Places to avoid.
1. Brasserie Trois Roi in Basel. I don’t think I’ve ever visited a more smug, pretentious place than this. Part of a five star hotel, this has some good reviews so we checked it out. The manager (an elite level arsehole) clearly thought we weren’t his usual clique of clientele. A good thing, given it mostly consisted of Chinese finance guys, over-ordering and making an infernal racket, along with tables of preppy, Harvard type septics, discussing their latest banking, misery causing deal and pretending to understand European culture and wine. Awful. After being largely ignored at our table by the staff, we left. The manager asked me to pay for the water we’d had but instead I just told him he was a cry-wanking narcissist and that I was going to go and find his boss. This I duly did and gave a very apologetic hotel manager and his assistant both barrels. Thankfully we found a super restaurant around the corner and the delay in their service meant we missed a passing thunderstorm!
2. Brasserie De Kollebloeme in the main square in Ypres. Dreadful meal. A real shame as the setting is lovely and the restaurants either side seemed pretty good. We took pot luck and came unstuck.