TEA AND EAT is a funny name for a chain of restaurants. OK, EAT is TEA with the T at the beginning instead of the end .... I wonder if they're anything to do with MEET MEAT?
Anyhoo, I was down at Woluwe Shopping Mall and felt a tad peckish. As restaurants in shopping centres go, it's a bit more upmarket than Debenham's Style Cafe. It's hidden away down a corridor just after C&A, and looks like just a few tables behind a perspex screen. However, once inside you find a circular bar where you can park your man while you get some more retail therapy in, a spacious restaurant with high tables, low tables, and a wraparound terrace for the rare Brussels warm weekend. The decor is very 90's Islington - you know, lots of bamboo, a whiff of Zen ambience, a glass cylinder goldfish tank on the bar. The waiting staff are young, smiley and attractive, and the service is fairly smart.
There's a shop inside the restaurant where you can buy upmarket foodie things like fancy olive oil and poncey tea. You know, essentials. Generally sold in big clunky bottles with the name of the product in big black letters, e.g. SIROP. Merchandising is part of the Tea & Eat experience, and they have shops in various locations. As retailers they compete with Oliviers & Co. and Pain Quotidien for the yummy mummy demographic. The restaurant competes with the excellent Cook & Book (another inspired name!) across the road. For my money, I prefer Cook & Book for its proximity to, well, books, of which there are none in Woluwe Shopping Centre. But if you're an habitué of Habitat, Tea & Eat is exactly where you should go afterwards to peruse the catalogue. If they could only move across the way, they could become Habitat's in-store restaurant. (Habitat actually has an in-store restaurant, which is so badly situated that I found myself examining the tables looking for a price tag).
Tea & Eat is popular with the eurocrats, and can be found in the more affluent expat areas such as Woluwe and near Place Stephanie in Ixelles. If they were in London they would be based in Stoke Newington. The "Tea" in the title indicates that they specialise in, er, tea, and so they do - they are exclusive distributors of Betjeman and Barton teas in Belgium, but I didn't see much evidence of anyone consuming it. One table were having a bottle of champagne with their meal. I hope they'd finished their shopping. I demonstrated great self control and sipped a glass of house white wine with my smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel whilst observing my fellow shoppers.
The bagel was toasted, and served with lashings of good Scottish salmon, plenty of cream cheese and a very fresh salad. It wasn't cheap at 14.50 euros but if you want cheap, Quick is just across the way. The salad sauce came in a miniature Perrier type green bottle, and although delicious, let's just say I'm glad I wasn't wearing a navy blue dress to spill it on, if you follow me. Sadly it is not one of the products on sale in the outlet, but is made to the chef's closely guarded secret recipe.
Anyhoo, I was down at Woluwe Shopping Mall and felt a tad peckish. As restaurants in shopping centres go, it's a bit more upmarket than Debenham's Style Cafe. It's hidden away down a corridor just after C&A, and looks like just a few tables behind a perspex screen. However, once inside you find a circular bar where you can park your man while you get some more retail therapy in, a spacious restaurant with high tables, low tables, and a wraparound terrace for the rare Brussels warm weekend. The decor is very 90's Islington - you know, lots of bamboo, a whiff of Zen ambience, a glass cylinder goldfish tank on the bar. The waiting staff are young, smiley and attractive, and the service is fairly smart.
There's a shop inside the restaurant where you can buy upmarket foodie things like fancy olive oil and poncey tea. You know, essentials. Generally sold in big clunky bottles with the name of the product in big black letters, e.g. SIROP. Merchandising is part of the Tea & Eat experience, and they have shops in various locations. As retailers they compete with Oliviers & Co. and Pain Quotidien for the yummy mummy demographic. The restaurant competes with the excellent Cook & Book (another inspired name!) across the road. For my money, I prefer Cook & Book for its proximity to, well, books, of which there are none in Woluwe Shopping Centre. But if you're an habitué of Habitat, Tea & Eat is exactly where you should go afterwards to peruse the catalogue. If they could only move across the way, they could become Habitat's in-store restaurant. (Habitat actually has an in-store restaurant, which is so badly situated that I found myself examining the tables looking for a price tag).
Tea & Eat is popular with the eurocrats, and can be found in the more affluent expat areas such as Woluwe and near Place Stephanie in Ixelles. If they were in London they would be based in Stoke Newington. The "Tea" in the title indicates that they specialise in, er, tea, and so they do - they are exclusive distributors of Betjeman and Barton teas in Belgium, but I didn't see much evidence of anyone consuming it. One table were having a bottle of champagne with their meal. I hope they'd finished their shopping. I demonstrated great self control and sipped a glass of house white wine with my smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel whilst observing my fellow shoppers.
The bagel was toasted, and served with lashings of good Scottish salmon, plenty of cream cheese and a very fresh salad. It wasn't cheap at 14.50 euros but if you want cheap, Quick is just across the way. The salad sauce came in a miniature Perrier type green bottle, and although delicious, let's just say I'm glad I wasn't wearing a navy blue dress to spill it on, if you follow me. Sadly it is not one of the products on sale in the outlet, but is made to the chef's closely guarded secret recipe.
With the wine and a tip, there was no change out of 20 euros. But you don't come out smelling of chips.
