My honest opinion on Barnaba

Last week (counting from the date I am writing this post) I went to Barnaba in Beringen, together with my sister and a friend, because several people had recommended this place to me a couple of times and I had also read some articles about them too. I had already looked up the restaurant, like I always do, and I immediately noticed their bar, in the photos on the internet, as it was good looking and nicely decorated.

We arrived at barnaba, and as expected, the bar was at the entrance, though it didn't look as cosy as on the pictures. I loved the interior of the bar area and the design of the room too, but the lighting was just a little bit too bright for me, what took away from the cosyness. The eating area, where we were seated, had a completely new decor. It was covered in flamingo wallpaper and the lighting was way better, it was a bit dimmed and aimed at the ceiling what was much better and nicer.

It seemed like there were only 2 people working in the entire restaurant that night (except for the kitchen ofcourse), which for me seemed very strange as the restaurant is quite big and there were a lot of customers. The fact that there was too little staff was also visible when looking at the bar; there was a pile of dirty glasses on the right-hand side of the bar (side of our eating area), which wasn't as pleasant to look at as it gave a very unorganized and dirty feeling. From the place we were sitting, we could see the entire bar, including the back side of it, and to be honest the other side of the bar wasn't looking as clean either, which for me is definitely a minus whenever you work with an open bar or open kitchen.

But enough about the bar area. As already said, the eating area was way nicer and I really liked being surrounded by flamingos. Barnaba has several eating areas which all have a different interior. The staff was also very friendly and quick, even though they were in the minority.

I ordered the only vegetarian dish on the menu, which was the "Garganelli Vegitariana" (€16) - Frehsly curled penne with seasonal vegetables and Burrata. I don't necessarily think it is a bad thing to only have one vegetarian dish as most restaurants don't bother to offer one, and Barnaba did do some effort to place one on their menu (plus there was also a vegetarian suggestion). My sister ordered a Tuna steak with black garlic, green asparagus and escalivada (€27) with a filled eggplant on the side (€4). And our friend went for Lamb carré with a nut crust, pistachio and a cream of celeriac (€28), with also the filled eggplant on the side. The latter was a dish from the suggestion menu.

We all enjoyed our meal very much and they looked good too. The presentation was done very nicely and the flavours of the pasta were tasty as well. I give the food a big thumbs up. To end of our night, we went for the "HIT ME" chocolate cake, which for some may look familiar as it is offered at Catch too (a famous American restaurant in LA and NY). It consists of a white chocolate genache, brownie and vanilla ice cream. When it is brought to your table the waiter/ waitress will pour some hot chocolate sauce over it to make the top layer melt so that you can hit it with your spoon to crack the chocolate. To be honest (and I don't know too much about making desserts), the chocolate on the top wasn't tempered well or the chocolate sauce wasn't hot enough, as the top layer didn't crack very easily. Besides this the dessert was quite nice, but very heavy too. We split the dessert among us 3 and even with 3 people we weren't able to finish it as it contained so much chocolate, maybe a bit more ice cream would have balanced it better.

Overall, I think Barnaba is a very fun restaurant; the interior of the eating area is nicely done, the food is good and the staff is very nice. The only advise I would give them is to change the type of lighting in the bar area to make it less bright and to look for a way to keep the bar clean at all times.

A bientôt!

Bisous