Restaurants

Switch

Rue de Flandre, 6,  1000 Bruxelles, 
+32 25031480  / / view map

Surveyed 16/01/2012
What does this rating mean?

About this restaurant

Half bistrot, half restaurant, Switch is that fine hybrid, a bistrot gastronomique. The name also refers to the career change from gamekeeper to poacher, or rather from food writer and tv producer to restaurateur for Marc Boutsen. Switch also, not to labour the point too much, references a style of cooking that encompasses both franco-belgian classics and contemporary Gallic cuisine within a changing menu.

Starters hover around the 16€ mark, and mains average 21€. Set menus of 30 and 35€ are served to a table. The menu has style and aspiration: swordfish sushi with mackerel butter, wasabi and sherry vinegar; red mullet, fennel compote, tomato tapenade and potato puree ‘Robuchon’; sweetbreads with dried fruit, veal sauce with dates and figs, mushrooms and ‘pommes pailles’. Aubrac sirloin with foie gras and truffles ticks all the big gourmet boxes.

There are some interesting inclusions (especially to Anglo-Saxon sensibilities) such as the sauce Blackwell to accompany ‘filet mignon de Pata Negra’ with rosemary gratin dauphinois, and the ‘crumble’ of speculoos with the salted caramel ice cream and coffee granita.

The monochrome interior design of the small, sleek restaurant located in the centre of Brussels is notable for the striking black and white striped walls. If they start to waver, then you’ve probably overdone the Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

They say...

In order to guarantee the best produce we call on the best suppliers in the vicinity, such as La Mer du Nord for our fine fish.

We say...

The restaurant is willing to think about sustainable issues but needs to do more. We would encourage them to improve and update the website, state their ethical beliefs clearly and make sure they do not serve species such as eel and wild Atlantic salmon. It would also help their score if they knew in greater detail and with greater confidence the provenance of the fish on the menu, and they highlighted this to their customers.