WOLF
Brussels food market, 50 rue du Fossé aux Loups
I waited a few weeks until the novelty had worn off a little before venturing into WOLF, the new trendy foodie market in downtown Brussels. It is situated in the Wolvengracht meaning Wolf's Canal, which has been mistranslated into French as rue du Fossé aux Loups. It has nothing to do with wolves, but refers to the owner of the land who was called Wolf. To make it even more fun, I went with a German colleague called Wolfgang. Just call me Polly Glott.
The open-air foodie markets in St Gilles and Chasseurs Ardennais and elsewhere are becoming hugely popular, especially with the expats, but they're not much fun in the cold grey drizzle of a Brussels January. A team of trendy entrepreneurs in the food industry has taken over a beautiful old art deco bank building which had been standing empty for years, gutted it and made it into a pleasant space to eat and drink and stay out of the rain. It covers 2000 m2 and seats 800.
I have mixed feelings about these foodie markets. One the one hand they're a cheap way of sampling food from different countries and a good way for some established restaurants to advertise their wares. This is how the Time Out market in Lisbon, the benchmark for the concept, started out. On the other hand, if the food is not quality, they can end up being just a trendy food court. WOLF houses a pizzeria, a tapas bar, a fish & seafood bar serving mostly oysters and posh stuff, a red-in-tooth-and-claw meat counter run by Dierendonck the butchers, a couple of oriental kitchens including Hanoi Station Vietnamese, an African kitchen run by the people from Toukoul, a couple of burger joints including Les Filles, a poke bar, poke being a Hawaiian concept of eating a mixed salad out of a bowl (how original), an Indian kitchen, a waffle bar, a Greek taverna, a juice bar and a chocolate & dessert atelier.
HoReCa, as the HOspitality-REstaurant-CAtering trade is known in Belgium, is my bete noire in this country. Although the quality of food is high, the Belgian idea of service reminds me of the UK in the 1970s. It's slow, sloppy, sullen and surly. Their idea of food hygiene is the stuff of nightmares. Despite the European Commission's obsession with regulation, hygienic gloves do not appear to be obligatory, as you never see anyone wearing them. Hair, jewellery, clothing do not seem to be regulated for health and safety. At the new City2 downstairs food mall, I remarked to the young man who was preparing my lunch for me that his mass of unkempt frizzy hair might be better tied back or in a bandanna when working with food. He breezily told me he'd run a number of takeaways and he'd never had a complaint from an inspector. I decided to hush ma mowf. I know how these things can go in Belgium. The customer is NEVER right.
The massive island bar in the middle was manned by neatly bearded hipster barmen and surrounded by tables and chairs in the popular "recouped from old schools" style. Around the edges are 17 food outlets, ranging from tapas to sushi to phô to fish, and a microbrewery for good measure. In a corner is what was to become an organic food market, open on Saturdays. Wolf and I decided to go for oriental wraps from Knees to Chin, he queued for the food while I went to the bar for drinks. A large samovar of iced tea looked tempting, so I ordered two. They came to EIGHT euros, which is daylight robbery. The wraps were quite pleasant and suitable for a brief lunch break, although a little light on the meat filling and rather bland.
The atmosphere on a Friday lunchtime is hectic. There were queues for all the food counters. The longest queue was for the Syrian kitchen. It was very noisy, and most of the tables were taken, so we ended up perching at a counter at the back of an oriental kitchen where a lady was mixing a big salad. We noticed she was wearing only one hygienic glove. At one point she wiped her nose with her gloved hand and carried on turning the salad.
I would return to Wolf in the evening, for a pre- or post-cinema drink, I imagine it is less pressured. I don't think I'd bother for lunch again. I would like to have seen some of the more innovative Belgian and European cuisine represented such as Balls & Glory, Poule et Poulette, Noordzee or Bia Mara but maybe I'm more of a food mall gal. I'm much happier at Lunch Garden.
For info, these are the outlets currently operating at WOLF.
Brussels food market, 50 rue du Fossé aux Loups
I waited a few weeks until the novelty had worn off a little before venturing into WOLF, the new trendy foodie market in downtown Brussels. It is situated in the Wolvengracht meaning Wolf's Canal, which has been mistranslated into French as rue du Fossé aux Loups. It has nothing to do with wolves, but refers to the owner of the land who was called Wolf. To make it even more fun, I went with a German colleague called Wolfgang. Just call me Polly Glott.
The open-air foodie markets in St Gilles and Chasseurs Ardennais and elsewhere are becoming hugely popular, especially with the expats, but they're not much fun in the cold grey drizzle of a Brussels January. A team of trendy entrepreneurs in the food industry has taken over a beautiful old art deco bank building which had been standing empty for years, gutted it and made it into a pleasant space to eat and drink and stay out of the rain. It covers 2000 m2 and seats 800.
I have mixed feelings about these foodie markets. One the one hand they're a cheap way of sampling food from different countries and a good way for some established restaurants to advertise their wares. This is how the Time Out market in Lisbon, the benchmark for the concept, started out. On the other hand, if the food is not quality, they can end up being just a trendy food court. WOLF houses a pizzeria, a tapas bar, a fish & seafood bar serving mostly oysters and posh stuff, a red-in-tooth-and-claw meat counter run by Dierendonck the butchers, a couple of oriental kitchens including Hanoi Station Vietnamese, an African kitchen run by the people from Toukoul, a couple of burger joints including Les Filles, a poke bar, poke being a Hawaiian concept of eating a mixed salad out of a bowl (how original), an Indian kitchen, a waffle bar, a Greek taverna, a juice bar and a chocolate & dessert atelier.
HoReCa, as the HOspitality-REstaurant-CAtering trade is known in Belgium, is my bete noire in this country. Although the quality of food is high, the Belgian idea of service reminds me of the UK in the 1970s. It's slow, sloppy, sullen and surly. Their idea of food hygiene is the stuff of nightmares. Despite the European Commission's obsession with regulation, hygienic gloves do not appear to be obligatory, as you never see anyone wearing them. Hair, jewellery, clothing do not seem to be regulated for health and safety. At the new City2 downstairs food mall, I remarked to the young man who was preparing my lunch for me that his mass of unkempt frizzy hair might be better tied back or in a bandanna when working with food. He breezily told me he'd run a number of takeaways and he'd never had a complaint from an inspector. I decided to hush ma mowf. I know how these things can go in Belgium. The customer is NEVER right.
The massive island bar in the middle was manned by neatly bearded hipster barmen and surrounded by tables and chairs in the popular "recouped from old schools" style. Around the edges are 17 food outlets, ranging from tapas to sushi to phô to fish, and a microbrewery for good measure. In a corner is what was to become an organic food market, open on Saturdays. Wolf and I decided to go for oriental wraps from Knees to Chin, he queued for the food while I went to the bar for drinks. A large samovar of iced tea looked tempting, so I ordered two. They came to EIGHT euros, which is daylight robbery. The wraps were quite pleasant and suitable for a brief lunch break, although a little light on the meat filling and rather bland.
The atmosphere on a Friday lunchtime is hectic. There were queues for all the food counters. The longest queue was for the Syrian kitchen. It was very noisy, and most of the tables were taken, so we ended up perching at a counter at the back of an oriental kitchen where a lady was mixing a big salad. We noticed she was wearing only one hygienic glove. At one point she wiped her nose with her gloved hand and carried on turning the salad.
I would return to Wolf in the evening, for a pre- or post-cinema drink, I imagine it is less pressured. I don't think I'd bother for lunch again. I would like to have seen some of the more innovative Belgian and European cuisine represented such as Balls & Glory, Poule et Poulette, Noordzee or Bia Mara but maybe I'm more of a food mall gal. I'm much happier at Lunch Garden.
For info, these are the outlets currently operating at WOLF.
HANOI STATION * vietnamese
IDEA * greek
LES SUPER FILLES DU TRAM * burgers
KNEES TO CHIN * asian
TOUKOUL TOGO * ethiopian
BOLLYFOOD STORIES * indian
DIERENDONCK * meat
MY TANNOUR * syrian-lebanese
LE COMPTOIR DU CRABE * fish & shells
LA TABLE DU MARCHE * organic & local
LA PIOLA * pizza & pasta
GAUFRES & WAFFLES * sweet & salty
LES FILLES * urban bowls
TAPERO * tapas & bread
POKE CLUB * sushi
VINCENT DENIS * desserts
JUS * juices
Le Wolf, 50 Rue Fossée aux Loups, à 1000 Bruxelles, www.wolf;brussels
Ouvert 7 jours / 7, de 8h à 23h. Toute l'année sauf le 25 décembre.
