Euro Spring: Lyon, Antwerp, & London
Welcome to Part 2 of recommendations from five weeks in Europe. I quit my job in March, finished my MBA in April, and flew to Vienna, followed by train travel to Berlin, Munich, Zurich, Geneva, Lyon, Brussels, Antwerp, and London. Part 1 covers Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Zurich, and Geneva, now we’re doing Lyon, Antwerp, and London.
All recommendations are linked to Google maps for easy saving and every mention is a place I would go again.
Lyon
Lyon is the one city I visited solely for the purpose of eating. I traveled there alone and dined alone. I stayed for three nights and ate dinner at three very different restaurants: a classic Lyonnais bouchon, a two-Michelin-starred institution, and a new, hip bistro-bar that I won’t write about because I wouldn’t go again nor would I send you.
Lyon is the culinary capital of France and was for a long time considered the culinary capital of the world. Its position as the largest city in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and access to the region’s diverse, high-quality ingredients is integral to its culinary prestige. Read Dirt: Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training by Bill Buford and The Physiology of Taste by Jean Brillat-Savarin. The latter is canon and you should read regardless.
My first dinner was at the bouchon Le Musée. Bouchons specialize in traditional Lyonnaise cuisine, mostly hearty, meat-based dishes, and they are an important part of Lyon’s culinary heritage. Like Le Musée, they are typically informal and warm in character. At Le Musée, the tablecloths are red-and-white checkered, the wooden chairs mismatched, the lights bright, and the tables packed together. Three older Frenchmen were seated at my table (it was a five top) halfway through my meal, and we became fast friends. I ordered a small carafe of house red and the prix fixe, three course dinner: brioche sausage (a classic Lyonnaise dish first served in working-class bistros) to start, braised pork cheek with creamy potatoes and roast veggies as a main, and the bright red praline tart for dessert, another Lyonnais speciality that my server struggled to explain in English. The answer to my most pressing question - “why is it that color?” - turns out to be red food dye (sorry, MAHA) added to a filling of crushed pink pralines and heavy cream, set in a shortcrust and served like a slice of pie. I don’t have a photo because I was tipsy and trying to converse with three Frenchmen. Every dish was delicious, not in a groundbreaking way but in the way I like best: warm, yummy, filling, easy on the wallet.
My second dinner was not easy on the wallet: The Eugénie Brazier Menu with wine pairing at two-Michelin-starred La Mère Brazier. The restaurant is named after Eugénie Brazier and led by Chef Mathieu Viannay. For $300 I worked my way through the tasting menu and drank six glasses of wine. I left stuffed, drunk, and very pleased with myself around 11pm. The bread service was divine, the butter the best I’ve had in my life. The meal began with pâté en croûte, followed by arctic char, white asparagus, monkfish, pork cheek, and lemon soufflé for dessert, which was the most perfect soufflé I could imagine and probably my favorite part of the meal. I wish I took notes on the details of each dish, but I didn’t want to be the American typing away on her phone. Each dish was outstanding. The wine was equally delightful, poured generously, and I developed a friendly banter with the somm which was appreciated as a solo diner in a formal room. Staff anticipated every possible need, even nonexistent ones, to the point at which I actively tried not to make eye contact because they would rush over to my table. This may have bothered some people; I thought it was cute and love the hustle.
Art, culture: Walk through Vieux Lyon, visit Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste, and walk (really more of a hike) through Parc des Hauteurs up to Basilica of Notre Dame of Fourvière. Stunning views and greenery. On the same walk, and if you’re there in spring, visit the rose garden. I regret not going to the Museum of Fine Arts. I was feeling museumed-out after three weeks in Europe but should have gone anyway. Stroll the Mnt de la Grande-Côte, a beautiful, pedestrian-only street with boutiques and cafes. Stop at Petite Pension for lunch. I loved the home goods store Soleil d'Octobre.
Antwerp
I took the train to Antwerp from Brussels. My initial interest in Antwerp was two-fold: seeing works by the Dutch Old Masters, and my friend Hillary offered to fly over and meet me there for three nights before she went on to Amsterdam. I (ignorantly) did not know that Antwerp is a fashion hub full of cool young people, chic restaurants, and fantastic shopping. I liked it so much that a Brussels - Ghent - Antwerp - Rotterdam - Utrecht - Amsterdam trip has been forming in my brain.
Bourla is a traditional Belgian cafe-restaurant where we had our first dinner. The spring evening and the red-and-white rattan bistro chairs and little round tables inspired us to dine on the patio. The oysters, vanilla ice cream with strawberries (perfectly ripe and in season), and lemon cake were the highlights. We made a mistake by ordering pasta for our mains. I would go again and order the steak frites, chicken fricassee, or fried fish. A long summer lunch on the Bourla patio would be spectacular.
Our next two dinners, Osaka and Smudged, were incredible. Both had chic, meticulously curated interiors, hip young staff, and vibrant energy. The food was excellent, certainly much better than it needed to be considering the cool design, vibe, and patrons. Osaka’s interior can best be described as brutalist, with bare concrete walls, track lighting, chrome bar stools, and a huge glass block partition. Every dish was excellent: sourdough bread and butter, two types of oysters, little gem lettuce with zhug and yogurt, linguine alla chitarra with peas and asparagus, beef filet with smoked eggplant cream, cheese plate, chocolate mousse with olive oil and sea salt, and a final puff pastry-type dessert of which I forget the details (we drank a lot of chilled red wine).
Smudged was equally great and had the ambiance of a laidback house party. Vinyl was spinning and we had two bar seats with a full view of the open kitchen where a team of young men were cooking. Bread and butter, green olives, two more types of oysters (one with a mignonette, the other lemon granita), pork cheek croquette with dijonnaise, pork tortelloni, funghetti pasta in an orange sauce with shiitakes (this was probably the best dish we ate in Antwerp), and a lamb skewer with white asparagus and delicate little edible flowers that reminded me of snowflakes. For dessert, chocolate mousse with mezcal and a creamy strawberry concoction in a coupe. The bathroom was thrilling: through a set of thick curtains, past a projector video of suited, dancing men, down a suspended spiral staircase, into a red-hued bathroom with a full bathtub serving as a sink. The tile floors and Le Labo hand soap rounded out the experience.
Finally, a lunch recommendation: Camino, by the same team as Osaka. The outdoor seating was lovely, against a vine covered wall with lots of space. The food and drink were, again, delicious: cold orange wine, bbq corn with gochujang butter and ricotta, cockles in leche de tigre (a citrusy Peruvian marinade) and green nam jim (a chili-based Thai dipping sauce), and Dan Dan noodles with minced meat and spicy szechuan sauce. For dessert, passionfruit sorbet and yuzu panna cotta, both tart and refreshing. We also had surprisingly good tacos (the only ones I ate in Europe) at Taqueria Rico.
Art, culture, shopping: The KMSKA/Royal Museum of Fine Arts has a stunning Old Masters collection and that of Belgian modernist James Ensor. Thoroughly walk through the Old Town. Visit the Dries Van Noten flagship store (the perfume selection is so good), Ensō Vintage, and La Collection, but most importantly just walk around and bop into every shop that catches your eye. I don’t travel to shop, but I do in Antwerp.
London
I love London. We were in town for five nights, staying with friends in the suburbs for three (s/o Emily, Gary) and a hotel near King’s Cross for two. The London food scene is diverse and exciting and the service warm, certainly compared to France, Switzerland, and Germany. I have tons of restaurants, cafes, and bars saved in my Google map that have accumulated over the years as I watch friends and food writers/influencers eating in London. I know we just scratched the surface… but it was a great scratch.
Lunch at The Devonshire for a first London meal is about as good as it gets. We wanted something undeniably British and we succeeded. The Devonshire is in Soho and dates to 1793, which in hindsight I suppose feels young for the Brits. The ground floor pub, with crowds spilling onto the sidewalk drinking Guinness, is where the real energy is, but lunch at the rooftop restaurant was in order after four hours in the National Gallery. It was beautiful, white tableclothed, sunny but shaded. Guinness, confit tomato tart, white crab salad, steak frites with béarnaise, and sticky toffee pudding. The food was wonderful in its simplicity, the sticky toffee pudding insane.
I wanted to try 40 Maltby Street for years and was thrilled when we secured a walk-in sidewalk table. I like the practice of ordering wine and food at the counter, it allows you to control the pace without relying on the appearance of a server. The crowd at Maltby was young, stylish, drinking natural wine and eating small plates… a familiar sight found in every big city, often disappointing and annoying, but not in this case. We ordered chicken liver terrine, onion fritters with lovage vinegar, fava-feta dip, and a salad of new potatoes, artichoke, and toasted almonds. After our steak lunch at The Devonshire, we steered clear of the meaty dishes, but compensated by ordering two desserts: elderflower jelly with strawberries and a vanilla ice cream parfait with apricots and crumble. Eating a light dinner while still feeling like you’ve had an indulgent flavor experience is a treat. I’m no wine expert, but it was crisp and cold and they were great about walking us through what glasses would pair well with dinner and then dessert.
Dishoom, obviously. Mass popularity can be a good sign, as it is here. We went to the Shoreditch location (there are five Dishooms in London) and the black daal is one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. Maybe my Vermont girl was showing (zero experience with Indian food), maybe it was really that good. We tried to make it when we got home and didn’t even come close. I won’t elaborate on Dishoom because there is so much that has already been said, but based on our experience I think it’s a classic that shouldn’t be skipped. If you don’t have a reservation, just walk in and eat lunch in the bar area. Order the black daal and whatever else, it’s all good.
Dinner at Mountain, which I didn’t even know has a Michelin star until after we’d made the reservation. Mountain has popped up on my feed over the past year or so, clearly a sceney spot that delivers on a high level. Chef-founder Tomos Barry (who worked at The River Café, another place I’m dying to experience) is also chef-founder of Michelin-starred Brat. He is cooking at Bridges, one of our favorite restaurants in New York, for two nights in July. Bottom line: very cool guy. And Mountain delivered. Oysters, cheese-anchovy toast, snap peas in a creamy, garlicky sauce, walnut bread, a caramelized onion and asparagus omelette (best omelette of my life), and torrijas with rhubarb for dessert. Everything was fantastic. I carry the omelette in my heart. JP loved the Mountain Martini. The interior was beautiful, woody, warm, nicely lit (dim and glowing). It actually reminded me a bit of Hen of the Wood in Burlington, Vermont - just way cooler.
Eat lunch at Cafe Deco after the British Museum. Knowing a good lunch is on the horizon will keep you on your feet for three hours (about half the time you actually need for the British Museum) and it’s only a four minute walk away. The vibe was immaculate - white tablecloths, colorful tiled floor, cute bar - it felt very European, and the food was familiar and excellent. Oeuf mayo; broad bean, cheese, and mint toast; a spring salad; and salt cod with new potatoes and chickpeas. I discovered while writing this piece that Cafe Deco is owned by the same team as 40 Maltby Street and led by Chef Anna Tobias, who like Tomos Barry of Mountain, used to work at The River Café. To think I did all this restaurant research only to fall into a cult. I love it, and tip my hat.
Finally, the most memorable meal of the trip, and not just because it was the last: St. John. The bare, white-washed interior is necessary and appreciated because all your energy and processing capacity is focused on eating. Loud music, colors, and excessive trinkets would be too much to handle alongside bone marrow, roast pigeon, and a robust bottle of red. St. John opened in 1994 as a backlash against the trendy, haute cuisine of the time, offering instead a return to simple, honest cooking with a focus on offal. More guts, less tweezer food. It’s become an institution. We devoured bread and butter, roast bone marrow, welsh rarebit, roast pigeon, asparagus (a welcome sight), and date cake with butterscotch sauce and vanilla ice cream, all alongside a bottle of St. John’s own red wine. I’ve started forming two mental categories of people: those who I think would vigorously enjoy St. John and those who couldn’t handle it.
Art/culture: The National Gallery and the British Museum, particularly the Elgin Marbles (yes they were stolen from Athens and yes you should see them anyway). Get the audioguides at both museums. A smaller museum we loved is The Courtauld Gallery, which has a fantastic collection of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings. It’s rare to find anything by Monet that isn’t mobbed by TikTokers, but the Courtauld was quiet. A Bar at the Folies-Bergère by Édouard Manet is in the collection and is breathtaking to see in person. Ride the bus as much as possible, try to get seats on the upper deck in the front window. I’ll leave all the British royalty recommendations to the internet - that’s not, dare I say, my cup of tea.
THE END. If you’ve read this far, thank you. <3
What a culinary adventure! I really want to eat at those places. Thanks for descriptions.