Changing time this weekend

Don’t forget to change the time this weekend in the night of Saturday, 25 October to Sunday, 26 October.

At 3am on Sunday (i.e., 3 in the morning if you’re staying up late on Saturday night), turn your watch back an hour to 2am.

One more hour of sleep, many hours of darkness to come…

Place Jourdan restaurants

Here it is, a quick review of some of the eateries on Place Jourdan:

Mamma Roma – Recommended. Good pizza and perfect for a quick lunch (since it could be considered a fast food place because of the set up and quick service). Take out also available. See previous post for more details.

Cafe des epices – Average. Service tends to be a bit slow and the food is quite average for Brussels standards. You can get a lot more for your money. Nice place to have a drink and a bite when the weather is nice, but would not go there particularly for the food.

Creperie Le Jordan – Ok. Crepes bretonnes. Nothing extraordinary, but decent crepes at reasonable prices. Service tends to be quick, so it’s fine for a weekday lunch.

Slovenian House – Good food, homemade style. For more detailed review, see previous post.

The Greek restaurant next to Mamma Roma – Avoid!! The worst Greek food I have had (in Brussels and elsewhere). Should have left after seeing that the menu is not in Greek at all. The dishes are highly unauthentic and not even tasty. Plus, it’s really overpriced.

La Madonna – Nice Italian restaurant with good pizzas. Average prices and decent service. (I have been informed that there is another Italian restaurant on the other side of the square, which is quite average-bad, so please do not mix them up…)

Spud’s – Recommended, especially if someone else is treating… The posher restaurant in the Sofitel. Good food, quiet atmosphere. For full review, check here.

Espace Sushi – I haven’t been to this place for ages, so I cannot really comment much, but it used to be an average, slightly overpriced sushi place. For better sushi picks in Brussels, see this post.

Capoue – Recommended. Nice ice cream shop (part of a chain with several shops in Brussels) with a lot of different flavors and reasonable prices. The sorbets are best.

Maison Antoine – THE traditional Belgian fries… You can smell them from Parc Leopold. They are so heavy (but good!) that they make a meal (albeit unhealthy one) by themselves. A must-try (but not necessarily must-repeat…)

Any suggestions or recomendations on other restaurants in the area? Please send your comments!

Thursday night museum openings

Here it is again: The yearly late-evening museum openings program.

What is this? A number of participating museums in Brussels will keep their doors open a few hours longer on Thursday evening to allow people to visit for a reduced fee of just EUR 2.50 (or EUR 1 if you are under age 25).

When? Every Thursday evening from September 25 to December 18.

Where? Participating museums change every week. Please check schedule.

Other years they had special festivities on the opening and closing nights, but it’s not very clear if they will do that this year. For recommendations on what museums to visit, check this previous post (although not all museums listed will participate this year).

2008 Heritage days and no-car day

Two things coming up this weekend:

Sat-Sun, September 20-21: Journees du Patrimoine (Heritage days)- Museums and other activities around the theme “50th anniversary of the 1958 World Expo in Brussels”. (Download the full programme on the link above)

Sunday, September 21: Car-free day in Brussels The city will be car-free but watch out for bike riders who decide to take advantage of this day to undust their bikes and go for a (yearly) ride around town… You’ll see more pedestrian traffic than ever, but if the weather is nice it’s a nice way to rediscover the city on foot or by bike, rollerblades or skateboard…

Movie festivals in Brussels: Wolubilis + FilmDays

The new school year brings new cultural activities. There will be a couple of movie festivals this month:

Brussels Movie Days will take place at the Wolubilis (Metro Roodebeek) from September 10 to September 14.

Brico will also be sponsoring a 3-day film festival called Brico FilmDays from September 28 through September 30, showing movies for just EUR 3 per film. Below is the list of films and participating movie theaters in Brussels. For the full details, check out the official website.

Movie list:

• “Angus, thongs, and perfect Snogging” – Gurinder Chadha
  Starring Georgia Groome, Eleanor Tomlinson, Aaron Johnson
• “Burn after Reading” – Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
  Starring Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Frances McDormand
• “Death Race” – Paul W.S. Anderson
  Starring Jason Statham, Tyrese Gibson, Joan Allen, Ian McShane, Natalie Martinez, Jason Clarke
• “Eagle Eye” – D.J. Carus
  Starring Shia Laboeuf, Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson
• “Hellboy 2 – The Golden Army ” – Guillermo Del Toro
  Starring Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Luke Goss, Thomas Kretschmann, Doug Jones
• “Mes Stars et Moi ” – Laetitia Colombani
  Starring Kad Merad, Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Béart
• “Tropic Thunder ” – Ben Stiller
  Starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Nick Nolte

Movie theaters:

* Actor’s Studio
* Kinepolis
* Movy club – Forest
* New Stockel
* Styx
* UGC De Brouckere
* UGC Toison d’Or

Fiesta latina in Brussels

Next week, on Friday 29/08 and Saturday 30/08, the popular annual latin festival in Brussels: Fiesta Latina

When? Doors will open from noon to 2am on each of the two days.

Where? Louise – Rue du Bailli

How much? EUR 5 entrance fee per day

What? Concerts, dance lessons, salsa contest, and more

Bongo gift vouchers

Bongo gift vouchers are becoming increasingly popular. But what are they exactly?

What?
Simple: Nicely boxed CD-size thematic gift vouchers for activities, meals, wine, and other entertainment, mostly throughout Belgium but occasionally also including locations in The Netherlands, Germany, and France.

What exactly?
The booklet comes with a list of around 30 establishments in which you can redeem the voucher, which can be for a dinner for two, a hotel stay in a chateau for two, cooking lessons, a cultural activity, a bottle of wine and appetizers at a wine bar, etc. etc. (Redemption instructions come in the booklet).

How much?
The pricing is also quite reasonable with boxes starting at EUR 25 (for a lunch, breakfast or wine bar for two), going up to EUR 50, EUR 100+ and all the way up to EUR 3,000. (The lower priced ones are a good deal, but the high-priced ones probably not, as the venues and hotels in the guides are often not the top, exclusive ones you would expect when you’re spending really large amounts of money).

In any case, this is a good gift that beats the more impersonal mall or store gift certificate and allows the gift recipient to explore a bit of Belgium and discover new places or things to do.

Where to buy
The booklets (only in French or Dutch) can be purchased online (you can browse all the packages and locations) or in one of the Bongo shops. There are two shops in Brussels: One in the City 2 shopping center (Metro Rogier) and another one on the lower floor of the Woluwe Shopping Center, across the supermarket. There are also other sales points, like the fnac and the Connections travel agencies, that also sell the Bongo books.

There are also Bongo books in other countries, including Denmark, Sweden, France, The Netherlands and Spain.

Drive-in movies at the Cinquantenaire

The yearly open air drive-in movies at the Cinquantenaire started on August 8 and will run through September 13, on Friday and Saturday nights. Tickets cost EUR 16 per car or EUR 1 per person if you go on foot.

The schedule for upcoming movies:

All films start at 20:00h. My recommendations are marked with an asterisk *

22/08 Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis
23/08 El Dorado
29/08 Sex and the City
30/08 The Love Guru
*05/09 Iron Man
*06/09 Indiana Jones 4
*12/09 Las Vegas 21
13/09 Wanted

Click on the movie titles to see the IMDB movie ratings and reviews (pretty reliable!)

Grand Place Flower Carpet

Like every two years since 1971, the Grand Place will be decorated with a giant flower carpet this coming weekend, from August 15 to August 17.

For those of you leaving for the long weekend, you still have a chance to see it starting on Thursday evening at 20:00h. Always worth a peek, especially if you’ve never seen this before.

The Grand Place is of course open and free to access, but for those of you interested in the panoramic visit (available from 9:00h to 23:00h from August 15-17), there is a fee of 3 euro. This is highly recommended if you intend to take good pictures, since it’s hard to do so from the ground.

For more information on the history and photos and videos of the previous editions, check the official website.

Mamma Mia avant-premiere

If you are an Abba fan or just can’t wait to see the movie Mamma Mia in Brussels, you have the chance to this Friday!

The movie will be showing in avant-premiere at the Cinquantenaire park (metro: Merode, bus 22, 27, 61, 80; tram 81) on Friday, 8 August as the opening film for the yearly drive-in movies in the park. Plus, you don’t need a car to go there – you can always just go on foot and rent a chair (or not).

If you can’t make it, don’t worry, the movie is supposed to be released widely in Belgium next month.