La Piola II

La Piola II is a welcome addition to an area already rife with cosy, reliable restaurants for Brussels’ bobo set. The sister restaurant to the popular La Piola, both a stone’s throw from Place du Châtelain, La Piola II’s focus is on serving up fresh fish, pasta and friendly service. It succeeds, to an extent.

A warning to the French-impaired: the reservation system is a bit strange. You call, they don’t answer. You are told in French to leave a message with your reservation details. You receive no response, so you show up anyway and hope your reservation went through. Luckily for us, it had. Shortly after my companion and I sat down, a small piece of bruschetta arrived at the table. Simple, with a powerful sweetness and a hint of heat, it suggested good things to come.

We’d both eaten a late lunch, so regrettably we skipped the seafood antipasti and went straight for the mains, which range from €11 to €20. I chose the spaghetti alle vongole and my companion the orrechiette allo scoglio. Our meals complemented each other. Her orrechiette was freshly made but a bit too thick, too al dente. But she had an array of mussels, squid and shrimp sitting in a thick, fishy broth that compensated for the pasta’s shortcomings. My spaghetti, on the other hand, was perfectly cooked, soft with just enough chew. However, my tiny clams and a weak, sparse butter sauce weren’t powerful enough to keep the pasta interesting to the last bite.

After finishing off generous portions of tiramisu and tartufo nero, I asked my companion, ‘So, what did you think?’ We agreed, La Piola II is a good restaurant with respectable ingredients at a fair price. There wasn’t much more to say, so we began talking about the many other Brussels restaurants that we loved.

90 Rue Américaine, tel 02.852.39.69