Vin Perdu ... the missing restaurant star!!

I always considered Vin Perdu (Turnhout, Beglium) a restaurant, which deserves at least one star. It has the right decor, the right service quality and the food never disappoints. The style is of modern French inspiration. Lately, we have seen improvements. Better quality. Something more in the flavors, I was telling myself ... is it going to be even better and yet without a star? Well, the food on our last visit on Saturday was simply sublime. I wonder when these Michelin guys will for real pay a visit in this part of Belgium and give Vin Perdu the deserved first star. I would give it two already!

What did we eat? We started with an amuse traditionally composed by foie gras brulee (a signature here), a lemongrass and mussels soup (refreshingly new) and dutch haring with a tomato mayonnaise. Tasty and light, served with a nice Cremant from Savoy. This was good ... but what followed was great: mackerel cooked at low temperature with a cucumber tsatsiki. The fish was melting in the mouth with the tsatsiki beautifully complementing it. A great dish with such a poor fish!! The food simply got better and better from there: great sea bass with a gray shrimp mousseline sauce (a twist in a very classic dish), a really tasty baby turbot with roasted red peppers and a beef reduction sauce (sounded weird, but tasted really good) and a koekoek (no idea of the English here) with morels and summer truffles ... this was fabulous! Only (relatively) low point was in the dessert. We got three small desserts based on passion fruit: a sorbet (fantastic!), red fruit with a Passoa cream (simple but delicious) and a mousse ... well, the mousse was not that tasty and quite heavy. Pity it was the last thing I ate!!

Would I go back? If I could afford it ... every week!!!