De Rare Vos

March 11, 2007 [ Updated March 19, 2007 ]
A well-kept secret about this place is the from-scratch frites, among the best I’ve had in Belgium. Worth the drive, IMO, to try the house beer on tap--a fruity, mellow, thirst-quenching lambic that tastes like a blend of kriek and faro. Selection includes several of the region’s lambics, including 3 Fountains. The Flemish fare is also excellent. The owner is friendly. Update 3/19/07: Try the kriek stoofvlees (carbonnade). Awesome.

June 20, 2006
Had a nice lunch visit to Rare Vos while I was in Brussels for four days. The reason I visited was to try the Girardin Rare Vos (draught) and to try the horse steak. Mission accomplished. The horse was a little spongy, but otherwise tasty, served with a mushroom sauce and frittes. The beer was interesting, unique I would say, but not exactly something stellar. Schepdaal is a bit hard to get to if you’re taking public transit, but it’s a nice experience of Belgian (or Dutch??) life outside of the city.

January 21, 2006
Immensely characterful building. Really beautiful stuff with loads of cool decorations. I found the house beer to be a bit weird, and the young Girardin lambik was like a fungus milkshake but they had loads of good beers too. I had pretty serviceable stoofvlees, but the people next to me had one of the more crazy meals I’ve ever seen - a mixed grill which was enough for about six-eight people between two. Service was kind of aloof but they brought my stuff and left me alone so you can’t really fault it. A handful of regulars were drinking a lot of lambik rather early in the day.

December 2, 2005
Visited this local bar/eating place in march 2002. Good food, great beer (Girardin lambic and kriek from cask). Essential if you are visiting Schepdaal.