How much should I budget for meals in Bruges and Brussels?
 

My family is taking a trip which includes a few days in Bruges and Brussels. I have been reading several guidebooks and it sounds like food is very expensive here.

How much should we expect to pay for lunch and dinner? How much does a glass of beer or a soft drink cost?

We would like to try some local cuisine. How much does a bucket of mussels and fries cost?

Can you recommend any restaurants that are inexpensive but a good value.

My daughter will be 15 when we travel. Will she be welcome in pubs during lunchtime? We ate in many pubs on our trip to London and most were very good. Do Bruges or Brussels have inexpensive pub food? Thank you for your help! Laurie

Can't really say how much you should budget..but last month in Brugge , Mussels and frites were about 15-17 E wherever we saw them. One of the best lunches we had was at Trium,, just off the Grote Market, Italian, but with a Belgian touch. The pasta with mussels was great and some of the best pizza I've ever had! Tom's diner and Marike something or other were both fantastic! I loved the Carbonnade Flamanche(sp)..beef cooked in beer.

Only stayed 2 nights in Brussels and both night ate at the restaurant in our hotel, the Welcome, Truit d'Argent...VERY good but might be a little pricey.

Laurie,

You have all kind of restaurants in Brugge. For all tastes. By the way, Brugge is the only city I know where a famous hamburger chain, starting with 'Mc' and ending on 'ald', closed down by lack of interest of the population!

First of all, do not eat on the Market square: tourist traps.
For mussels, go to the Breydelstraat, between Grote Markt and Burg, in a restaurant called 'Breydel and Deconinck'. Just reserve your place.
For a normal midday meal, you can also try la Brasserie Forestière in the Academiestraat, 5 minutes from the Grote Markt: 10 Euro (last year's price) for the day menu offering a nice choice.

There isn't exactly 'pubfood'. A pub is a pub (maybe the occasional croque monsieur), or it is a restaurant.
You could also try a restaurant specialized in chicken roast in the Sint-Amandstraat.

If you want the best cuisine in Brugge available, then you have to go to the Gouden Harynck, (reservation), top quality and top prices, of course.

But I wouldn't worry about food in Brugge. Simply walking around, you will have a fair view of what's cooking and at what price. Most restaurants have their menu cards outside on a blackboard. Just beware of tourist traps

http://www.brugge.be/verblijf/en/restaure.htm gives you a list of quite a lot of restaurants.

Lunch in Brussels can land you some great values. Many good restaurants offer terrific multi-course lunch specials, somewhere in the $10-$15 range, especially if you leave the tourist areas. I will put together a list of Brussels restaurants and cafes for Fodors later today, along with suggestions for things to do. Too many Fodorites seem to think Brussels has nothing much to offer beyond the Grand'Place and that's simply not true!
BTilke (Brussels)

Depending from the café/restaurant, a glass of beer (pils, not a special beer) will cost between 1.50 and 2 euro. Same for the soft drinks. Soft drinks usually come in small bottles of 200 ml only!
Some time ago we had lunch in Brussels at a small place called Arcadi (Arenbergstraat). Cheap and very good food. Only disadvantage was that the little place was packed!

Thank you all for your suggestions! I have made notes of your specific restaurant suggestions and we are anxious to try them. I am a little relieved that the prices are not as high as my guidebooks say.

Will my 15 year old daughter be welcome in a pub during the day? And is it an "appropriate" place for her. My husband and I would like to be able to sample a couple of the local beers, but not if she can't go with us.

Are local beers served in restaurants?

Thank you again for your suggestions! Laurie

In Belgium you won't find pubs like in the UK. We rather call them taverns where you can have a glass of (special) beer, coffee, soft drinks, even a snack ... You 15 yr old will be welcome and it's absolutely not inappropriate to take her there.
In Brugge there's a small home brewery that is rather typical and non-touristy: De Brugse Bierkaai, Nieuwstraat 9, Brugge (www.debrugsebierkaai.com). Try a "drietap" which is 3 different glasses of their home-brewed beer.

I noticed that many Belgians have a sandwich during their work week lunch. There are sandwich shops all over the place, good and cheap. But if it is too cold to picnic when you are there, I would not use this option.

Thank you to everyone who replied!

BTilke, I would really appreciate your list of Brussels restaurants and cafes and suggestions for things to see!

Myriam, thank you for giving me an idea of the beer prices in Brussels. I am glad that there are taverns where my daughter will feel comfortable!

Thanks again to everyone for your suggestions! Laurie

Hey, baldrick, that website was really helpful! It gave me an idea of what menu prices for the various foods will be. Thank you!

Here are a few of our favorites and a brief description. They're not really in the Grand'Place area, with the exception of the Metropole Hotel cafe, the Golden Boot and Belga Queen.

Entre Nous. 95 rue de l'Aqueduc. 02 538 47 74. In the Chatelain neighborhood. Our new favorite. Attractive, small restaurant, chic but casual, very good menu, very good prices, and terrific lunch specials. One of the few places in Brussels that serves wild (not farmed) salmon at decent prices. Reservations usually not necessary, except perhaps on Friday and Saturday nights. Reached by Trams 81, 82, 93, or 94 (you'll have to walk a couple of short blocks along the rue Bailli if you take the 93 or 94 trams; the 81/82 tram stop is less than a block away).
Les Brasseries Georges. 259 Ave. Winston Churchill (corner of W. Churchill and chaussee de Waterloo). 02 347 21 00. On a leafy avenue in the smart Uccle section. A Brussels institution. If you want to feel like you are in a Paris bistro/brasserie, go here. Sunday lunch in hugely popular, reservations necessary most of the time. Upscale brasserie food, seafood the specialty, but everything is good, terrific wine list, prices moderate to expensive (for example, a recent Sunday lunch for 4 cost us $300, but we had three courses each, two bottles of good Burgundy, aperitifs, coffee, etc.), dress is business or best casual. Ladies, if you have a designer bag, this is the place in Brussels to wear it!
Belga Queen.32 rue du Fosse aux Loups. 02 217 21 87. Very hip, very cool, very expensive and slightly sinister. If I were a Russian crime boss and wanted a place to show off my latest mistress, this would be it. Although it's near the Grand'Place, it's definitely NOT a tourist place--the buzz cut, smoothly tough, well dressed bouncers intimidate the riffraff. Reservations strongly advised.
La Manufacture. 12 rue Notre Dame du Sommeil. 02 502 25 25. Not too far from the Grand'Place, but hard to find, so take a taxi. We haven't been there lately, but our experiences in the past were always good. Moderate prices.
Martin-Pecheur. 100 Blvd. Brand Whitlock. 02 425 65 69. On the corner of Georges Henri and Brand Whitlock. Inexpensive to moderate, a hangout for the locals. No reservations. Good steak. Good monthly wine specials (3 euros a glass; bottles 18 euros). Served by trams 3, and 90 (maybe also 55, but not sure) and buses 28, 80, 27 and 22 (not sure about 22). About a 5-10 min. walk from Montgomery metro stop.

Cafes abound, but we like the Metropole Hotel cafe (come near sunset when the light hits the huge chandelier--a perfect photo op), den Gouden Boot (chaloupe d'Or) on the Grand'Place. Same management as Metropole cafe, above. Fireplaces on ground and upper floor. Grab a window table upstairs and have an unbeatable view of the Grand'Place, and Au Vieux St. Martin, on the Sablon. Most decadent cappuccinos in Brussels! Very popular, esp. while the week-end antiques market is open on the Sablon.

These are just a few, more later!

Hi BTilke, Thanks for the restaurant suggestions. Belga Queen sounds a little scary. I'm not sure if we are "chic" enough to eat here!

The Metropole Cafe sounds very nice and inviting on a chilly day.

Since you seem so knowledgable about Brussels, I wonder if you could answer another question for me? We are staying the Renaissance Brussels in Upper Town, courtesy of priceline.com. I can see that there is a train station about a block from this hotel. Do you know the name of that station? We will be arriving from Bruges and I would like to find out if we can arrive directly to that train station sinceit is so near to this hotel. Thanks so much for your help! Laurie

Hi Laurie, Belga Queen has some more reasonable things on its menu than I thought, and has a good lunch deal at 14 euros. (Late at night it's mostly the caviar, champagne and $100-plus fruits de mer platter crowd.) Get dressed up in your best black outfit and try it! Check out the photos (and also the menu) at http://www.resto.be/belgaqueen/defau...&langue=uk
It is one of those hip places you should try if you can.

Thanks again, BTilke, 14 Euros for lunch doesn't sound too bad and the website does make Belgo Queen look interesting.

Can you help me out with the train station question?

Thanks alot, Laurie