2024-02-11 22:37:56
Long simmered meals, prepared with love and the scent of good shared dishes. We are never as well received as at our grandparents’ house. Until the arrival of Babam, a new address which has just replaced Jules d’Emilie in Watermael-Boitsfort. Perhaps because chef Thibaut van Outryve stole everything from his grandmother, his Babam, the restaurant’s true muse. The young chef who first cut his teeth at Chalet de la Fôret, at Sea Grill and alongside Yves Mattagne, cooked last year alongside Mallory Gabsi to take his new Parisian restaurant to the top. ‘star. But it is bistronomy, the real one, that fascinates Thibaut. His dream ? Recreating the almost sacred atmosphere of the large family tables of his childhood, while offering cuisine that is both comforting and sophisticated.
VerTige, the restaurant designed by Sang Hoon Degeimbre which focuses on plants:
Like at home
From this idea was born this new place located a stone’s throw from the Bois de la Cambre, which you enter as if you were coming home. Behind the pretty terracotta storefront, you immerse yourself in a cocoon made of paneling, old parquet flooring, rustic wooden chairs, curly wool curtains and pretty designer chandeliers. Authentic atmosphere, with a young and relaxed touch as a bonus (the chef is only 28 years old). The place with barely thirty seats offers real intimacy, without finding yourself glued to the next table. The service is both discreet and precise. We are benefitting.
An unbeatable value for money
On the menu, what stands out at first glance is the price: €45 for starter-main-dessert. The first bottle of red is priced at €32. A reality which contrasts with the recent high-profile release of the three-star Peter Goossens a few months ago: “People forget it, but going to a restaurant for fifty euros is not possible, it’s a bygone era.” Not yet, it seems. At Babam, for around sixty euros per person, you enjoy a 3-course menu and half a bottle of (good!) wine.
The short menu changes every month (every week for lunch). You choose between four starters, four main courses and three desserts. Meat, fish and vegetarian dishes are all equally distributed. It’s pleasantly readable: marrow bones, my grandmother’s pâté en croute, perfect egg with caramelized chicory and white beer, salmon trout, matured beef steak, beetroot and oyster mushroom risotto…
Between pleasure and nostalgia
Just a few days before the official opening of the restaurant, we tasted their scallop carpaccio with citrus fruits and Isigny cream. Very nice play of flavors and textures, between creaminess, bitterness and crunchiness. As a main course, the beef cheek confit in dark beer is nothing like the dish you usually come across in a restaurant, hidden under an airy carpet of potato siphon and gingerbread tiles. You have to plunge your spoon into it head first. Special mention for the bread from Miche France, a neighborhood bakery located a few steps away (despite its name) and their cacio e pepe butter. In wine, we choose the You Fuck My Wine, just for the label, a natural red made from forgotten grape varieties which oscillates between black fruits and roundness on the palate and very drinkable. Everything we love.
As you will have understood, Babam is all regarding simplicity and nostalgia. No big avant-garde but risky creative delirium, simply the assurance of truly good cuisine between tradition and modernity in a nicely old-fashioned setting. With some nice surprises throughout the meal. It’s our new sure value, the one to which we will return at the slightest misstep, at the first slump, or as soon as we want a meeting – even in thoughts – with our grandmother.
Infos :
Or ? Av. du Bois de la Cambre 25, 1170 Watermael-Boitsfort
When ? Monday to Friday from noon to 2 p.m. and from 7 to 10 p.m. Closed on weekends.
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