Belga Café

You can plan and read and scheme but sometimes serendipity serves you best. We went to a cocktail party at a friend's place near Eastern Market and since we secured a parking place decided to explore 8th Street SE, which was hoppin' on a Friday night.

As we walked along looking at the numerous restaurants and their sidewalk areas we saw an empty two-top at Belga Café and got ourselves seated there. It vaguely rang bells and clearly sported a fairly authentic Belgian menu. It turns out that Chef Bart Vandaele claims to be the original Belgian restaurant in the District, leading the way in one of DC's biggest trends.

We split the four-cheese croquettes, which were hot and creamy and richly cheesy, with a frisée-bacon salad and balsamic gelée. I had the Flemish beef stew with red cabbage and the rich, brown braised beef truly melted in your mouth with a deep beef flavor. The red cabbage tasted of cabbage but was blander than some other versions I've had. It was served with frites -- which were very good and served nice and hot.

Service was good though I made the mistake of letting the server pick my beers without checking the price and while the blond Lucifer was good to start with and pricey at $9, the stout, though it paired well with the beef stew, was too expensive at $12.

We like Brasserie Beck and Marcel's, so we're definitely susceptible to Belgian cuisine. The Belga Café menu looks great, with a good mix of authentic traditional dishes and updated or Eurofusion creations. Not sure how pleasant it would be inside, but the patio on a breezy spring evening was ideal. The whole 8th Street SE scene was a revelation. It is really far from our house but definitely worth a trip back.

Et Voila

Belgian is in -- Belgian beer, Belgian cuisine, Belgian chocolate. Brussels has always been home to fine restaurants and some of the finest cellars in Europe, dating back to its affiliation with the Duchy of Burgundy.

DC now has several Belgian eateries, and last night we revisited Et Voila, the restaurant on MacArthur Boulevard now in its second year. This visit was a much more positive experience than our first one, which was soon, too soon, after it opened. Then it was hot and loud, with spotty service and mixed fare.

Yesterday was much better. The air-conditioning was working and the narrow space was much more serene, with its pastel colors and skylights. Service was flawless and the food was very good.

The quintessential Belgian dish is of course "moules-frites," mussels and fries. I passed on the mussels yesterday in favor of a salad of Belgian endive with blue and Chimay cheeses, roasted pecans and Gala apples. It was all nicely chopped in an oval bowl and quite tasty.

For the main course, I had the flatiron steak with green peppercorn sauce, served with fries and mixed greens. The steak was tender, cooked to a perfect medium rare, and set off nicely by the sauce. The fries were great, a deep golden color, still hot and not greasy.

Though German pilsner beers remain my favorite type, I've grown to like the Belgian beers for their fresh, citrusy taste. I had a Grimbergen to wet my whistle -- a "golden blonde ale with fruity undertones and a sharp finish" as the description goes. With the meal, we had a very nice wine from the Rhone, a 2004 Vacqueyras Vieux Clocher, that had a curranty, peppery taste that went very well with my steak.

Happily, Et Voila is not participating in restaurant week, so we were free to order a la carte and skip dessert.

Et Voila specifies that it is Belgian French -- so not bound by traditional Belgian dishes. The menu seems to be an updated cuisine bourgeois, nice bistro fare, and the prices are, as they say in French, "imbattable" (unbeatable).

I didn't taste any other dishes but my dinner companions, judging by the empty plates, were very happy with their entrees -- pan-seared trout with olive and parsley crushed potatoes, mussel and gray shrimp sauce; organic chicken breast, shiitake mushrooms, fava beans, artichokes and thyme jus; and Muscovy duck breast served with braised salsify and cherry sauce.

Et Voila is a collaboration between Chef Claudio Pirollo, the best young chef in
Belgium in 1994 according to the Web site, and Mickael Cornu, a pastry chef. Pirollo spent six years as chef to the Irish ambassador in Washington before opening Et Voila in the Palisades in May 2008.

Brasserie Beck remains my favorite Belgian, but Et Voila is a good deal more affordable. It would be hard to beat Dr. Granville Moore's moules-frites, but I'll give Et Voila a chance my next trip back.