BALLEKES

Apart from carbonnades flamandes and stoemp, there are few dishes as Belgian as meatballs in tomato sauce. At the recently opened BALLEKES restaurant they do meatballs very well, but not just with tomato sauce! Other options you’ll have to try, are a cherry sauce, a mushroom sauce, a sauce with sirop de Liège, a trappist beer and chicon sauce, and a regularly changing special.

In line with the current trend of ‘compose your own dish’, you’ll have to go up to the counter, and decide first if you prefer the classic beef and pork meatballs, chicken meatballs, or veggie balls. Then you choose how you want it: by itself with one of the aforementioned sauces, on a baguette, or with a salad.

We decided to go for the first option, beef and pork meatballs with sauce, and fries. You get two balls with that option, each served in its own cast iron Staub dish, so we could try four different sauces at once! The meatballs are lovely, and we can now attest the sauces Schtroumph, Lapin, Trappist and Mamy’s Special — a creamy pepper sauce this week — are all delicious, the latter being my favourite. One downside: now we have to back regularly to try every new special sauce…

Our menu was actually more filling than we expected: the meatballs are big, lots of sauce, and the portion of fries quite generous. The sauces for the fries even include the sauces by Brussels Ketjep, which is quite nice, since I love to have their Dallas sauce with my fries.

But about beer now! I was delighted when I noticed some BALLEKES branded beer glasses in a Facebook post: that seemed to indicate they would at least have thought about their beer offer. When we finally made to the restaurant, we discovered they even have two beers on draught! At the moment, Vedett IPA and Blanche de Namur are available from tap, and going by the Vedett themed wallpaper, I expect at least one Vedett beer to be available on tap at all times.

The beer selection from Brussels Beer Project — in bottle — was a bit more to our taste. Maybe they will at some point be able to get some kegs in from them as well?

Service was great — happy to provide explanations about all the different options, and very friendly in general — food was delicious, and there are a couple of interesting beers available to go with your meal. We’ll be back for the next special sauce!