tl:dr - Bonnie wanted to eat light, because it was warm out, and
she'd recently eaten enough, so had what she deemed to be a crap
meal; under no such constraints, I had a rather delicious one.

Another trendy restaurant in a popular neighborhood, Invincible is
a darling of the upper middle class who can afford E40 bottles with
their dinner. It succeeds by offering decent value for interesting
wines and well-cooked French-style meals. Luckily they offer wines
by the glass for their selections under E45. Unfortunately, they
don't have a printed wine list. I had to go to a wall of bottles and myopically scan each label and price tag before making my choices.

Our aperitif was the Broccardo Langhet Arneis 17 from the Langhe,
a nice dry wine with stone fruit flavors and fennel flowers, good
by itself and acid enough to go with Bonnie's appetizer, a steamed
artichoke with tomato mayonnaise. As seems to be the fashion, the
vegetable was woefully undercooked, and the typical Belgian
accompaniment was a superfluity tastewise though maybe necessary to
get the fibrous vegetable down. The serving was half of an even
bigger one than those Letitia had found, not cleaned in any way.
Bonnie, inclined unfavorably to the dish, claimed that there was
no heart. I scooped away the giant choke and presented her with a
half heart almost the size of my fist, which was done almost
enough - it seems the focus is on the heart, with the rest of the
presentation mostly for show. She was somewhat mollified and gave
me a bite - I thought it was terrific.

She followed with trout with samphire, red peppers, red onions,
pistachios, olives, capers, lavender buds, and corn kernels. The
fish was sizable, with almost half a pound of meat, quite nicely
done, but it was obscured by a blanket of the aforementioned
ingredients, all of a superfluity, some of a distraction. Whatever
became of amandine? All the flavoring ingredients seemed fine, but
who puts a quarter cup of lavender into anything? Mr. Michelin man,
you have a lot to answer for. Another glass of the wine helped.

Having no intention of pursuing a low-calorie regimen in Belgium,
I got boar pate, which was fatty and meaty and the only thing I
can complain about is that I got one 2-oz slice of it, and two
would have been nicer. Oh, the garnish was a sour turnip pickle
with turmeric, sort of silly and quite incompatible with my wine
choice, which was the Cordoniu Septima Obra Tardio Gewurztraminer
(Mendoza), a moderately sweet, exceedingly floral and somewhat
Muscatty wine that the wine stewardess clucked at disapprovingly. It
was probably the best match available (for the price) for the pate.

After which a special of beef (they called it veal, but it was
way too old for that) kidney in madeira demiglace with onions,
wax beans, and potatoes continued the heavy road. It was quite
good, the kidney cleaned almost enough but not safely soaked in
alkali water, which would have taken away all the gaminess but
also all the appeal. The sauce was completely classic. I had a
glass of the meaty and rich Domaine Cristia Cotes du Rhone 15,
which the wine stewardess nodded at, because she knew it was
probably the best match available for the food (for the price).

For dessert I had an excellent flourless chocolate cake with a
decent vanilla ice that went well. Looking for Mr. Lightbar,
she ordered the sabayon with red fruits and vanilla ice, which
was egg yolks beaten with Marsala and with which the vanilla
ice went not all. She was not pleased. U tasted it and found it
as normal.

I had a Graham's 20 year-old tawny that came out in a methuselah
or possibly even an imperial - they left the bottle on the table
for me to pour seconds of, probably confident that I wouldn't
be able to lift the bottle. I did and did, hefting it around and
giving me a second 2-oz pour. The presentation was most impressive
but the wine was not improved, as it must necessarily start
oxidizing too fast after the first opening. In fact, the Port,
half gone when I got to it, had probably been sitting out for
months and had thinned out considerably, the oxidation taking over
to remove whatever plummy fruit the wine may have ever had,
replacing it with a not unpleasant woody paleness.
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