The story
Bloesem is a tasting menu restaurant at De Leescorfstraat 8 in Borgerhout, Antwerpen, and Gault&Millau gave it 15 points in 2026. It opened at the end of 2024 in a quiet residential street at the edge of Te Boelaerpark.
Brend Geudens and Nebo Schamp cooked for five years at Willem Hiele's restaurant before opening here. The space belongs to Deborah Van Haute-Bloemen, who once worked front-of-house for Hiele. The kitchen is product-driven and follows the seasons. Much of the cooking happens in full view, with a Konro grill doing a share of the work.
Le Fooding, which lists Bloesem for 2026, describes a menu of around 17 small courses. Fried broccoli in a dried seaweed crust comes with a creamy scallop sauce. Grilled gurnard with crisp skin is glazed with a Bordelaise made from fish heads and bone marrow. Pheasant appears in two forms: the fillet cooked slowly over open flame, the thighs yakitori-style. The finish is a Brussels-style waffle flavoured with coffee from Rush Rush.
A bar, a single table and fourteen chairs surround the open kitchen. Stainless steel meets natural oak, linen curtains and patterned tiling, and a record player sits nearby. Bloesem serves dinner five nights a week and lunch on two days.
Recognition
Details
History
Curtains up! Five nights and two lunchtimes a week, at the edge of the verdant Te Boelaerpark, 14 spectators sit back and enjoy 17 carefully choreographed culinary vignettes, directed by Nebo Schamp and Brend Geudens. After five years performing on Willem Hiele’s stage, they can now be found in Deborah Van Haute-Bloemen’s space (who also used to work front-of-house for chef Hiele), which is decked out with stainless steel, natural oak, linen curtains, patterned tiling and a record player. What should you expect? An impressive show of skilled slicing, cooking and plating techniques, featuring three wild pheasants and a radicchio, grilled backstage on a Konro BBQ. A few other memorable scenes included: an unexpected and lovely “bimi KFC” (fried broccoli with a dried seaweed breading) paired with a creamy scallop beard sauce; thinly sliced celeriac doused in buttermilk; grilled gurnard with crispy skin and a syrupy Bordelaise sauce glaze made from fish heads and bone marrow; the aforementioned pheasant richly dressed in a delicate Champagne sauce, served two ways – half a fillet slow-cooked over an open flame, and the thighs prepared yakitori-style; cheeky French toast served with Pas de Bleu cheese from Het Hinkelspel in Ghent; and a crispy Brussels-style waffle infused with coffee roasted by Rush Rush. A performance worthy of a standing ovation! · Coco Bianca
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