My visit to Barbarella was an accident but it turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. To be honest, I usually avoid the Grote Markt when in Antwerp as a tourist trap, but this restaurant defied my expectations. The interior is clean and elegant,...but what's really important is care taken with taste and the freshness of ingredients. The menu is an unpretentious one with familiar dishes, but there's nothing routine in its execution. I chose grilled octopus with chickpeas from the antipasti and was bowled over but the smell, texture, flavour and look of the dish. It was really fresh. I hope this dish is still on the menu when I'm next in Antwerp. The guy in charge (quite possibly the owner) was careful to steer me away from too heavy a pizza and I had a Marinara. I wouldn't have thought such a familiar dish could have any surprises, but it had a richness of taste that I wasn't expecting with a real bite from the fresh basil. This had the feel of a fairly recent arrival among Antwerp's restaurants and I hope the grip on standards can be maintained. The experience was much more like eating in Italy than you usually get outside the country. A lot of hard work and attention to detail has gone into this restaurant and it's far from your usual pizzeria.More
