Skyler W.
Yelp
Oh boy... So, the wife and I have been looking forward to going to OLD BOY ever since we first heard about it. We even went to Eat Brussels Drink Bordeaux, a Brussels food festival-type dinner because OLD BOY was one of the participants. We've seen them featured on all sorts of Brussels food publications, read the rave reviews, and salivated over the Instagram photos. We booked ourselves a reservation and showed up early to have a drink when the restaurant opened. In hindsight, maybe the experience of watching the waiter maker cocktails should have been the first red flag, as he eyeballed the drinks, pouring a little in, stepping back to judge the height of the liquid in the glass before adding a splash more, dunking the bar spoon in but neglecting to stir the drink. I ordered the Sagat cocktail, and the wife had the mocktail. The cocktail was fine, but nothing to write home about. Due to lack of being mixed properly, the mocktail tasted strongly of chili at bottom, making it almost undrinkable. We both ordered the pink menu, which happened to be the meat menu, as well as the wine pairing. The price was 40€ per person for the food, and an additional 30€ for the wine pairing, which was four wines and a sake for dessert. The first course was easily the best-- braised pork belly bao. The bao bun was perfectly fluffy and the pork, despite being a bit dry, was tasty. This was followed by a miso tuna with a vinaigrette and mandarin orange, which worked surprisingly well. Each of these dishes were accompanied by a natural wine, the first a white, then an orange, paired with the black wontons, which were also well composed. Filled with black pudding, the fusion was at it's most obvious here. The sauce, a sweet chili, was pretty basic, but fine. After this... Everything started to fall apart. It was about here that we realized the wine pours were pretty small--about half small glass. Like 10cl. I've had tasters at wine bars larger than the pours they gave. They were also poured a least ten minutes before the next dish, which meant a wine that was intended to be paired with a dish sat there, and being such a small pour, we didn't even really want to try a sip, as then we wouldn't have any left to try along with the food. A rosé, which tasted like a sour beer, that I actually found quite nice, accompanied the next dish, mussels and clams kaprao--though it certainly didn't pair well. The small bowl of mussels and clams were shells. I think, despite the visible clam shells in the photos, there were only about three clams in the entire dish as they were primarily just shells. The dish was served with rice, which was a bit confusing, but we were happy to have some starch. The portion size was in no way adequate for two people though. Yes it looks like a fair amount, but considering most, no joke, most of the shells were without actual mussels, it was very little food. It was at this point we joked about the chicken, which was intended to be the main course. We joked about how it wouldn't come with rice, how it would be so small, and how disappointing it could be... And guess what? What arrived next was the equivalent of two chicken skewers, no rice, and two sauces. When my wife asked if it should be served with rice, the waiter said no, but offered to bring us some anyhow. It was at this point I noticed something about the table next to us... The couple had order one meat menu and one vegetarian menu, and as a result, they received the same amount of chicken, for one, as we did for two. Here we are, paying about 16€ per dish, as each plate was a shared plate, and we're receiving such tiny servings. Don't get me wrong, we've been to numerous shared plate style restaurants, but each time we've left full and satisfied. We were still hungry. 80€ and still hungry. The cherry on top of this had to be the sake. A delicious sake, though again a small pour, which when paired with their coconut cream ice cream and chocolate mousse was runied. Absolutely ruined. It's like no one at the restaurant actually tasted the two together. It was so undrinkable that my wife, who also loved the sake prior to the dessert, couldn't finish it after having tasted the ice cream. The wife, who is a notorious lightweight when it comes to alcohol, especially wine, was stone sober after four glasses and a sake. 60€ in wine later, and not even a pleasant buzz. Ridiculous. We were so excited about OLD BOY and then to spend a total of 163€ and walk away hungry was such a disappointment. This is food for people who aren't familiar or accustom to Asian food. Who eat baos with a knife and fork because they don't know how to eat them. The best part about our experience was the fact that we were able to get out of there before 10pm so we could hoof it down to street to grab a bacon cheeseburger at RAMBO before they closed. This is a place to be seen, but not a place to enjoy if you're a lover of food.
