An affordable 3-course meal at San Sablon

Last week I went to San Sablon (Brussels) for lunch, together with my mom. San Sablon is a very cosy and modern restaurant owned by Chef Sang Hoon Degeimbre who owns a 2-star restaurant close to Namur. He opened San Sablon together with another restaurant called "San" in Brussels. In these restaurants he makes it possible for more people to explore the culinary world at a more affordable price.

At San Sablon you can get a lunch Menu (3 courses) for €35 from Tuesday till Friday, at San you pay €28 for this. For people who are younger than 25 they offer this menu at €25. When you go for the 3-course lunch on any other day you will pay €45, and a 5-course lunch or dinner will cost you €65.

My mom and I arrived a little bit over 2 o'clock at San Sablon, which apparently is after the closing time of the kitchen, but they kindly let us in and offered us the lunch menu. We both ordered a glass of champagne (€15) because we felt fancy and we were also (kind of) celebrating my Birthday a bit early.

As our starter we got 3 separate dishes, the white-coloured dish on the top left of the picture below, was duck with a parsnip espuma. The dish in the righ corner at the top of the picture was a butternut soup and the small dish at the bottom consisted of macro fermented vegetables. We both enjoyed the starters, except for the fermented vegetables as they had a sour taste and both me and my mom aren't a fan of sour vegetables. The Butternut dish was very good and my personal favourite even though it also had a sour undertone, what I did not mind at all in this dish. The duck had more subtle flavours which was perfect to bring everything together and create a balance between all 3 dishes, it was my mom's favourite as she loved the taste of the parsnip espuma.

Next, for our main dish, we got Filet de Maigre with some sushi rice, caramalized onions, cardamom and clou de girofle. This dish was the best out of all 3 courses. Many different flavours were brought together in our plate, which created the most perfect bite when you combined all different elements together on your spoon. For me this is pure art; whenever a Chef is able to combine the right amounts of various flavours and make them all taste deliciously together, that is when you make my heart happy.

To end of, we got a dessert based on Jerusalem artichoke, which wasn't my personal favourite. I must admit that I have never been a big dessert lover, so to present me a dessert that I actually love is a difficult challenge.

Overall we had a pretty good experience at San Sablon; the restaurant is very calm and nicely decorated, the food excellent, and the staff very polite and well trained. Only at the end when we kindly pointed out to the waiter that I was under 25, so able to get a discount, he was pretty harsh in his response and not as polite as he had been the entire time. After this he quickly changed his behaviour (I guess he realized he was wrong) and acted friendly again, so no harsh feelings towards him as he did serve us in a very polite way before this had happened.

I would definitely recommend San Sablon to anyone who is into food as much as I am, to explore the culinary world from a different perspective. I would love to go back some time or visit San too, to find out what other great dishes they are able to present me.

A bientôt!

Bisous