La Paix

Fine 2 stars Michelin restaurant. Warm welcome, great seafood menu and delicious wines. The closed window blinds make it more private and intimate.

Delicious, well thought out menu which included some small surprises that we enjoyed. Service was great, we opted for the wine pairing and each combined perfectly per course. Menu very seafood heavy, which I enjoyed but might not be for everyone. Tuna and red mullet were my highlights.

Amazing restaurant in a historic building in the Anderlecht district of Brussels. You are seated in the beautiful and calm dining room and have a choice of two versions of the tasting menu. I went for the full menu, and every single food item (more than 15 in total arrived on my table) including all the small surprises were absolutely delicious, beautifully presented and made from the finest ingredients. I would give the food 6 stars if I could. The lemon with caviar and langoustine was particularly delicious. Also, the service is fantastic. I had the pleasure of having Fabio take care of my table and he was extremely attentive, very friendly and professional. He is very knowledgeable about the food, the wine and also about the history of the restaurant and the background of the chef and his wife who runs the dining room so smoothly. They all go out of their way to ensure guests have an excellent experience. This was my first visit to La Paix, but I can, without hesitation, give this restaurant my very best recommendation.

Delicious food, wonderfully nice staff, great attention to detail. Wine pairings were amazing. Love the Japanese and French fusion, you can certainly tell it’s a skilled chef who trains his staff well. Chef David Martin was in the kitchen/restaurant the whole time making sure everything was executed perfectly They were willing to accommodate my wife who doesn’t like raw food by adjusting her raw dishes to cooked ones extremely well. Absolutely love when a restaurant is able to be skilled enough to alter their set menu to make a guests experience better, chef certainly deserves his Michelin stars

Food was great, atmosphere great, service good but not spectacular. For the rating and especially the price I would expect service to be above all and I was disappointed a couple of times. There were a number of times our glasses were empty and I had trouble getting our waiter’s attention. One time it seems he may have asked someone else to refill our water and when that didn’t happen there seemed to be a discussion about it (in a language I don’t speak). I know it’s nitpicky, but for 800€ for 2 it’s something I expect to not be an issue.

Brilliant food, lackluster service Food was overall exceptional and remarkably executed in the plate: mind blowing for the first 2/3rds of the menu, from the peach/tomato to the warm mochi to the lobster. Very unique tastes, lots of risks taken yet spot on on flavor balance and visually stunning. Amazing work by the chef and team! Desserts were slightly less stunning but very good nonetheless. However, service in general was a bit mechanical, with limited advice on wine, and not much warmth / hospitality. Lastly, the cadence that evening was lacking / below expectations for a Michelin star, let alone 2-star - with 30-40 minutes wait between some courses. It seems either the kitchen is understaffed, or the chef should manage the tempo more closely ? At this price and guide rating, everything should be close to perfection, and sadly for us the service detracted from the overall experience. We thoroughly enjoyed and will remember many of the creative and deliciously balanced dishes !

The food was good, the lemon was the best part. Some of the desserts really knocked it out of the park, while others (poultry dish) was so/so. I am giving a 3/5 due to having to ask for water and wine on multiple occasions, and not being offered the bottle of wine to to take home. In a normal restaurant I would let this go, but in a two michelin star, I typically experience better.

Culinary heaven on Earth! Have had dinner at many starred restaurants, but this was the best kitchen ever experienced. Not only the welcome, service and atmosphere is super spontaneous, authentic, typical and warm, also the food - a combination of French and Japanese cuisine , using delicious and different crabs and recongnizable ingredients - is just blowing you away with every dish. Melting on the tongue, perfect pairings, delicate flavours that really go well together and very surprizing wines (Hungarian white wine! super nice). A simply fantastic evening. We were 4 - right front of the kitchen and the chef and his team were perfectly in control. A pleasure to see. His wife is managing the service perfectly too. You can see and feel she is close to her team and gives them the trust and freedom to give their own touch to their work and how they deal with the guests. Many thanks to the La Paix team and hope to come back one day.

La Paix repeatedly came up as a recommendation, so we booked this for our final night in Brussels. We opted to walk here not realizing that the surrounding area is a little questionable even in broad daylight. It's located in the historic slaughterhouse area at the edge of Anderlecht. The original restaurant was more of a steakhouse, but chef David Martin took over many years ago and evolved it into a French Japanese place, complete with 1000 paper cranes overhead while still preserving many of the old features of the bank building. For dinner, they have 2 tasting options: Felix for 185€ and Roland for 245€. The Roland includes an additional caviar langoustine dish and a soufflé, but after a big lunch, we opted for the Felix. For the wine pairing, glasses are €12-22 each, and you can do as many or as few as you want, which is great. FELIX - 1. Warm and cold: warm bisque of crab with cold cream of coffee - super intense, warming, rich with just a hint of coffee and a slight kick from chili. 2. Oishi Sushi: bluefin tuna tartare 3. Marble squid ink custard with sujiko (marinated trout eggs): lots of textures 4.Gyoza: with Basque pork (melts in your mouth) and young garlic, and an amazing pork soy broth 5. Bread service: warm crusty baguette with - Smoked pork fat - Butter that tasted like caramel - Italian lardo de colonnata 6. Crab from the north coast wrapped with chicory/radicchio in a hibiscus vinaigrette, watercress cream 7. Chawanmushi: with white asparagus, Wagyu A5 ham (salted and aged 4-6 months), egg emulsion, white soy sauce, 3 preparations of grey shrimp. The wagyu ham was a bit overpowering for the rest of the dish, so I had it separately with the baguette 8. Poultry from Périgord: chicken breast from Perigord marinated in kojj and cooked in butter, ridiculously tender. It reminded me a lot of a chicken I had at Dinner by Heston Blumenrhal. It was filled with maiitakes and puffed rice, topped with yubeshi (miso/nut/yuzu) for texture and a bit of citrus. With it came fresh Italian green spring peas and super tender asparagus. They poured over a poultry and vin jaun reduction that I finished every last drop of. It also came with a side of vegetables - carrots and sweet onion diced and then covered in an emulsion. 9. Cone tartlet: with sabayon of coffee and mild licorice infusion, strawberry sorbet, fresh strawberries 10. Gavotte: French crepe cookie super thin like paper, flavored with vanilla 11. Monaka: two thin crisp wafers filled with blue vanilla ice cream 12. Japanese cheesecake: light and airy with rhubarb sorbet The standouts for me were the warm crab bisque and Perigord chicken, but every course was thoughtfully prepared and well balanced in flavors. Despite the many courses, each portion felt like the right amount, and I left very satisfied but not overly uncomfortable. This was certainly a wonderful find in Brussels - don't be deceived by the neighborhood it's in!

Surprise Tasting: Bread and Three Butters - Yuzu, Rosemary, Salted Fresh King Crab Bisque with Cold Coffee Cream / Gazpacho of Red Beet and Cherry, Smoked Eels, Belgian Goat Cheese Spring Pea Cheesecake, Cannelloni of Yellow Squash, Garlic Flowers, Pomelo and Pomegranate Cream Crab Brain Chawanmushi / King Crab Salad with Avocado, Cream of Black Sesame 36-Month Aged Parmigianino-style Swiss, Potato and Corn Cream, Green Asparagus, Jamon Serrano Smoked Hamachi, Daikon, Squid, Fermented Soy Squid on the Embers, Eggplant Mille-feuille, Miso, Cubed Daikon, Dashi Breast of Bresse Chicken, Green Herbs Emulsion, Cream of Squash, Hay-smoked Pommes Puree Fire roasted Cherries, Honey-Rosemary Ice Cream Strawberries and Rhurbarb Tartlette, Cream of Lemon, Rose Leaves Cherry Gateaux Basque, Black Cherries Ushered into a new era by Chef David Martin, a man of considerable talent with another more casual restaurant called Bozar downtown, La Paix has received considerable praise from in-the-know gourmands ever since evolving from a traditional Brasserie, and although several dishes from steak to offal are still readily available from the space dating to 1892 there is no doubt that Martin's pursuit of "honest" cuisine is best experienced by way of the Chef's Tasting Menu. Aged in its appearance from the outside, those unaware most likely to simply see the corner as nothing more than another bar and brasserie, entry to La Paix speaks to the levity imparted in dishes with strong Asian influences and although Martin himself hails from Southern France originally the origami decorations, serviceware and even tables speak to an interest in things found East. Offering several a la carte options, a lunch menu as well as several degustations, those interested in experiencing all La Paix has to offer are well advised to invest three hours into the 8-course "Menu Surprise" that sometimes comes straight from the carte but more often direct from the team of only six in the kitchen. Not as bustling as other Michelin starred spots, the casual ambiance and higher prices seeing a total of six-tables filled at lunch, service at La Paix comes from a two-person front-of-house and given the skeleton crew the delays from the kitchen can occasionally be lengthy, though free WiFi, the open kitchen and a tank of 5-6kg King Crabs from Scandinavia provide for entertainment while freshly made bread with three hand-crafted butters continuously offer temptation between plates of food. Starting with a duo of soup and salad, the bold gazpacho eating more like panna cotta than an actual potage, Martin makes his intent-to-wow known early on by way of the Fresh King Crab Bisque charged with a tableside ISI-shot of Cold Coffee Cream, spoonfuls offering juxtapositions in terms of taste, texture and temperature that continued to a brilliant opening act of Cheesecake comprised of soft goat cheese beneath a gel of Spring Peas with a warm stack of Yellow Squash that dances amongst citrus and Pomegranate cream. Open only during weekdays, a large gourmet center driving business from across the way, course two continued to show-off the enormous crustaceans in the tank by way of a duo of Crab Brain Chawanmushi and chilled King Crab Salad, the hot custard perhaps the most delicate and flavorful ever experienced while the creamy Avocado expectedly paired well with the sweet meat and cream of Black Sesame. Shaving "Swiss Aged 36-Months to resemble a Parmigianino" like a truffle for course three the hits continued with Potato and Corn Cream decorated in Green Asparagus and nutty ham, the follow-up of smoked Hamachi, snappy Squid and Fermented Soy with Daikon unfortunately not doing any favors to the fish's texture while far better execution was experienced from a steak of Calamari straight off the embers with a cube of Daikon and Eggplant stack bathed in Dashi. Continuing both light and seasonal for the final savory, a roulade of Bresse Chicken immensely juicy beneath crispy skin with green Herbs, Creamed Squash and smoky Pommes puree, there was a noted slowdown from the staff as the same young men responsible for savories transitioned to pastry, a simple bowl of two and a half stewed cherries taking nearly forty minutes to present with a small quenelle of Honey-Rosemary Ice Cream. Putting together dessert two more expediently, the Strawberry-Rhurbarb Tartlette a concept that would be seen repeatedly at fine dining establishments over the course of the next six days, La Paix's version did a nice job of highlighting the vegetable's tartness through Citrus and Roses, the 'mignardises' actually the best of the sweets as Chef Martin offers each guest a slice of Cherry Gateaux Basque, his father's favorite dessert showing that history still has its place at Rue Ropsey Chaudron 49.

Fantastic meat prime stuff and cooked to perfection. For a starred place the service is low key but very good giving you a nice Brasserie feeling. We thoroughly enjoyed. The only minus a bit pricey...