Maison des Brasseurs
Luxembourgish, Traditional | €€
The sign on the door says that Maison des Brasseurs has been in existence for twenty eight years, but the atmosphere in the place and the clientele make it seem like it’s been around for a lot longer than that. The place is clean, as all restaurants should be, but unfortunately many are not, with a comfortable, worn wooden floor, imitation walnut topped tables, a lovely old bar, not too bright wall lights and plenty of wood panelling, all of which only enhances your feeling that it’s been around for a while. The dining room is long, and so it’s nether regions, furthest away from the street, are always artificially lit. There’s a terrace at the front in the summer, with a good many tables, if you fancy al fresco, and customers out there got as good service as anybody else inside the restaurant. I didn’t see one person have to resort to semaphore signalling when I was there.
On to the food. The menu for the Maison des Brasseurs reflects the traditional look and feel of the restaurant. The usual Luxembourgish dishes are well represented, notably the famous Judd mat gaardebohnen (smoked pork neck with broad beans). However, I didn’t see evidence anywhere, that there was a Plat du Jour to be had. Apparently Maison des Brasseurs doesn’t go in for that sort of thing. Undeterred, my dining companion and I had a look at the menu whilst sipping a beer. A word about the beer. They stock a couple of little known local brews here, ‘Waissen Durdaller’ (wheat beer) and ‘Wellen Ourdaller’ (amber ale) both made by Simon as far as I could ascertain. We tried the latter as they didn’t have the former. The good news is that it didn’t taste like a Belgian beer; the bad news is that it didn’t taste much of anything.
Back to the food. My aforementioned dining companion was much more adventurous than me in ordering what I think roughly translated as ‘Meat From Calf’s Head’. With visions of a steaming bovine head appearing on a platter opposite me, it came as a relief when the main courses arrived, to discover that the waitress had muddled the orders and brought grilled sea bass with grilled tomato, courgette and boiled new potatoes instead. Having waited 15 minutes and being a bit stuck for time, he took what he was given. I on the other hand, opted for something relatively safe I thought, and ordered the ‘Hareng Frais’ (assuming it to be fresh grilled herring), with a fresh bean salad and boiled new baby jacket potatoes in olive oil. The herring did indeed turn out to be very fresh, and not being cooked at all, it needed to be. This was a kind of sushi, northern European style, and very good it was too, as was the accompaniment. The sea bass was well cooked, toasted on the outside and moist and juicy within.
On the basis that the best way to tell if a pizza restaurant is good or bad is to try the Margherita (most likely because if they can’t get that right, it’s not much of a pizzeria), we decided to keep the dessert choices simple. We ordered the Mousse a Chocolat and the Crème Brule from the 14 dessert choices on the menu. The Crème Brule was as it should be, and the mousse wasn’t as light and fluffy as it could have been.
The Maison des Brasseurs isn’t going to win any awards for originality. That’s not what it’s there for. If you’re visiting Luxembourg and want to try something local, this could be the place for you. It’s a family and dog friendly restaurant, serving unpretentious, straight-up regional fare, for a more or less reasonable price in the centre of town. Period.
Maison des Brasseurs
48, Grand Rue
L-1660
Luxembourg
Tel: +352 47 13 71
jk@vo.lu
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