It would be fairly easy to miss this place from the outside, given the low-key sign.
A flashy sign isn't necessary for business here, though. Le Matin Liègois is known to locals who stop by for breakfast, to pick up bread or a freshly-made sandwich for their day, or who might settle in at some point in the day for a pastry with coffee or tea.
Situated in La Place du Marché, (which is an elgongation off the Place St. Lambert,) it is an easy walk from most places in the centre of Liège.
Place St. Lambert
Place du Marché
Le Matin Liègois is a few buildings further walking in this direction, on this side of the street.
A friendly woman behind the counter greeted us, and when asked, answered that yes she was able to speak English. When we arrived the downstairs was rather busy and so we asked if we could sit upstairs to take breakfast. We were given a cheerful yes and made our way up a wooden spiral staircase at the back, discovering a quaint and quiet space upstairs with red walls and coloured glass windows.
Menus were already placed at most tables and as we settled down our waiter joined us. We asked and found that he did not speak English, but he indicated that if we showed him what we wanted on the menu he should be able to help us. As we hadn't looked over the menu just yet, Tchantchès asked for a coffee (€1.70) and I asked about teas. I was brought a tea-menu, which showed the restaurant carries a variety of Lipton teas and infusions. As I'm not partial to the brand, I asked for a cappuccino (€2.00) to everyones confusion I think, but mine.
One note about cappuccinos here: I have yet to find one that comes with steamed milk atop.
Ordering a cappuccino in Liège will often result in the receipt of something like this:
(an espresso topped with sweetened whipped cream and cinnamon.)
Tchantchès pointed to the "complet" (€8.00), which is a breakfast consisting of a regular croissant, a chocolate croissant, a white-bread roll, slices of cheese (a middle-of-the-road gouda in this case,) butter, a selection of spreads including honey, jam, nutella, and sirop de Liège, a soft-boiled egg and an accompanying coffee or tea.
I pointed to the "2 oeufs sur le plat" breakfast combination (€5.00), which includes 2 sunny-side-up eggs, buttered bread, and a coffee or tea. At least it should have. When our waiter brought our meals, he presented Tchantchès with his plates and coffee, and then placed one tiny plate in front of me. A single sunny-side-up egg.
I apologized and explained to the waiter that my breakfast was supposed to have 2 eggs, and pointed again to my desired meal on the menu. He apologized explaining in French that his colleague had misunderstood that I'd wanted just one egg, and said he'd get right to fixing it. Another egg was quickly brought to me, and at this point I had to try again and explain that I'd really wanted the full meal pointing to the bread and coffee in the meal description.
Fortunately another couple were eating upstairs with us and when I said "toast" one of them tossed a "pain grillé" to the waiter, at which point he realized I was still missing part of my meal. I never did get my bread, but Tchantchès had actually been given an extra roll along with his soft-boiled egg, so he gave it to me and we called it even after the waiter returned with my coffee.
Overall we felt the quality of the food was good, but not outstanding. Tchantchès has a taste for fine pastries and thought the croissants weren't bad, but were also nothing special. The bread roll was reasonably fresh, though rather tasteless. My eggs were correctly cooked and well seasoned, tasting lightly of butter, salt and pepper, though Tchantchès' soft-boiled egg was bizarrely overcooked in one part while being completely undercooked with a transparent white in another part. We noted as well that the spreads provided with his breakfast were likely placed in their pots the night before or possibly even earlier, judging by the skin that had developed on the (normally semi-fluid) sirop de Liège.
Part of Tchantchès' breakfast. (Hungry bugger had already eaten his croissant and soft-boiled egg before I'd gotten my camera out!)
Despite the wrinkle in service, everyone was unfalteringly friendly, tried their best to get things right even with the language difference, and service was fairly quick. The woman minding the counter downstairs seemed eager to practice her English as she rang us up, making small talk with us and wishing us a good stay in Liège on our way out.
Le Matin Liègois
Place du Marché, #20
Open 7am - 6pm Monday - Saturday, 9am - 12pm Sunday.
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