RIDE & DINE | Brussels Tram Experience

The Hague has the Hoftrammm, Milan has the Atmosfera and Brussels has the Tram Experience. In September 2022 Danny, Sam, Oriol and I booked a table for four.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Timothy (@bqtim)

The Brussels Tram Experience has existed for ten years now. “Over the last decade, we’ve extraordinarily fortunate to share this extraordinary gastronomic experience with food lovers from Brussels and beyond”, facilitator Visit Brussels boasts on its website.

First iteration.

The tram itself got a makeover, changing sponsors and thus changing the interior design and livery.

“Each menu follows the rhythm of the seasons and is an opportunity for our chefs to present their reinterpretation of Belgian cuisine and delight your taste buds! Rediscover Belgian gastronomy in the unique, welcoming atmosphere of a tram as it travels Brussels.”

“Inimitable chef Lionel Rigolet is once again doing us the great honour of being the patron of the Tram Experience! His rigour and expertise, as chef of the prestigious Comme Chez Soi, guarantee you delicious, perfectly executed menus.”

Our chef in September 2022 was Grégoire Gillard. He gained experience at Comme Chez Soi, Alain Ducasse‘s Louis XV in the Principality of Monaco and Sang Hoon Degeimbre at L’air du temps in Liernu in the province of Namur.

Concept

The concept is simpel, really. In a converted MIVB / STIB PCC tram – tram 7601, ex-7765, you dine while you ride Brussels’ tram network. In Belgium there are also PCC trams in Antwerp and Ghent.

Refurbishing of the tram.

The tram takes you from Place Poelaertplein and back. The route takes you from Poelaert to Flagey, Legrand, Buyl, Merode, Montgomery, the Tram Museum, Madoux, Stockel / Stokkel, Hermann-Debroux, Wiener, Boondael Gare / Boondaal Station, back to Buyl, Legrand, Flagey and Poelaert.

The experience

It’s called ‘Tram Experience’ so what is the experience like? From the start I’ll come out and say I and I dare to say we had a very enjoyable evening with fine dining and a lovely scenery passing by the window.

But there are also a few things which could have been organised or executed better.

Starting with boarding. The Place Poulaertplein, in front of the Palace of Justice, lost its tram loop which means you have to hop on the dining tram in between trams f the regular service passing by. It’s not that practical. It would have been nice to have some time to settle in.

But anyway, our glasses of cava were served, our coats were taken and off we went!

The interior design is sleek and practical. There are tables for two on one side, and tables for for on the other. If we counted well, there are 24 seats. The tram has three kitchen and service areas and a toilet.

The interior uses black and brown colours. The seats are hard and the padding basic. Actually, the padding for your back is high which makes it hard to have your back straight.

To keep the wine glasses in place there is some kind of nifty rack with notches.

I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of space we had, considering it’s dining on a tram. Not exactly a spacious environment.

The ride was not smooth. There are obviously some factors for this.

The Tram Experience runs between commercial traffic. So it has to stop at traffic lights and so on.
The PCC trams are not frequently used anymore. So the driver has maybe not the day-to-day experience anymore to drive more smoothly.

I don’t know if something can be done about that.

The end of the ride was also bit abrupt. Suddenly, we got our coats back and there we were at Poelaert. Some advance notice would have been nice.

The dining

Let’s talk about food.

This was the menu

Three appetisers: paling in’t groen (eel in green); vegan américain, beetroot and chips; Brussels sprout, shitake emulsion, Herve cheese praline.
First starter: revisited shrimp-stuffed tomato featuring langoustine, ceviche and tagete oil, langoustine aspic, kimchi and seasonal herbs.
Second starter: celery ravioli with grey North Sea shrimp, fermented juice, persillade and lovage oil.
Main course: hillside squab, confit leg, pickled aubergine, charred peppers and labneh, strong satureja sauce.
Dessert: raspberry, blancmange, Breton shortbread with olive oil, pistachio meringue. Unfortunately, due to some technical difficulty there was no basil sorbet as planned.

There was also a wine pairing included in the price of 525 euros per table for four or 131.25 euros per person.

There were some really tasty elements to the menu. Others were less our taste. But the concept, execution and presentation were spot on.

So while not being ‘the best dinner ever’, the meal was of a quality certainly warranting its price.

So?

The Tram Experience is a truly enjoyable experience but not a faultless one. It’s not the best ride ever. It’s not the best meal ever. But it was a fun and quirky activity.

As I am writing this, we are looking at doing more ‘rides & dines’ in the future.

Many photos by Oriol. Thank you!