Boury - Roeselare
Dining room with a view of the garden
Rating: 18/20
Where: Roeselare, Belgium
When: Lunch for 7 on 3 December 2022
Cost: Tasting menu 145-265 Euro, Wine Pairing 120 Euro
Accolades: 3 Michelin Stars
Why: Wonderful French cuisine, excellent seafood, great service, generous wine pairing
Boury is a three Michelin star restaurant located in western Belgium, in the city of Roeselare. It is named after its chef Tim Boury, whose wife runs the front of the house. The restaurant is on the ground floor of an expansive mansion, and it has some associated guest rooms. The restaurant became the third Belgian restaurant to hold three stars in 2022, and given the quality of the other two, we were really looking forward to our lunch-time visit.
The dining room is open and modern - belying the more traditional outside of the building. Our table was next to the large panorama windows facing the mansion's garden. Given the December cold outside, we were definitely happy to be inside and not far from a gas-lit fire place.
For our lunch there were several tasting menu options ranging from a shorter lunch menu at 145 Euro to the full-blown signature menu at 265 Euro. A cheese cart and an oyster course were optional additions. While there was also an a la carte menu, our large group size meant that we had to preorder a tasting menu. We went for the longest menu, and added a few oysters. This ended up being a substantial amount of food, making us forgo the cheese course as an addition, but some of us chose it as a replacement for the desserts instead.
A wine pairing was available at a reasonable 120 Euro, featuring generally good wines that would cost around $30-$40 per bottle. I thought that the pairing was worth getting: the pours were substantial, and the sommelier topped off the glasses. A "designated driver" wine pairing is also offered with half-size pours - a nice touch, although your actual behind-the-wheel-worthiness may not be guaranteed. The non-alcoholic beverage pairing might be a safer choice for post-meal drivers.
The first arrivals from the kitchen were turnips, marinated and rolled into what looked like octopus slices. Seasoned with blueberries and lovage, this was a crunchy, clean and fresh start to our meal 18.
A trio of appetizers came next. Eating from the right to left on our plate, we started with a "panipuri" made with saffron, sweet potatoes, avocados, passion fruit and tamarind. This dish tasted less than the Indian chaat, and more like guacamole on a cracker. With a great avocado taste, and a notable acidity from the passion fruit, this was another winner 18.
Potato salad was served on a cracker made from chicken skin, and topped with smoked bell pepper powder. There was a good crunch from the cracker, and a nice smokiness, but overall, the flavor intensity was a step down from the preceding dish 17.
A aniseed tartlet filled with goat cheese was topped with a dry aged red beet slice. Nicely creamy 17.
Next, we encountered a spherical croquette filled with north sea shrimp and surrounded by a dill sauce. Tasty, and for better or worse a bit reminiscent of fish fingers. It was also a much heavier and fattier dish than its predecessors 17. The croquette was served alongside a puff pastry and yuzu butter. Both were excellent, the bread having a perfect flakiness and crunch 18.
The final amuse bouche was a cube of shredded hare meat, served with a cream of onion and umeboshi plums. Thankfully this dish was not gamey at all, in fact, one would have been hard pressed to say what kind of red meat it was. It felt a bit like eating a large piece of sausage with a decent sauce. Not bad, but also pretty heavy 17. I didn't try the pescatarian replacement, which was based on north sea crab, but it was reportedly excellent.
An optional oyster course followed, where we were able to choose between a cold and a warm preparation (or both). I went for the traditional cold version, and the oyster was decent, but not that special. Pretty large, it lacked a strong flavor, but the mignonette went a long way in remedying that 17.
During the following main portion of the tasting menu, we were served sourdough bread with a Spanish olive oil and butter. Not quite as delicious as the earlier puff pastry, it was still great for sopping up sauces (and the olive oil, of course) 17.
The first non-appetizer course was a beef tartare seasoned with mustard, served over chopped hazelnuts and topped with a buttermilk foam. The beef was tasty and fresh, and the crunchy crumbles added a nice contrast in texture 18. Pescatarians received north sea shrimp with a cauliflower mousse and a buttermilk horseradish sauce. I liked the shrimp, the light horseradish flavor and the different textures present in the dish - crunchy, chewy, creamy 18.
Perfectly cooked langoustine was paired with a wedge of pumpkin, some seaweed and a lime and fennel sauce. The sauce was excellent (close to 20) and went great with the flavorful langoustine 19. The table's assessment of this dish varied a bit from 18 to 20, but if you love langoustines, this might be THE dish for you.
We chose to add the chef's signature dish to our tasting menu. Thinly sliced lean bluefin tuna was rolled up around a few pieces of chives. The whole was topped with a generous amount of Belgian Ossetra caviar, and a dollop of a white sauce (whose contents I didn't catch). The caviar was amazing, the tuna fresh and almost melting in the mouth - this was deservedly a signature dish. The mystery white sauce added a nice bit of creaminess to the dish, and I only wish that there'd been more of it 19+.
Scallops were lightly cooked, and then sliced and interleaved with broccoli rabe leaves. They were served with chopped leeks and a jus containing sea buckthorn. Perfectly cooked scallops, a lovely sauce and a nice texture added by the leeks: this was another fantastic dish 19.
Sea sole was topped with bone marrow, black truffle slices, and surrounded by two sauces: one with more black truffles, the other with vin jaune. This was the heaviest, meatiest seafood dish served today, and could easily have been the main course. Bursting with truffle flavor, it was a most delicious end to the seafood portion of the meal 19. Others at the table would have given this a 20.
The main course, and the only one paired with a red wine, was hare. Its back was served with onions, sunchokes, a caramelized fig and a jelly of cranberries. On the side was a bowl of shredded and stewed hare legs, topped with a cream made from the hare bones. This was a dish that had "winter" written all over it - heavy and unfortunately a bit gamey in the case of the hare's back. The leg stew was somewhat lighter, but could have been served warmer. A decent hare dish, but not my favorite 17.
I preferred the pescatarian alternative: lobster served with Oxnard cabbage and asparagus. Very nice vegetables, a pretty good lobster and a great sauce 18.
Our selection from the cheese cart was pretty good, with some nice variety. The side salad was fantastic, the fruit spiced with ginger also great, only the toasted brioche left me a bit indifferent. There was also a wide selection of Madeiras to go with the cheeses.
The first dessert was a panna cotta topped with a sorbet of calamansi (a citrus fruit) and a jasmine tea emulsion. Lovely, fresh, light and citrusy, just the kind of dessert you want after a long lunch 18.
Dessert number two was split among two bowls: one containing chocolate, pears, macadamia nuts and pearls made from cardamom, the other bowl with a gingerbread-spiced French toast. A nice Christmas-time dessert with lots of different textures and temperatures (from lovely ice cream to warm French toast). Overall a bit heavy, but pretty good 17.
Petit fours concluded our lunch after about five hours. Chocolate pralines filled with a fig jam tasted a bit like the German Domino stones available around Christmas time 18. Caneles were served warm, and would ideally have been a bit doughier, but I'm nitpicking 17. A kumquat tartlet had a good crunch, but tasted a bit like run-of-the-mill cheesecake, the other desserts were more interesting 16. Cherry rollups had a great creamy cherry flavor 19. A mini gugelhupf was served warm 18. Beignets were freshly fried and topped with powdered sugar - very good, but one of the heavier desserts 18. Popsicles of limoncello were prepared table-side, and had a nice lemon flavor, but they also were so light and airy that they disappeared as soon as one tasted them - a Schrödinger's dessert 17. A final white chocolate mousse was a nice birthday treat, but otherwise just ok 16.
Service throughout our dinner was excellent and relaxed. There were some hiccups at the beginning when the wine we ordered by the glass didn't show up until several courses later, but everything thereafter went smoothly. Servers managed to describe dishes even though the conversation at the table barely had any breaks. Somehow they managed to do so without seeming to intrude.
Overall: This lunch justified Boury's place in the very impressive group of Belgian three-stars. French cuisine with great ingredients, wonderful sauces, and nice balances of flavors and textures. The seafood courses that made up the majority of the tasting menu were particularly impressive, all solidly three-star without any misses. Some appetizers and desserts were a bit below that level, but overall this is definitely worth the trip to this part of Belgium 18+.
Tasting menu