There’s no shortage of plaudits in the reviews of the Boury restaurant in Roeselare. Everyone clearly agrees that top quality is guaranteed with Chef Tim Boury and his Hostess Inge Waeles. Boury soon won its first Michelin Star and the restaurant scored an excellent 17 out of 20 with Gault & Millau. All the same, it’s equally clear that the pair have greater ambitions, so early in 2016 they moved to new larger premises on the Rumbeeksesteenweg. There they could offer their customers greater comfort and take the creativity and quality of their cooking a notch or two higher. So, we thought, high time to go and try it!

A talented career

The feted career of the owners of Boury naturally aroused our curiosity about what sort of culinary experience we could expect at their restaurant. Chef Tim Boury studied at the Hotel School Ter Duinen in Koksijde and began his career in Comme chez Soi and Oud Sluis – both top restaurants. His ability soon won him a number of awards, such as “Young Chef of 2014” and a silver medal at the Native Cooking Awards in 2016. Tim’s wife, Inge Waeles, also the Hostess, likewise trained as a chef at Ter Duinen and she too  worked with established names like Comme chez Soi, Hof van Cleve, and Auberge du Pêcheur. But at Boury Inge has doffed her chef’s hat to fill the role of Hostess.

A new building & the next step

Inside the new building all is stylish and modern, but during the alterations the historic architectural features were nicely balanced with a contemporary approach. To help provide customers with a stress-free experience of the very best cooking, Boury has three guest-rooms where you can stay overnight. They have their own herb garden and vegetable patch too, where they can grow the best varieties and experiment with new ideas. At Boury you can choose from a three, five or seven course menu, which they call the “Biz”, the “Try it and See” and the “Boury”, and there’s a menu à la carte, albeit somewhat limited. For diners who would rather drink something other than wine, the Sommelier will advise on beers or other suitable drinks to go with the food; and an excellent idea it is to offer that option. We went for the “Boury”, complemented with cheese and appropriate wines.

Aperitifs on the terrace

All in all we couldn’t have chosen a better day for lunch than this particular Saturday afternoon, sitting on the new Boury’s delightful terrace under brilliant sunshine but in a gentle breeze, and with a view of the impressive Maes Inox outdoor kitchen range. We were agreeably surprised by the House aperitif, a cocktail which changes by the month and is offered with or without alcohol. We began with one based on Cavaillon melon, with Zacapa Rum 23, apricot brandy, ponzu, and elderflower. The non-alcoholic cocktail was made from grilled watermelon, Ghent honey, lavender and lemon vinegar. With the aperitifs we were given a large selection of sophisticated appetizers to stimulate the taste buds, a quick start and at the highest standard, raising great expectations for what was to come.

 

The Menu Boury

After all that we moved indoors to enjoy the rest of the menu. Incidentally, an enjoyable detail here is that for each course a card is placed on the table to describe each dish. When you leave you are given all the cards to take home as a handy aid to look back on the whole culinary experience.

Anyway, there quickly followed a chunky but elegant bowl of sourdough bread, for which as well as butter and olive oil we were given creamy-soft lardo riped on Carrara marble.

Fish and vegetable starters

The focus of the first dish on the menu is the top quality ingredients that were used to make it. The dish was built up from tomatoes from Roeselare, strawberry and basil, with Italian bread and creamy goat’s cheese to top it off. Not only the tomato but the strawberry too goes well with the basil and goat’s cheese. The accompanying wine was a 2015 Chardonnay Carricante (Valcanzjria, Gulfi, Sicily).

Our next taste sensation was Gambero Rosso with garden peas, escabeche and baby sweet corn, and the aromas of smoked paprika and the sheer quality of the prawns were just the best. The appropriate wine served with this dish was a Cor Dão , (Alvaro Castro – Dão Encruzado 2014) with its fresh and exotic notes.

Then came what we found the most delicious dish in the whole menu:  North Sea plaice and Zealand mussels, with nage and swede. The flavours were unbelievably well balanced, with a glass of Lignum, Albet i Noya, Penedès, ‘Sauvignon Blanc XarelLo Chardonnay’ to go perfectly with it, a delicate-flavoured wine with woody notes.

Meat full of delicacy

Time for some ingredients needing a bit more courage! We tried sweetbreads of veal with calf’s tongue, mini red beets, aubergine enoki sprinkled with grated dried calf heart. The firm but refined flavour of a Chinon Cuvée Pain, Chales Pain, Loire ‘Cabernet franc’ 2014 makes it just the wine to go with this dish. 

We stayed with meat and sampled roast wild buck with pine nuts, pickled onion, baby carrots and girolles, with a macadamia and sauvignon vinaigrette, with the suggested accompaniment of  VDP Ortswein, Bercher – Burkheim ‘Spätburgunder’ 2013. 

Cheeses to Astonish

To follow we shared a selection of cheese from Van Tricht. The way this course is presented is a real treat, with lots of tasty extras, various suitable things to drink and delightful service. We were served seven different kinds of cheese, Sainte-Maure de Durbuy from Belgium, and from France was Tomme d’abondance and Chanteraine along with Sablé de Wissant, also French. There were two more Belgian cheeses called Brique des Flandres and Bleu Belge Bio, and finally there was Torta de Oveja which is a Spanish cheese. To go with those we were given currant loaf, apple bread, dried fruit and pears with mustard. There were three wines offered to help us savour them, first a glass of Lebanese namely Musar Jeune – Château Muscar – Libanon Bekaa Valley ‘Viognier Vermentino Chardonnay’ 2014. Then came a glass of Louis PP CRU 55, a specialist beer, and third was Madeira N°4 Rainwater medium dry from The Madeira Collection.

Delight in Dessert

Although we’d had the chance to taste more than enough of the most delicious creations, we always fancy dessert! We had a pudding based on apricot and raspberry flavoured with vervain. The wine came from Germany this time – Piesporter Goldtröpfchen, Kabinett, Haart – Moesel ‘Riesling’ 2011.

Chief ingredients of the second dessert were cherries, Chartreuse and galangal, an excellent excuse for a glass of bubbly, which was Méthode ancestrale, Raphaël Bartucci – Burgey Cerdon ‘Gamay  Pulsard’ (organic).

We decamped to the terrace again for tea and coffee with more delicious snacks, Cannelé de Bourdeaux with dark rum, vanilla slice, a raspberry macaroon and mini-Sponge Cake. There was also a chocolate cake you could cut for yourself…

Exhausted and more than satisfied, we looked back on our super-opulent lunch at Boury. This restaurant had distinguished itself by combining smooth and accurate service with top-level, creative cuisine of great refinement.

Praktisch

Restaurant Boury, Rumbeeksesteenweg 300, 8800 Roeselare, Belgium | +32 51 62 64 62 | info@restaurantboury.be | www.restaurantboury.be | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter