The Belgian Kitchen

Tuesday, July 7th, 2015

Reviewed by Geoff London

The food at the Belgian Restaurant in Tulbagh is ‘dodgy’ at best, complemented by an arrogant, unsympathetic attitude by its owners. We ate at the Belgian Restaurant in the venue of the former Paddagang Restaurant tonight. When we arrived a little before 6 p.m., we were the only car in the parking area and we were still the only car in the parking area when we left at 7 p.m. Except for one other couple, the restaurant was empty on this Tuesday evening in the school holidays. I had ordered game pie and my wife a leg of duck in a cherry sauce. My game pie tasted mediocre and my wife’s sauce was a thick brown gravy with no taste of cherry. We assumed it was a bit of an “off” night for the restaurant until I got severe cramps and diarrhea 2 hours after leaving the restaurant. I then phoned the restaurant only to receive an arrogant denial by the owner, Allan Burton, saying “I have been in the restaurant business for 40 years and one cannot get sick from food within 30 minutes, my friend!” I felt like saying “I have been working with numbers for 40 years myself and the difference between 7 pm and 9 pm is 2 hours, and not 30 minutes”, but I did not. I should have also added that I have a constitution like and ox and this was the third time in my life I had gotten diarrhea from food in a restaurant! So the Belgian Restaurant deserves a prize for this alone! It is bad enough that the meat used, presumably caused food poisoning, but for the management to immediately deny responsibility and show no sympathy, indicates a business about to close like its predecessor. Be warned: the food is not good and the attitude of management worse. Avoid this restaurant. Any other one in Tulbagh, Wolseley or Ceres is better. Incidentally service was great but we were the only customer for this waitress!