The water was free and they brought it without asking, it's there to cleanse your pallette. Didn't want the expensive food to be overpowered by the beer I was drinking.
Why are you being weird about it? Do Americans not get free water for the table? I'm assuming your tap water is toxic so you pay for bottled water? It literally pours out of the sky here, it's just free lol.
Do you think that they would allow their tables, which have something like a £60 cancellation charge, to have someone only drinking free water and a token item to get a bill... to show off on the internet a week later on the off-chance that someone brings up an inferior Belgian resturant grading system?