Belgium’s former Head of State King Albert II will be 90 tomorrow (Thursday 6 June). To celebrate this King Filip’s father dined at a sushi restaurant in the centre of Antwerp. The restaurant’s owner Gunter Landuyt told the VRT that he received an email two weeks ago telling him that King Albert and his family were coming to dine there. “We asked if we had to reserve the whole restaurant just for him, but we didn't have to. Other diners were welcome too”.
King Albert II celebrated his 90th birthday a couple days early with a meal of seafood, sushi and Wagyu steak. The former monarch did so at the Roji sushi restaurant near to Antwerp’s Grote Markt.
It was King Albert’s daughter Princess Astrid that made the reservation. The restaurant’s owner Gunter Landuyt told VRT Radio 2’s breakfast show ‘Goeiemorgen morgen!’ that “She came to eat here two months ago. She was so enthusiastic that she told me then that she wanted to return with her father to celebrate his birthday.”
Cake and Antwerp hands.
2 weeks ago, the reservation arrived by mail. Normally the restaurant is closed on Tuesdays, but as it was for the royal family, Gunter Landuyt was only too glad to make an exception. “I asked if we had to reserve the whole restaurant just for him, but we didn't have to. Although a few tables had to remain empty between him and the other guests, to ensure his safety”.
Gunter Landuyt was able to talk to the king himself for a while. “He was very endearing. He really is just an ordinary man." The restaurant owner decided to join his staff in singing a birthday song for the king. “We also had a cake specially made and gave him a present, a box of traditional Antwerp hand biscuits.