Restaurant Recommendations in Brugge, Ghent, Brussels
 

I'm looking for restaurant recommendations in three Belgian cities: Brugge, Ghent, and Brussels. We'll be staying 4 nights in each of these cities. Our budget is tight (whose isn't?), so we're looking for low-to-mid-priced restaurants, anything between 5-25E per person. Any recommendations you'd like to share? I'll happily give a full report on our return. We'll be in Belgium April 3-April 14. Thanks!

You can look at the Belgium portion of my trip report from last year. I listed restaurants we ate at and how much we paid:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...omment-2585608

I think our dinner was in your budget at the Olive Tree in Brugge. Yes, it was greek, but after a few meals of mussels we wanted something different.

In Brussels, the best mussels we had were at T'Kelderke, in the Grande Place. there is outside dining but the restaurant is down from the main street level. it is not fancy at all but very good.

Given your budget, I would suggest the same rec I give to modest-budget friends traveling in France, Germany, Switzerland, etc

Try and have your main meal at lunch. Lots of restaurants have inexpensive lunch specials and you can eat at places that would be out of your price range for dinner. Drink beer or a small pitcher of the house wine.

Then for dinner, pick up something light from a market or takeout food stand.

In Brussels a lot of people like Falstaff which is a cafe in a historic Art Nouveau building. I think a lot of tourists visit it for that reason. Sometimes they have special menus there, but not sure what they would have at the moment. It is opposite the Bourse, at Rue des Pierres 38. It has Belgian food.

My tip for people traveling on a tight budget is to do a google search ahead of time for vegetarian restaurants in the towns you are visiting. They very often have very good food at modest prices.

A lot of Belgian foods are filling and really cheap: Frites, stompf and waffles keep you going a long time. Even the beer is filling!

In Ghent we had an excellent meal at Marco Polo (Serpentstraat 11) -- fresh pasta, great seafood. It was a cozy spot that was pretty busy with locals, so a reservation would be helpful. It probably will come in at the higher end of your budget (20-25 euros) depending on what you order and what you drink.

Oops, you know what, I gave you the wrong address for Falstaff - it's actually

19 rue Henri Mausstraat
1000 Bruxelles

Sorry - I think the address I gave is for a sister establishment!

Thank you all for the great suggestions. I'll check 'em all out and provide feedback upon our return. We're looking forward to spending nearly 2 weeks in Belgium.