Lamalo – Hebrew for “Why not” – is easily the finest of Antwerp’s numerous kosher offerings. Due to a prohibition against mixing milk and meat products, kosher restaurants tend to fall in one category or the other. Lamalo is a meat restaurant, meaning you won’t find any dairy anywhere on the menu. You also won’t find pork or shellfish, animals that are altogether forbidden by Jewish law.

But what you will find is a selection of chicken, lamb, fish and duck so delicious that you’ll focus only on what’s there – not what’s missing. The restaurant calls its menu Mediterranean and follows through with herbs, spices and fruits that perk up their dishes.

For starters, the Mediterranean vegetable salad selection was a given. Larger parties get a larger selection, but an order for just a single diner already included six: rich hummus, creamy tahini (a smooth sesame sauce), a slightly spicy tomato spread, green olives, marinated cauliflower and carrot and a tomato and cucumber salad. It was a refreshing beginning, lapped up quickly with their hot focaccia, which is topped with rosemary, olive oil and za’atar, a Middle Eastern herb mix with sumac and sesame seeds.

We sampled two other starters: the grilled foie gras with fig and pomegranate glaze was an irresistible choice, and a salad with smoked duck and apple balanced sweet and savoury.

In addition to their selection of Israeli and other kosher wines, one particular soft drink is also worth noting: limonana. Sweet lemonade with a heavy dose of fresh mint (“nana” is Moroccan spearmint). It’ll have you spiking your own lemonade with mint in no time.

The main dishes were both delicious and generous. I thoroughly enjoyed my marinated chicken brochette – slightly sweet, moist and tender. For the brochettes, you can choose your side dishes, and I particularly enjoyed the vegetables, which were soft without falling apart and lightly seasoned.

The chicken schnitzel veered away from the Mediterranean influences, and would have been more accurately described as “schnitzels”, with several fried cuts of chicken, along with fries, served to my slightly overwhelmed friend.

Lamb chops were another must, served with grilled potatoes, caramelised red onion and flavoured with balsamic vinegar; the lamb was juicy, making for a rich and satisfying dish. The last dish was one of the day’s specials – a duck leg confit with sweet potatoes, likewise a good choice.

We were certainly sated by this point, but in the interest of research, we ordered dessert. It was no struggle to finish them. A chocolate moelleux cake was gooey and not too sweet; it came topped with “ice cream” – a non-dairy variety, which it could have done without. The tarte tatin was mostly forgettable. The best by far was the “parfait halvah.” Halvah is a dessert made of sesame paste and sugar. Poorly made varieties are bitter and chalky, but a well-made halvah dissolves on your tongue. Lamalo’s did, and, with the creamy (magically non-dairy) topping, it was divine.

Kosher food is also not terribly cheap, especially the meat. Three courses with drinks worked out to about €50 a head. With a trendy interior and friendly service, Lamalo makes for a lovely evening out – and rightly asks, “why not?”

www.lamalo.com

Appelmansstraat 21, Antwerp
Sun-Thurs 12.00-15.00 & 18.00-22.00
Excellent kosher eating, with generous portions – and a paradise for any meat lover

Contact Bite at flandersbite@gmail.com