ETA 2021: Sadly, this restaurant has closed. Another has opened in its place, but we haven’t yet tried it.
One major part of settling in a new town is locating a source for good suds. I like German beer fine, but I’m really partial to Belgian beers, which tend to be more interesting to my aging tastebuds. Last weekend, probably after our awesome Cajun food extravaganza, I went looking for a place to buy Belgian beer.
When we lived near Stuttgart, we used to go to Heinrich’s 3000 drink market in Kornwestheim, which had a pretty good sized Belgian section. I’m sure such a place exists near Wiesbaden, but when I went Googling, the first place to come up in Wiesbaden was a place called Le Petit Belge. Le Petit Belge is located in the heart of Wiesbaden, right near the big red church in the big square. It’s kind of awkwardly laid out, with a shop/cafe on the edge of the square and a bakery/chocolate shop two doors down in a passageway. Between the two shops is a tiny Italian restaurant.
Le Petit Belge plays 80s music on its sound system and sells beers to take home. It also offers frites, crepes, waffles, buckwheat crepes (which are gluten free), soups, and other specials. It’s a tiny place, with room for just fourteen people in the cafe and room for a few more folks in the bakery area, which is also where you’ll find the restrooms. You will need the restrooms after a couple of hearty Belgian beers.
A shot of the outside facade. When it’s warm you can sit outside. You can probably sit outside when it’s not warm, too. They have little blankets.
Outside the bakery, where you can get beer, baked goods, and chocolates. It’s also where my frites were cooked. This is where you pee.
Bill peruses the menu, where there are many beers listed, then looks at the wall of beers.
It’s pretty impressive, especially for such a small venue. I wish we’d known about this place when we were househunting and staying in downtown Wiesbaden.
This is where they make the crepes, waffles, salads and such. I went with a Caprese, which was a fresh crepe made with tomatoes, herbs, and mozzarella. It came with a salad. Bill had a crepe full of Trappist cheese (which smelled like ass) and smoked ham. He said it was delicious, and ate every bite. You can also get sweets made… waffles, crepes, or fancy hot chocolate or coffee.
One of the two beers I enjoyed.
This is a small portion of frites at 200 grams. You can get them with “dips” included, or you can pay a la carte for things like ketchup, mayo, or something else. They also have medium and large frites. As it was, Bill and I struggled to finish the small one, and we were sharing.
My crepe. It arrived with cold mozzarella, but most people don’t care about that. I just pulled the crepe over the cheese to melt it a bit. It was good, but I only managed half. Those frites were deadly!
And a little salad. I actually enjoyed this– especially the crisp, zesty red peppers.
Bill’s crepe… he enjoys things that smell like ass. Maybe that’s how we’ve lasted 16 years. I’m just kidding… Actually, he said the Trappist cheese was only slightly more pungent than Gruyere, which I can handle somewhat easily.
This was my dessert.
Bill shops for beer to bring home. He’s flying back to the States on Sunday, so I’ll be at home alone. I usually try to stay on the wagon when he’s out of town, but Belgian beers are tempting, I must admit.
This was our modest haul. Next time, we’ll have to get more.
I can see this little eatery is much beloved by the local community. It’s really kind of cool to have a Belgian restaurant nearby, even if I’m really mostly interested in the beer, frites, and chocolate. You can get plenty of all three at Le Petit Belge. I’m sure we’ll be back again and again.
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