Origine

I need to travel to Brussels on business on a regular basis and it can happen that the conferences I am attending are held in the European quarter, close to the European Parliament and other international institutions, with wide and busy roads and high, shiny buildings. So you will see a lot of professional-looking people, rushing from A to B.

I usually stay in a hotel or B&B near the Place Jourdan, which is only a short walk through the Léopold park from the institutions. Place Jourdan has recently been refurbished and hosts an array of restaurants with large terraces up front where you can sit in the summer and throughout most of the year and enjoy drinks and food.

But to be honest, most of the restaurants at Place Jourdan do not really tempt me and I had been looking for quite a while to find a good quality restaurant which doesn’t break the bank and serves a vegetarian option for Lunch. I finally stumbled on Origine, which is only a minute walk away from Place Jourdan. It serves Lunch from 12.00 to 14.00 and Dinner from 19.00 until 22.30 and is closed on Sundays and Mondays. I recommend booking a table for both services.

Their Lunch formula includes a soup, a main dish and coffee for 15 Euros, add in a water or a glass of wine plus tips, I usually spent 20 Euro in total. Usually the soup is vegetarian and for the main dish you have a choice between meat/fish and an vegetarian option. The menu changes daily and is announced every day just before 12.00 on their Facebook page.

During dinner time, they serve a 4-course menu for 38 Euros, which I think is well priced considering the location and the quality. The 4-course menu includes a cold as well as a warm starter, a main and a desert. There is a meat, fish and vegetarian option for each course and of course you can mix and match or only choose a starter/main or main/desert.

Their dishes are quite creative and really nicely composed, flavour-wise as well as visually. So far I have had a vegetable soup and a cauliflower soup, which can change at short notice should the kitchen run out. For me, that’s a good sign, showing that dishes are freshly produced and food waste is reduced as much as possible.

As mains I have tried their fried halloumi with sweet potato and snapper à la plancha with a tomato-herb salsa and fried crispy potatoes. You also get a bread basket with some fresh baguette or bread with butter, though I am not sure whether they bake it in-house. You can finish your lunch with your choice of coffee.

The place is usually busy but service is friendly, attentive, speaks English quite well. Tables are a bit close next to one another and it can get a bit noisy but that’s not really of consequence to me. They have an open kitchen, with even some seating on high chairs directly at the counter to the kitchen, and you can watch the kitchen staff working while waiting for your food.

I have been pleasantly surprised by this little restaurant and am already looking forward to trying out the dinner menu, which changes regularly with the seasons. Fresh and seasonal produce and well executed dishes at a great price in a cozy setting, can only recommend.

***Update***

Recently, the price of their lunch menu has increased from 15 to 18 Euros, which I still think is a very good deal for the quality food you are receiving.