beggen

Memphis Coffee, Beggen, Luxembourg

~ Corie Bratter ~ 7 Comments

I visited Memphis Coffee, before Christmas vacations – but as I got some spare time to put my notes in order, it makes it on my blog only now, unfortunately.

The restaurant – or, better, the diner – is located in Beggen, part of a mall structure on the main road, so not directly on the street and with easy parking in front. It is open all day and indeed it was one of the occasion we wanted to have lunch a bit later (4 pm 🙂 ) but we had no clear ideas where to go.

We went for a mozzarella stick starter, I continued with a huge burger while hubby had a meat patty sandwich, and we concluded sharing another huge ice cream dessert.

Below you will have the pictures of our lunch and then some comments related to the location and the food.

  
  

Things I loved about Memphis Coffee:

– Great location: it was only for the big windows overlooking a very grey sky that we understood to be still in Luxembourg. Even if the restaurant is part of a franchising, the interior design is lovely, details selected with care, funny and totally different compared to what you have seen so far in the city.
– Good quality/price: you can see you are not in a Michelin-star restaurant. While the starter was an average frozen product, my burger was not that bad and same the dessert – only too much cream for me and not much ice-cream. It is definitely the place to visit when you are on budget but you want to have a night out. It is not like going to Clairefontaine – for sure – but it is not even McDonald’s.
– Effective service: our waiters were smiling, fast and always available.

Things I liked a bit less about Memphis Coffee:

– As per above: the quality of the food is linked with the price. Frozen products like onions rings and mozzarella sticks were not memorable.
– Cleanness: we arrived during the afternoon and the restaurant, except two tables of teenagers, was empty. Indeed there were still some tables with empty and dirty dishes to be cleaned up while waiters were chatting at the counter. It is not a good image for a client – one of these dirty table was next to us, there when we arrived, and there when we left.

In conclusion: Memphis Coffee was reviewed extensively by my fellow bloggers before me, so I don’t have much to add. I love the place – really, you have to go, even for a milkshake – and, while the food experience is definitely not gastronomic, I did not find it that bad either. At least I was not served a burger that pretends to be gourmet but indeed is absolutely normal for 25 euro as some place in Kirchberg 🙂 Here you pay what you get – even a bit less, considering the environment – and you have big portions. Skip the snacks – definitely not good – and take a burger or sandwich with some dessert. Perfect post hangover recovery place or for a budget-friendly meeting with mates.

Another Sunday, Another Italian Restaurant: Sapori, Luxembourg

~ Corie Bratter ~ 6 Comments

Since I came back after ten days abroad alone, I wanted to make hubby happy and let him choose the restaurant for our Sunday date.  When we woke up the weather was great, so we opted for a location with the terrace and we ended up in Beggen, in a restaurant located in Place d’Argent called Sapori. It was long time I wanted to try it, but being out of our area, we always chose closest solutions.

The restaurant has a small terrace in front, overlooking the main street, two large but intimate rooms internally, and another terrace on the back, where we found our table.

We started with a Prosecco, we had a small gazpacho as welcome from the chef,  I continued with beef carpaccio with truffle as starter – and I had to share it with hubby, who initially was not convinced enough for taking one but, after seen it, decided it was worth eating half of mine. As main, I had 7-hours roasted lamb while hubby had lamb tagliata, and we closed our lunch with iced mascarpone and cheese.

During the meal we had one of my favorite wines, Marina Cvetic Montepulciano, and for the dessert I had a glass of sweet Recioto della Valpolicella.

Here some pictures of your lunch, followed, as usual, by my general impressions.

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I loved almost everything about Sapori:

– Food was outstanding: best quality materials, great techniques, fair portions, lovely presentation. The menu card was wide enough to have a good choice but most of the dishes were daily suggestions, therefore prepared with very fresh ingredients.

– Service was extremely attentive and available: we called just fifteen minutes before arriving for booking and we have never been there before, but they were indeed nice to accommodate us in the best way possible. We have always had our glass filled, bread on the table and the timings of the lunch were perfect. I appreciated very much the aperitif was asked at the arrival, so I had it while looking at the menu – and not when we had already chosen, no sense then.

– Special mention to the wine card: it is one of the best Italian wine card I have seen in Luxembourg. Great names, nothing too commercial, fair recharges.

Nothing was disappointing about our lunch, if I have to find something to improve, the appearance of the back terrace is not in line with the rest of the restaurant – people were coming out to smoke from the kitchen, not very pleasant to see. It needs also to be said, the bill, depending on what you eat, might not be cheap – but the quality has its price and I would definitely be extremely happy to come back to Sapori really soon.