jolly atmosphere, people are always in here and can stay for a long time. The food is nice, standard. Not much innovation but still good quality and very tastly/flavourful. Nice easygoing service. do not be fooled by the basic exterior, as it is such a nice place to chill. The calm yet chatty atmosphere is right up my alley. It's a cool cafe to visit as a local, to meet up with friends, maybe not your must-visit original place if you're just passing through. 

Also little heads-up, I am heading to Glasgow tomorrow (to go and visit a best friend of mine, Bronagh) and will be there all week so expect lots and LOTS of posts about that fab seeming town. I am super excited to return to Scotland! 

Hope you all have a great week!

John & Rose art cafe

John & Rose

80/84 Rue de Flandre

1000 Bxl

http://www.johnandrose.be/

Food and Art, what more could you want?

As soon as you walk into this place, you're greeted by a friendly waitress who gives you a seat and a menu. You then take off your coat and sit down and actually start to look around.

The area towards the street is the eating/seating area, filled with wooden tables and chairs. The walls are black but it works so well with the natural brightness from the windows that make up the whole front facade and extra lamps. The other thing that makes the black walls seem friendly is the fact that the other part of the space is totally white. The walls, the floor, the ceiling. All white and as minimalist as you could ever want it to be. There's a low table and couch chair area in there as well as a piano and one more wooden table in the center of the whole space. Space. The whole place is well laid out, giving a super open and spacious feel. On all of the walls, you'll find great geometric prints by the artist Izleo as well as candid shots of his work plastered in random places. This is the current exhibition at the cafe,  set to be there for only another week before they change it, so go now if you wish to see it!

The atmosphere is great, people are just sitting around with their friends, having brunch (available on weekends), chatting. The art area is quieter as you have fewer people in it but there's still the nice sound of chatter coming from behind.

I ordered a Caesar salad (served with fresh organic brown bread), among the choices of sandwiches, soup, eggs, vegetable dips, etc. All of the choices are very simple food but well prepared. They don't't try to make things too complicated and just had really tasty and healthy food clearly made with fresh ingredients. There was also a good selection of organic brand soft drinks.

As I briefly waited for my food, I got to look through a selection of brochures and magazines that had been set up on the low coffee table. All art related, one was a leaflet of the exhibit MA VILLE that you could see on all the walls, another was a book of Andy Warhol album covers. Nice touch for those who go in alone.

As for the service, the waitresses were lovely, open and talkative.
Funny story: I may have led them to think that I was going to leave a terrible review, because I ate very little of my salad (it was a huge portion and I wasn't very hungry, I thoroughly enjoyed what i did have though!), stayed for only 25 minutes, and was clearly taking lots of pictures of the place. But when the staff saw that I'd left a lot of food, they asked me if anything was wrong with it and offered for me to take the rest home, if I wanted to! So definitely got treated well, I was very impressed.

The pricing is very much affordable, my food cost 10 euros and my orange juice, 3. The most expensive thing on the menu was the brunch at 15 euros, and the cheapest food was the soup (served with bread), at 3,50 euros.

In summary: A great place to hang out with friends or to visit on your own and soak up the atmosphere. Really good service and fresh food. You can easily eat for under 15 euros and you really get your money's worth. The art really makes the space unique and vibrant. I would definitely recommend checking the place out, especially before the 7th of february before they change the artwork!.

       

(I only had my 50mm lens on me so I did a terrible job of capturing the spacious setting, sorry about that!)

also how cool is this stag on the window?

UPDATE:

I went back to try and take the space in it's entirety instead of just close ups of the art heheh