This was my first time in Luxembourg and to be honest I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Nestled precariously from a gastronomic point of view between France and Germany, this relatively tiny country has very distinct influences from both its comparatively giant neighbours, leaving me wondering on which side of the gastronomic fence it really lies.
Admittedly we only spent one night here and therefore had one single meal, by which we have now come to judge the entire country… Not very rational I admit, but on the other hand you can only base your judgements on what you know and not what you might discover some time in the future. However having said this, the restaurant was strongly recommended to us at the hotel reception as being a very good meat restaurant and its excellent location in the centre of the old town continued to confirm this to some extent.
When asked what type of cuisine we were after at the hotel, our reply indicating that we wished to try local specialities was met with some visible concern. The concierge discreetly warned us in a somewhat apologetic tone, that their cuisine was much more inclined towards their German neighbours rather than their French, and that many people opted to frequent French restaurants instead.
Whether we were being brave or just plain stupid is a matter of debate. But we gently insisted on our intention to try authentic Luxembourger cuisine nevertheless. So he made his restaurant recommendation with a certain amount of confidence, enticing us to follow this suggestion and to try out this meat specialist restaurant featuring local specialities.
In a nutshell, the restaurant was nice and fairly plush and was very well located right in the old town centre, where most catering outlets are situated. It had very pleasant décor and was nicely busy. The service was relaxed and informal but efficient and the menu well laid out and interesting.
The food on the other hand can be rather generously described as unremarkable and lacklustre. We had quite a variety of different meat and potato based starters and main courses, all perfectly edible and adequate but all fairly bland and unexciting, especially when compared to their descriptions on the menu. In all fairness their menu was very varied and also featured many French specialities. But knowing that we were going to spend a good ten days in France, where we were very intent on gorging ourselves silly in lovely French food, at the time it seemed logical to try out some local specialities.
As ominously forewarned by the hotel concierge, these specialities all tended to be rather heavy, simplistic and relatively tasteless dishes, which lacked refinement and sophistication. They were perfectly nutritious I suppose, but not very exciting. Well at least we tried.
Little did we know that this was only a small prelude of things to come…