The devil is in the details and the nuggets in unlikely places, it is well known. Imagine a BMW garage along a busy road in Namur. A garage called All-Cars with a training center for BMW technicians from Wallonia and Luxembourg and… a restaurant on the first floor! If a small separate space is intended for the catering of people in training, a large bright room, with astonishing paintings on plexi from the Liège gallery Arqontanporin, can accommodate around thirty guests.
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The devil is in the details and the nuggets in unlikely places, it is well known. Imagine a BMW garage along a busy road in Namur. A garage called All-Cars with a training center for BMW technicians from Wallonia and Luxembourg and… a restaurant on the first floor! If a small separate space is intended for the catering of people in training, a large bright room, with astonishing paintings on plexi from the Liège gallery Arqontanporin, can accommodate around thirty guests. In the open kitchen, Alexis Mathias and chef Robin Haquenne are busy. Despite his young age, the latter is far from unknown. Alongside his participation in 2014 in the program Objectif Top Chef presented by Philippe Etchebest, he worked in some very beautiful starred restaurants, such as L’Auberge du Vieux Puits of the French tri-starred Gilles Goujon or, with us, L’ Air du Temps, the Prieuré St-Géry and Le Coq aux Champs. He held Rob’s Corner in Ciney for a long time and, as such, even represented Belgium at the prestigious Taittinger Culinary Prize. So here he is at the piano of this new Namur address to which Michelin has just awarded a Bib Gourmand and Gault & Millau a promising 13/20. It is not very complicated to understand why. The chef offers lively cuisine at a tight price: a menu-carte (two or three options per service) offered at 35 euros for two courses or 45 for three. There is creativity and audacity at Haquenne, as with its two-course oyster: raw with Simmental beef carpaccio and lightly poached and served with horseradish, potato and cucumber. Mention well for its raw and tender langoustine marinated in verjuice and enhanced by a light Fine Champagne sauce. The chef also added small squares of waffle with langoustine and a celeriac mousseline. A nice fresh dish. More classic was the duck with figs but the thigh cromesquis was a real killer. As for the sea bass, it was perfectly grilled on its skin and the squid stuffed with cockles and small vegetables, very pleasant companions. All sublimated by an airy red mullet rust. Finally, in the absence of his exercise around the black forest not available that day, only the desserts seemed to us a little more cutesy. In the dining room, the friendly Amaury Bocquillon has mastered a food-wine pairing at a low price (16 euros!). Opened a year ago, L’Entretien got off to a flying start and there is potential in this team to go much further.
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