ER PU.RE

Ensconced in a classy Avenue Louise town house, ER PU.RE is a feast for the eyes. The three dining rooms are warmly painted in dove grey and taupe, while big, bold black-and-white portraits of chef Vincent Vervisch and his team adorn the walls.

Vervisch’s dishes are also beautifully presented. One starter had dribbled lines of red wine reduction radiating from a slice of seared goose liver covered in a bubbly chestnut espuma and surrounded by a quartet of deep crimson confit figs. Aesthetics are clearly important to Vervisch, who teamed up with photographer Florio Anthony to represent Belgium in an international culinary photography contest in October. Having honed his craft at some of Brussels’ top tables (Sea Grill, Bruneau), 36-year-old Vervisch opened ER PU.RE in August to give free reign to his creative cuisine.

Tea and tobacco are among the central flavourings at ER PU.RE, which takes its name from China’s pu’er tea. Vervisch serves scampi fried in a green matcha tea tempura; Simmental beef with truffles and a Yunnan d’or tea sauce; or Cuban cigar-flavoured white chocolate cannelloni with pineapple for dessert.

The cooking is innovative , but unfortunately too many of the dishes look better than they taste. The beetroot carpaccio had slices of purple root alternating with primrose cheese disks – a riot of colour, but sorely lacking in taste. There are other weaknesses too: the duck was overcooked and although the waiters were friendly and informative, service was inexcusably long and rather sloppy – the crémeux au chocolat was good, but we’d ordered a clafoutis.

ER PU.RE is a promising new arrival, with some delightful touches (the amuse-gueule of salmon tartare with a mojito sorbet was wonderful) and a €35.00 menu découverte that’s real value for money. However, they need to pay more attention to detail and, above all, spice things up a bit. 

423 Avenue Louise, 1000 Brussels, tel 02.808.08.58; http://erpure.be