Ghent - interesting neighborhoods and good value restaurants , anyone?

You might want to look for my trip report by clicking on my name, although it is a few years old.

The old town area is quite small. If you're staying overnight, I'd assume you should just pick the historic area?

We'll be staying in Ghent for 3 nights, 2 1/2 days. One of those days we'll be going to Bruges; unsure about the rest.

Are there any interesting neighborhoods in Ghent that a tourist might enjoy, aside from the old town?

I also need good moderate restaurants for breakfast and dinner near the old town, the Sint-Pieter station, or otherwise easily reached without a car.

Thank you.

If you stay at a B&B breakfast will be provided.

Michael,
I booked a hotel w/o breakfast.

Ghent is a very cool Belgian city. It has wonderful historic buildings, but somehow it is not quite as perfect or as definitley not as touristy as nearby Bruges. It is much more of an authentic Flemish city with some magnificant gothic buildings, with real live Belgians and great Flemish food. The Sint Peters station is about 2 km from the city center. There is a direct tram link. Y0u could walk it but I would suggest the tram. If you like antiques, there is a decent flea market around the St Jacob's's church and a place where we look for prints in the the St Johns Gallery, an ancient church building. Ghent is a good central point ot vist Brussels, Brugee and the hoity toity Belgian Seacoast near Knokke.

If you like to ramble about neighborhoods, nearby Brussels is loaded with art neuveau in Ixelles and to the south of Avenue Louise.

EastBerlin,

I knew there had to be more to Brussels then the Grand Place and the Mannekin Pis I may go there to see the Magrite museum and will be sure to check out art neuveau neighborhood you mentioned. Thanks for your reply.

Postscript:

Stayed in Ghent for 3 nights at the Ghent Expo Holiday Inn. The hotel was in the suburbs of Ghent next to a convention center, with a tram terminal stop next to it. We arrived late from Amsterdam on our travel day and did laundry in a Ghent laundromat.( A college teacher who was doing his laundry showed us how to use the machines. The people of Belgium are very nice. ) That left us only 2 days to tour Belgium. I had to leave off Brussels to my wife's disappointment, and did Bruges and Ghent one day each. Both days were crisp cold sunny days in early Mar 2010.

We found some good value restaurants. For lunch in Bruges we ate at The Establishment. I was looking for a chicken place that someone mentioned but I found this first. It turned out very well, as we had a good lunch, one of us had whole roast chicken the other steak w/fries, in a very nice fireplace atmosphere for around 10 euro per person per entree. Add on a 1/2 liter wine, no more then 4-5 Euros. Share a dessert. Give the server a few coins, total cost < 30E for 2.

For dinner I used one of my many guidebook to find Grand Kafe De Passage. It's still serving up great waterzooi and flemish stew. We also had beers and dessert and the whole bill was under 40E.

In Ghent we both ate waterzooi at 'The Fox' ('T Vosken). It had a very classy clientel and yet was very affordable, with the total also coming in under 40E.

In Ghent, also I would recommend a place, only I can't recall the name. It served a fast food hamburger call le maison burger, that was delicious. I'm not sure how they cooked the burger, maybe deep fried, but it tasted great.
I think it was on the corner of St. ? near the laundromat, near the center of town. They also sell cans of Jupiler (not Jupiter.) They had good fries, as well. We ate there 2x. I don't remember the cost there but it was probably less then 10-15E total?

We had some waffles in the station, I wouldn't recommend that. Generally skipped bfst while in Belgium.

Went to an beer place, I don't recall the name, that was down an alley, it was small with a peak roof. One wall was covered with beer bottles, covered by glass.

We mostly walked around the historic district trying to find the various places mentioned in the guidebook. However, when we exhausted that we wandered over to the harbor area which was a little interesting.

Ghent is spending a lot of money fixing the roads and the tram and I think it will pay off for them. From what I've read, it's changed a lot already. Ghent is very beautiful and a good place to have fun and eat well, and will probably grow in tourism.

there is a large Turkish neighborhood on the north end of the city centre and also in this vicinity is a mini-Amsterdam-like RedLight district with gals behind red neon-lit picture windows. Well that is an interesting neighborhood but not all will like it i guess.