On route back to London, we decide to detour through Brussels, Belgium, to catch up with some friends who have now made this city their home. What would a road trip be without spontaneity? At the suggestion of the friends, we headed to Restaurant Brasseries Georges. If you are looking for some oysters in Brussels then perhaps this is perhaps the restaurant to try. On the day we visited there were some 20 different varieties on the menu, including local, French, Dutch and English (Colchester) offerings and which ranged in price up to about €30 for nine. There was also a selection of different types of seafood if you have an aversion to oysters: fish, clams, langoustines, whelks, sea urchins, prawns, lobster and of course mussels!

If this appears to be a tremendous amount of choice, then you may wish to settle for one of the seafood platters to give you a little taste of everything. Some eight different types of platters were available, for one or two persons, and all starting from about €20. For the meat eaters, options were also plentiful. And for every palate, a promise of the “best french fries in the world” cooked in goose fat.

Belgian croquettes with Ostend shrimp

Tempting as the fries were, we decided to start with croquettes and the calamari and octopus salad. Famously, croquettes are Friday night drinking food in Holland with various different types of fillings. Much like how we might purchase the odd kebab from Maroush in London, the Dutch buy their croquettes from a Dutch fast food chain called Febo. Typically theirs contain mash potato, but our Belgian croquettes today were instead filled with a hearty, deliciously thick creamy sauce filled with Ostend shrimp that ran a dreamy line along the inside of my mouth. The salad was well proportioned, but erred more on the side of just calamari rather then any octopus or salad, but so tender that I would’ve had no qualms feeding it to grandpa even without his dentures.

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