Kasteel van Rullingen ***

We had our Christmas Eve here, dinner was a set special menu, good enough, but quite expensive (125. euros, included the wines and coffee, per person), castle dining room decor, for our dining room, (one of five or six different original reception rooms now used for the restaurant) was newly gilt and painted, but not quite up to castle standards, the castle is hauntingly romantic and beautiful at night, parking is a walk to the door, but those that can not walk well can be dropped off right in front of the staircase to the bridge over the moat. Bedrooms are also high priced for a place as remote as this, service was very good, but as all of Flanders, better speak Flemish, as our fluent French and English was a struggle for the dining room staff, and caused some confusion. When we called and placed our reservation, the reception who did speak English fluently was asked specifically if the special Christmas menu had to be taken on Christmas Eve, and we were told in no uncertain terms that the regular dinner menus as well as all a la carte options WOULD be available - we did not want the overpriced "special" dinner, thus we reserved our visit, and to our surprise when we sat down for our 8:00PM dinner, there was much discussion with the water and the dining room manager, as the ONLY dinner that evening was the "special" set dinner, case closed! They also skipped the first starter course and wine, for no good reason for us, every one else around us had theirs, as we watched, ... and when the bill came, they "gave us the wrong bill" which had four extra charge champagne bar drinks on it but when we noticed this it was removed quickly and instantly. Basically awkward, and sloppy dining room problems, MAYBE because of the language problem, HOWEVER, by law Belgium is a Bi-lingual country, and French is one of the required languages to be spoken in business and accommodation, and one of us is a native born French speaker; this is often the case in Flanders, they are VERY protective of their language, but they are also very good at business, so here this is working against them. Food was good, but overpriced for Europe.