Restaurant Review - Taste of Belgium

Yay! We finally got around to visiting Taste of Belgium over the weekend for Rob's birthday. He wanted mussels, fries and Belgian Beers for his birthday and that's what he was going to get! We have been here for beers and french fries twice, but this was our first time coming in for a full meal.

We showed up and were told it would be about a 20 minute wait so we grabbed a couple of belgian beers at the bar and chatted...

I hate waiting, but I will say that this place has plenty of room to wait. You aren't standing on top of people's tables or smooshed into some area near the cold front door..there is plenty of space around the bar to sit/stand and have a drink while you wait. We ended up waiting about 45 minutes (we were offered a seat the community chef's table, but chose to wait for our own table).

 Once we were seated we already knew what we wanted to get. The first time we ever tried escargot was on our honeymoon in Europe on a cruise. It was not something we would usually order, but on the cruise everything is included so we ordered some things that were different than our norm (knowing if we didn't like it, we could just order something else) and luckily ended up realizing how delicious escargot is. Anyway, we knew that's the appetizer we wanted.

delicious escargot

Oh man...honestly you might be able to cook a dirty boot in this sauce of butter, garlic and wine and I would probably eat it and ask for seconds, but thankfully for us instead of a boot we had these big and delicious pieces of escargot. After we finished them there was lots of bread soaking to soak up all the last drips of their delicious sauce.

We ordered another beer.....

Then we were ready for the main event, what we came for, what the birthday boy had been hankering for for a month...... the 2lb pot of mussels. There are four different flavors you can get...but we went traditional with the Provencal style.

Big meaty delicious mussels cooked in a sauce of tomatoes, white wine and garlic. I had all but given up hope finding delicious mussels in Cincinnati...so thank you Taste of Belgium for restoring my hope.

 Oh, and did I mention these mussels are served with a large plate of french fries with aioli on the side? Because it is....and they're great.

 As much as I like the fries, to me it's not eating mussels without some crusty bread to eat some more of that broth...we asked our waitress for just a couple of pieces of bread to sop up some of the sauce and she was happy to bring some out....

We ended our night with one of their famous waffles with some strawberries on top... mmmm

Happy Birthday!

I can't wait to go back...friends that have been there before are the chicken and waffles as good as the mussels? Because I think that's what I have to have next time.. mmmmm