Resto Oficina

Even the exterior of Oficina sets your mouth watering. With its little urban terrasse, this new establishment on Aalststraat/rue d’Alost will take your taste buds on a journey. You would think you were in Salvador da Bahia, Spain, Italy...

The interior entirely lives up to the facade. Once again, we owe this off-the-wall decor to...Frédéric Nicolay. Unlike the giants he has brought us in the past (Belga comes to mind), Oficina is an intimate setting, as one can see in an abundance of decorative touches: a bench made of reclaimed wood, granito, a blackboard, hessian chairs, a wooden ceiling, mirrors to give depth to the space...

A formal atmosphere dominates; cool reigns. This cool is ensured by a brilliant duo: Orry Sterckx in the kitchen and Sanne Van Camp, partner of Humphrey’s Yannick Van Aeken, front of house. The menu, written in chalk on the blackboard, is fairly simple. Made up of five or six "salads" and ten or so "dishes", it is all based on creative combinations of flavours which alter the usual routines. For example, the excellent Burrata, fennel, and orange (€8.50) restores sharpness and freshness to a cheese that is often served too milky. Equally impressive is the unprecedented combination of feta, beetroot, and watercress (€8.50). The earthy notes of the beetroot are counteracted beautifully in this dish, creating a remarkably well-rounded composition.

As a "main course", insofar as there is such a thing here, we chose garlic and tarragon mussels (€17), a tad expensive, but also delicious and never seen on other menus. The choice of wines is on a par with the rest, such as the Viñátigo Negramoll (€8 a glass), a vintage from Tenerife whose waxy nose and tannin undertones make it a huge success.

open: Mo > Fr, 12 > 22.00