We will be stopping in Brussels for a Saturday evening dinner enroute from Antwerp to Paris. We will be coming and going by the Midi train station and will be in Brussels about five hours. We are looking for a restaurant where we can get great moules et frites. I have heard that the Ste Catherine area is a nice one, and walkable from Grand Place. Could you recommend a Ste Catherine restaurant? Would we have to book ahead for a Saturday night? There are posts on Fodor's discussing some Brussels restaurants but I haven't seen anything too current. Many thanks.

Hello,
Unfortunately I can't eat mussels (they don't like me!!) so I can't give first-hand recommendations... however, I did just buy a great Brussels eating and shopping guide ("The Brussels insider", written by locals) and they recommend Bij den Boer (60 Quai aux Briques, tel 02 512 61 22) for great seafood, including mussels.

Another recommendation is Le Pré Salé, about which they say "the food is classic Belgian, but less heavy than most, with superb mussels in season (...) and of course, chips". 20 rue de Flandre, Tel 02 513 65 45.

I'd recommend booking ahead (call the day before), just to be on the safe side.

hanl,
Does the guide mention the price for those restaurants you mentioned? I am looking for an inexpensive restaurant or pub type of place for moules and frites in that area. Thanks.

Hi,
The guide classes the first place (Bij den Boer) as between 30 and 50 euros per head, and the second place (le Pré Sal&eacute as under 30 euros per head.

A cheap and cheerful option for mussels is Chez Léon on rue des Bouchers, not far from the Grand'Place. It's a bit of a Brussels institution, popular with locals and tourists alike (if you've been to France you may know the chain "Léon de Bruxelles" - well this is the "original" restaurant). It's not exactly classy and it's often full of families with children, but the mussels (I'm told!) are great and it's relatively good value. It also serves pretty much all day, and you never need to book ahead as it's so big.

Just noticed another place that's recommended for mussels in the same guide - François, also on Quai aux Briques, tel 02 511 60 89.

Just an update to this post. Spent a few hours in Brussels the other night and we could hardly wait to leave. We were shocked by the graffiti, the garbage, Centraal station; I could go on and on. I was there in 2002 and remember it as a charming spot but it was really off-putting (and scary to be honest) this time around. Perhaps we caught it on a bad day but I would never recommend someone go there.

Yikes, I live in Brussels and while there are some grotty areas, I think it sounds like you just had bad luck. I really like it here! Though you are right, Central station is awful.
Did you find anywhere nice to eat?

I do apologize for "dissing" your home town. Obviously it is very unfair to assess a city by a quick visit. We sat down to eat at Vincent but unfortunately at that exact moment, a large parade (yes, a real parade) of dressed up drunk men and little kids (no, the kids weren't drunk) descended upon the area. We were unable to discern what the parade was all about. The servers at Vincent were unable to get through the throng of revellers on the street and as there was no room inside the restaurant, we were sent on our way. We had several hours to kill before our train back to Paris so we took a cab from the Centraal train station to the Midi station and had a drink and a sandwich at the train station. That was certainly the only blot on our entire European trip and perhaps we'll try Brussels again some day. Our day trip to Brussels does make us laugh, however. We probably just had bad luck, as you say! Kind regards.

Oh poor you, it doesn't sound like you had much fun!! Brussels has its fair share of run-down areas, and unfortunately some of them are in the centre of the city. But there are some lovely parts of the city centre too (such as the place du Sablon).
The area around Midi station is very run down too (I recently discovered that this was due to negative speculation in an attempt to push down property prices so that developers could snap up cheap land around the Eurostar terminal, but the plan backfired and the area remains very poor and run down).
There are lots of lovely areas in Brussels and the outlying communes (districts), but sometimes you do have to get off the beaten track a bit. It probably didn't help being there in the evening, as it's much harder to get one's bearings at night!

I think though, that Brussels' great charm is in the fact that it is a bit higgledy-piggledy, a bit anarchic; you never quite know what you're going to find round the next corner. When I came to live here, for work, I thought I was going to hate it, but actually I'm finding it a wonderful place to live.