Zilte - Antwerp
The restaurant is located on the top floor of the modern Antwerp city museum.
Rating: 19/20
Where: Antwerp, Belgium
When: Dinner for 2 on 11 April 2022
Cost: Tasting menu 270-330 Euro
Accolades: 3 Michelin stars
Why: Amazingly precise cooking drawing the best from all ingredients; vegetables are wonderful in particular
If someone told you that the best thing they ate at a three star Michelin restaurant was a carrot, what would you think? That it's a backhanded compliment? In this case, far from it. But let's start at the beginning.
Zilte is located on the top floor of the Antwerp city museum, having a great view over the city. The museum building is very modern, and a bit forlorn in the evening - there are few people nearby, the museum is dark, with only a receptionist to welcome you and send you up an elevator to the restaurant.
The welcome was warm, and we were seated in a lounge for the amuse bouches and an aperitif. Located in the southwest corner of the building, the lounge has large windows looking out onto the city, and, depending on the time of the year, the sunset. The interior of the restaurant is modern with lots of black, matching the rest of the museum, of which it has been a tenant since its opening in 2011.
Champagne options for the aperitif ranged from 20 to 60 Euro per glass, and I appreciated that the server set down a tiny menu with prices when presenting the champagne tray. We later learned that the sommelier thinks that one should never charge more than 40 Euros for a glass of wine without stating the cost explicitly - I wish that everyone abided by that credo.
The amuse bouches were prepared at a food station right next to the lounge, so one could watch the plating and/or say thanks to the chefs in person. A savory millefeuille with a perfectly crunchy cracker and a filling with sour notes, and (I think) chicken fat was fantastic - good texture and a refreshing acidity 19.
Salmon tartare on thinly cut, crunchy potatoes was pleasant, but maybe a bit too “mayonnaisy” 18. Avocado on a nori cracker was close to perfect, creaminess from the avocado, crunch from the cracker 19. A Michelin-star shaped cracker with a small piece of mackerel was more of a mixed bag, the cracker was great, but topped with a disconcertingly sweet sauce 17.
The final amuse before being led to the table was a thin pastry shell filled with green asparagus mousse and asparagus pieces. Deceptively simple, and less busy than some of the preceding amuses, this was easily the best among them, with really strong asparagus flavor 20. Yay for seasonal produce.
Somewhere among these amuses, we were asked to order. The restaurant is tasting menu only, with a choice of 7 or 9 courses, or alternatively of an entirely vegetarian tasting menu. We went for the regular nine course menu. Wine pairings are by the glass, with usually two or three choices offered per course. That makes it easy to try different pairing options for the same dish, or skip some pairings entirely if nine full glasses sound a bit overwhelming (which is what we did).
Our dining table was situated right next to the huge glass window looking into the kitchen. We could see the chef himself hard at work, not just checking off completed dishes, but actually cooking.
The last amuse was served at the dining table: carabinero shrimp with daikon rolled into cones that seemed to contain cheese. Wonderful, light, creamy, with a good amount of acid, and pretty in pink 19+.
Bread was a focaccia brushed with olive oil and a buttery brioche. Both were served warm and dangerously delicious. "Dangerous" since at this point, we're obviously hungry and tempted to eat the loaves in their entirety - with nine courses still to go not the most prudent idea.
Course number one was scallops, prepared two ways. First, barely cooked, with broccoli (mini-florets blanched and larger thin slices of broccoli stem fermented and then dried), and seasoned with galangal, a variant of ginger. The second preparation was pan-seared scallop with a similar sauce and a little bouquet of herbs. The sauces and accompaniments were amazing, the herb bouquet and dried broccoli especially memorable. The scallops' flavor was more subtle, seemingly prepared separately from the accompaniments. The overall dish was still close to perfect 20.
Next was one of the two extra courses that separate the seven and nine course menus: caviar served two ways. The first variant, caviar on a blini with toro and nori, didn't come together as well as it sounds on paper 17. The other preparation with caviar on top of slices of squid and onions with an onion broth was superb, however. So much flavor in such a little package, the broth ever so slightly sweet from the caramelized onions. The squid had great texture, not chewy or rubbery at all 20.
Our third dish was an oyster with fried slices of eel and a sauce with "Asian" flavors and lemon verbena. I found this dish hard to rate, the accompaniments to the oyster were utterly delicious, especially the eel and sauce. There was a running trend here: all sauces during the dinner were amazing, we finished every last drop. If the server had left the little serving sauce pan with the remainder of the sauce on the table, we'd probably doubled our calorie intake by finishing those off as well. In other words, everything except for the oyster would be 20. However, my oyster was somewhere between tasteless and tasting bad. Now, I love raw oysters, and tend to prefer smaller ones. No such luck here: the oyster was bbq’ed and on the larger side. But that still shouldn't have made it taste "off", so presumably we just had bad luck with ours? Generously overall 18.
Next up: sea bass with beans, garlic leaf tempura, white asparagus and razor clam. This dish was magnificent. All ingredients cooked separately to perfection and the sauce bringing the whole dish together. If I had to criticize anything, then that the dish could have been served a bit warmer. But that'd be petty 20.
Blue lobster was next, on a plate containing three separate dishes: lobster claw under a cracker, a dried carrot, and lobster meat with a vadouvan sauce. The lobster was a bit chewy, and outshone by its accompanying sauce. The cracker was nicely spicy. But that carrot - holy shit! A show stopper, this single carrot was an entire meal in itself, a single bite delivering sweetness, saltiness, umami, a veritable progression of flavors. It's probably no exaggeration to say that this was the best carrot I've ever eaten, and the single best thing I've had in 2022 so far (the year is still young though). This dish made me seriously consider coming back here just for the vegetarian menu, just to see what else they can conjure from vegetables 20.
Second-to-last in the savory progression were frog legs. I commend the restaurant for replacing these in the pescatarian menu - we've seen previous cases where frogs were considered pescatarian by virtue of "they are in the water". By the same reasoning, ducks should probably be considered pescatarian as well... Anyway, I digress. Frog legs were deboned, which essentially leaves just little nuggets of meat that might as well have been chicken, only more tender. They came with truffles, celeriac, and a morel mushroom stuffed with minced truffle. A very good dish, the morel and sauce wonderful in particular. Serving it a bit warmer could have made it even better 19.
The main course was lamb served two ways. First, two cuts, one on the ribs with black rice, red pepper and artichoke. I thought the lamb was ok, not great, maybe 17. The non-meat accompaniments, in particular the black rice, were amazing, though 20. Overall, maybe 18 or so for the dish. Made me wonder again about that vegetarian menu...
The second preparation of lamb was braised on top of lentils and carrots. Compared to previous amazing dishes, this was merely ok 16.
There is an optional cheese course, which can also replace the desserts, if desired. We opted for the latter choice for one of us, and were quite happy with our selection of "strong" cheeses.
Desserts as a whole did not live up to the level of the preceding savory courses. The fist dessert was strawberry two ways, first as a little ice cream cone, and then with white chocolate and a strawberry vinaigrette. Nothing special, each 16.
The second dessert, a passion-fruit/chocolate combination was maybe a tad better, but also nothing particularly surprising or memorable 16.
A final round of petit fours was again served in the lounge, alongside coffee and tea. A cocktail glass of limoncello mousse was decent 16, similarly a little crunchy basket with white chocolate and pine-nuts 16. A chocolate bonbon 14 and a white chocolate bonbon 15 were less successful. And another Michelin-star-shaped tart with raspberry was underwhelming and too soft 12.
Overall: This simply amazing cooking on display. Sauces, flavor and texture combinations were for the most part as good as this can get. A very solid three stars for the savory part of the menu. I love the seafood heaviness and making each ingredient on the plate sing, not just the "main" part of the dish. The desserts however were somewhat lack-luster, maybe one star level, dragging the overall score down a bit 19+. And we definitely need to return for that vegetarian tasting menu.
