The historic centre of the Belgian city of Antwerp is home to several Michelin star awarded restaurants. No less than 13 restaurants have one star (in 2017) and ‘Bij Lam & Yin’ is one of them. This small-scale Cantonese restaurant derives its name from the chef, Lam Yee Lap, and the hostess, Yin Pang. Both are very hard-working people as you will see during service.

Enter the restaurant where you will  be greeted by Ms Pang, who speaks excellent Dutch/Flemish. Past the little messy-looking entrance and you will notice a somewhat dark, minimalistic interior. Darkness of the room is not a problem, but the tables are a little too close to each other to my liking. The seats look uncomfortable, but after sitting on one for an hour or two I can tell you that they are not that bad. With approx. 25 seats, the place is all but large. Because of the size and the friendliness of the staff, it feels like dining in the owner’s living room.

Cantonese dishes are presented on a little Chinese fan. The menu is limited, but with a kitchen staff of only 2 and around 25 guests per service, the staff have their hands full. Drinks can be selected from an iPad and suggestions per dish are presented in a clear way. Beverages include, of course, a wide selection of wines and some soft drinks. The usual juices are not available, but they do offer some nice alternatives like a nectar of quince.

On the limited menu you will find a starter of tiger prawn with crunchy white asparagus, but also Lu Shui beef. Mains have a wider choice and include lacquered duck, pigeon, lamb and beef. Desert has two options, both similar to what you would expect in a French restaurant, but with an Asian twist. Since I did not know what the beef starter was, I decided to try. It was a beautifully slow-cooked beef, a little spicy but not so that your tongue goes numb from the heat. Under the beef were just enough glass noodles. The whole dish was floating in a spiced Lu Shui sauce, made up of over a dozen ingredients like fennel,  cloves, anise, Szechuan peppercorns, orange peel and ginger to name just a few. Flavoursome dish where all ingredients could be tasted.

For main course the choice for me was really between the lacquered duck or the wagyu beef. Since I am not a big fan of bones in my meat, I opted for the beef. Where the kitchen is open, I tend to look into it all evening. This mean I watch chef  Lap work his magic on really decent-sized portions of beef. The beef was cooked to perfection, with a really nice caramelized crust on the outside and nice and pink on the inside. It is served with some rice and Asian cabbage (similar to bok choy). The cabbage could have used some more work as this was not as flavoursome as it maybe could have been. Because of the flavours of the hero of the dish, the wagyu beef, I won’t argue about the cabbage. Was this the best dish ever? No, but that does not mean it was bad at all. The steak itself was excellent, it was really the veggies it came with that pulled the dish down a little.

Deserts are partly bought from a patisserie down the street. In a larger restaurant this would be a ‘no-no’. However, in a restaurant with just two hard-working people in the kitchen, expecting dessert to be made from scratch is a little to much to ask. The base of my dessert was a chocolate biscuit with some chocolate mousse on top. Some slices of biscuit roll was wedged into the mousse. Some sweetened ginger that was worked into the biscuit roll was also sprinkled on top of the dessert. On the side there was some lemon ice cream  one some chocolate crumbs. Ginger is really not my thing, but when worked into the dish in small amounts, it can be delicious. Within a few minutes the entire dessert was gone, with exception of the sweetened ginger on top. Dessert was excellent and had almost everything in the right proportions, only the ice cream could have been a little bigger.

The restaurant has a Michelin start but whether or not they deserve it is not for me to judge. Food is definitely good, but my main dish was not spectacular. Would I go there again? Not sure, as there are plenty of other good restaurants in Antwerp. However, there is only one Asian restaurant with a star. A meal will set you back around EUR 70 per person (without wine), so this is reasonably priced. With the place being very popular, reservations are highly recommended…..

Restaurant location: View on Google Maps
Restaurant website: http://www.lam-en-yin.be