Dock's Cafe

Dock's cafe, as if you couldn't tell by the name, is just across the street from the boardwalk in Antwerp. And as you might expect, their specialties are seafood.

A bib gourmand in the Michelin Guide, Dock's Cafe has a set lunch menu during the week for 15€, and a range of weekly set menus that start at 23€. We were too late for the lunch menu, and although all the dishes on the 23€ set menu sounded great, I just wasn't hungry enough to go for it. The seafood platters, which would have been nice, started at ~50€ per person (!), so that was out of the question, especially since neither my boyfriend nor I like raw oysters. A la carte, the main dishes start at ~20€ and go up from there.

For a restaurant that specializes in seafood, they also have a large number of plates focusing on poultry, inexplicably indicated by a duck icon on the menu. We decided to share the assiette Périgourdine(15€), which seemed so copious in the menu description: rillettes, pate, smoked duck, and gizzards. But alas, it was barely enough for my boyfiend alone:No matter, I wasn't that hungry anyways.

Since it was going to be an expensive lunch no matter what, I decided to get the lobster, served with pineapple and mango in a curry sauce, with a side of balsmati rice (23€):It was the first time I ordered lobster in a restaurant, and it will be the last time just because it is so frustrating to eat! Although it was delicious, I don't want to have to work that hard for my lunch, especially especially when I am so clumsy.

My boyfriend had the scallops pasta (21€):Just fine, but not great, definitely not to my boyfriend's taste, and maybe not even worth the price.

Would I recommend this? Maybe, but only if the set menus are to your liking (they change weekly and are available on the website) or if you feel like splurging on a seafood platter. But don't expect a unique experience here: walking in, I whispered to my boyfriend, "so American!" and he just nodded in agreement. Dock's Cafe was just like any of the generic, more upscale waterfront restaurants that are a dime a dozen on the east coast. Not that there's anything wrong with that - but it's just not what I wanted so many thousands of miles away from the US.

Dock's Cafe
Jordaenskaai 7
2000 Antwerp
Belgium
03/226 63 30
www.docks.be (works best in Internet Explorer)

tags: grub