A little bit of Salonika in … Brussels

Taking advantage of a Eurostar ticket sale, Mrs B and I recently enjoyed a jaunt to Belgium, with a few days in Brussels and a few in Ieper (Ypres). Our last night found us in a hotel close to Bruxelles-Midi (Zuid) station, where we would be taking the Eurostar home the next day, and where we had ended our train journey from Ieper (train from Poperinge, changing at Gent-Sint-Pieters for Brussels).

We had reached that point in our holiday where we were a little jaded with restaurants; whilst we wanted something to eat, we just didn’t know what. Whilst convenient for the station, the area we were staying in did not seem especially good for restaurants and we were not grabbed by the range of fast-food establishments on offer. We decided to venture down a side road and see what that offered, but soon found ourselves in a rather insalubrious residential area, so headed back towards the hotel, but then we saw it – a vision of Salonika’s White Tower! It was a Greek restaurant, it was open and was clearly popular – an encouraging sign midweek – and had a tempting menu. Yes, Greek food would be just the thing!

Restaurant Bon Couer 3, Rue Joseph Claes 27A, 1060 Saint Gilles, Bruxelles – open Tuesday to Sunday for lunch and dinner.

And we weren’t disappointed. It’s a family run restaurant – they first came from Thessaloniki in 1974 – and offers great Greek food and hospitality. We had lamb cutlets fresh off the grill with mixed salad, dessert (ice cream for Mrs B and a slab of baklava for me), all washed down with half a litre of the very nice house white – Greek, of course; at 40 Euros this compared very favourably with other meals we had during our trip. I recommend it. We will return!

If you’re in Brussels and can tear yourself away from the restaurant, I also recommend the Royal Military Museum. The First World War gallery is big but quite ‘old school’ – as is most of the museum – with lots of glass cases of uniforms and equipment of most of the combatant nations (didn’t see any Greeks, though), plus artillery pieces and even a British Mark IV tank and a Whippet. If your interest strays into the Napoleonic era – mine does – then there is an incredible, if rather bonkers, collection of all sorts of things from then and the French Second Empire. The most modern and up-to-date displays are those for the Second World War, a small but fascinating collection of Imperial Russian items rescued from the Revolution and arms and armour. I’m no aviation enthusiast, but we even took a dash through the huge aeroplane hall where I spotted a Spitfire, Hurricane, Beaufighter and even a Fairey Battle; sadly they are not as well cared for as at IWM Duxford, with all upper surfaces thickly coated with dust! We didn’t do the whole museum in great detail – even I have my limits – but it was well worth a visit.