He was detained in the paddock, and when he joined the tea party found that not content with tea and cakes the ladies had eaten the contents of three of the boxes of specimen fruits. A dinner party would have cost him less than that afternoon tea. The Plage Hotel has always had a reputation for good cooking, and its restaurant used to be a place where a good but expensive a la carte The Plage meal was to be obtained. In the Hotel, The autumn of 1907 the hotel changed Digue hands, being sold by the Wagons Lits Company to 144 'The Gourmet's Guide to Europe the proprietor of the Splendid and Continental Hotels. The restaurant has now been divided into two parts by an imaginary line. Those careful guests who are en pension and eat the lunch and dinner of the day, quite good meals, are bowed to the left, the people who dine and breakfast a la carte are told to walk straight on to the tables in the centre and on the right. The Restaurant of the Kurhaus, as the Casino is called, possesses an excellent cook, and its prices The Restaurant are high- The restaurant is in the of the Kurhaus, building, and arches in the wall of the The Digue great concert hall connect it with the dining-room. Outside these arches, and actually in the concert room, the restaurant has a little roped-in enclosure, and it is quite chic to secure a table in this space and dine there on the nights when any celebrity is singing. You start your dinner at 8.30, the hour of the commencement of the concert ; you talk loudly and clatter knives and forks during all the orchestral items ; and you become silent and allow the entree to get cold while Caruso, or Bond, or Note sings. The Restaurant du Helder, attached to the big Brasserie of that name on the Boulevard van Iseghem, is a moderate-sized white restaurant, du Helder, ft has white etageres , white chairs, Boulevard van anc[ js much after the Parisian model. Iseghem One has to note that the linen is not of the finest make, that the glass is not of the thinnest, that the imitation flowers on the table with electric lights concealed in them are just a little gaudy, to appreciate its provincialism. Its prices are about Parisian prices, those that one expects to pay at Durand’s or La Rue’s or Henri’s, and both the cooking and service are good. The habitues of the restaurant tell me that no one is ever “ rushed ” there into ordering a longer and more expensive dinner than he requires, and that where two portions will Belgian Towns 145 serve for three people, a suggestion is always made by the maitre cT hotel that two will suffice. All of which I am glad to record. Most of the items on the bill of fare seemed to range between 2 and 3 francs, and if I had not been tempted by an 8-franc partridge my bill for a solitary dinner would have been under 20 francs. As an indication of the prices of the Helder, this was my dinner : A slice of Cantaloup melon, a slice of brill with white wine sauce, a partridge and salad Coeurs de Romaine , a bit of Camembert cheese, and a pear. A small bottle of Sauterne and a small bottle of Vichy water, a cup of coffee, and a glass of the “ fine ” of the house, Courvoisier at a franc a glass, and very good at the price. My bill came to 24 francs 75 centimes, the melon and the partridge being the expensive items in it. The Cafe de Paris of Brussels has opened a branch in Ostende.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

He was detained in the paddock, and when he joined the tea party found that not content with tea and cakes the ladies had eaten the contents of three of the boxes of specimen fruits. A dinner party would have cost him less than that afternoon tea. The Plage Hotel has always had a reputation for good cooking, and its restaurant used to be a place where a good but expensive a la carte The Plage meal was to be obtained. In the Hotel, The autumn of 1907 the hotel changed Digue hands, being sold by the Wagons Lits Company to 144 'The Gourmet's Guide to Europe the proprietor of the Splendid and Continental Hotels. The restaurant has now been divided into two parts by an imaginary line. Those careful guests who are en pension and eat the lunch and dinner of the day, quite good meals, are bowed to the left, the people who dine and breakfast a la carte are told to walk straight on to the tables in the centre and on the right. The Restaurant of the Kurhaus, as the Casino is called, possesses an excellent cook, and its prices The Restaurant are high- The restaurant is in the of the Kurhaus, building, and arches in the wall of the The Digue great concert hall connect it with the dining-room. Outside these arches, and actually in the concert room, the restaurant has a little roped-in enclosure, and it is quite chic to secure a table in this space and dine there on the nights when any celebrity is singing. You start your dinner at 8.30, the hour of the commencement of the concert ; you talk loudly and clatter knives and forks during all the orchestral items ; and you become silent and allow the entree to get cold while Caruso, or Bond, or Duse sings. The Restaurant du Helder, attached to the big Brasserie of that name on the Boulevard van Iseghem, is a moderate-sized white restaurant, du Helder, ft has white etageres , white chairs, Boulevard van anc[ js much after the Parisian model. Iseghem One has to note that the linen is not of the finest make, that the glass is not of the thinnest, that the imitation flowers on the table with electric lights concealed in them are just a little gaudy, to appreciate its provincialism. Its prices are about Parisian prices, those that one expects to pay at Durand’s or La Rue’s or Henri’s, and both the cooking and service are good. The habitues of the restaurant tell me that no one is ever “ rushed ” there into ordering a longer and more expensive dinner than he requires, and that where two portions will Belgian Towns 145 serve for three people, a suggestion is always made by the maitre cT hotel that two will suffice. All of which I am glad to record. Most of the items on the bill of fare seemed to range between 2 and 3 francs, and if I had not been tempted by an 8-franc partridge my bill for a solitary dinner would have been under 20 francs. As an indication of the prices of the Helder, this was my dinner : A slice of Cantaloup melon, a slice of brill with white wine sauce, a partridge and salad Coeurs de Romaine , a bit of Camembert cheese, and a pear. A small bottle of Sauterne and a small bottle of Vichy water, a cup of coffee, and a glass of the “ fine ” of the house, Courvoisier at a franc a glass, and very good at the price. My bill came to 24 francs 75 centimes, the melon and the partridge being the expensive items in it. The Cafe de Paris of Brussels has opened a branch in Ostende.

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