Went to this famous Antwerp restaurant last Saturday the 7th of July. (http://www.amadeusspareribrestaurant.be/)

It’s well known around the country for just 1 thing: the Spareribs…!!!

Since we had a festival nearby, it was the perfect time to check it out. After making the reservation, which can only take place in 2 different shifts at 6p.m. or 8.30p.m. it was obvious it was not just a normal restaurant but more of a high-tempo quick eating massive hall of food….in Dutch they call this a “vreetschuur”.

After standing in a row and getting one of the 120 free seats, we got this young foreign waiter asking what we want…I guess something to eat? So we asked for a menu and he probably thought we were from Mars, because this was not an option. Just look around you on the walls but everybody comes here for the spareribs so maybe you better order that…. Okay, no problem, can we have a wine list? Same reaction, no, not possible, we have red and white wine. Okay, let us choose that then, red wine please. Just take it from the table he said, we will see afterwards how much you had. And while I thought that the big 1,5 liter plastic bottle of wine was just for decoration, it seemed to be the actual wine for the guests. We had a glass, and we were so happy when the glass was empty…

To be honest, it’s a nice please, typical French bistro look and feel to it, only the other 120 guests should not be there to have a great dinner. After a few minutes the 2 plates arrived containing a very nice jacked potato in foil, some salad and of course a very big spare rib. Together with some “curry” butter and extra sauce in a can.

The spare rib was of a very good quality (I still think mine is better), well seasoned and grilled close to perfection, the thing that really made it was the separate sauce. A dark, licorice type of sauce with a taste of laurel and syrup. Tasted like what I expect a good warm sauce in the sixties would have tasted like, real authentic. After half my rib was gone they came along with a new one, because it is all you can eat, no problem there…

After all we had a very good dinner. Okay, the personnel was terrible bringing wrong drinks and not listening to their customers, waiting with the bill and so on, but for this price it was not bad at all. If you are looking for a quick bite and you love your ribs, this is the place to be. And for a price of €40 with 2 people, you can not expect anything other.

Score: 5.5 out of 10