Visiting Brussels in 2 weeks and looking for a restaurant suggestion.
From some of the posts, I am getting the impression that Grand Palace of course has many restaurants, but to maybe try something off the path, any suggestions?
Thankx!

Ignore post.
Am now reading a post around this very topic ;-P

I had two favorite restaurants in Brussels - One was called Cafe du Max (or maybe Cafe Max), sort of on the fringe of the EU Quarter.

The other one was Le Pré aux clercs - a fantastic grill with wonderful ambience - just across the street from the Cinquantenaire/Jubelpark -Avenue de la Renaissance, 42 - 1000 Bruxelles.

Directions:
Metro station Mérode. Keep the right as if you intend to go to the Jubile- Cinquantenaire Park. Walk about a hundred meters and Avenue de la Rennaissance is there.

Bolt,
What type of food is served at either location? What makes them your 2 favorite?
Thanks for the info...

I guess people suggest to ignore the restaurants around the Grand Place because they are touristy and expensive-but not because they aren't excellent restaurants. The famous and now ubiquitous Chez Leon has been serving classic Mussels and Fries for 100 years and is a guaranteed fun evening. I personally don't mind paying more for wonderful ambience and colorful waiters. Aux Armes de Bruxelles is also located on Rue de Petits Bouchers near Grand Place and serves up delicious regional authentic Belgian food - pricey however. If you do a search on this board, you will see off the beaten path restaurants recommended by Fodorites living in Brussels that will keep you going for every night of your trip!

Chez Leon is a Brussels institution-THE place to have mussels and frites in Belgium, partic. Brussels. It is inexpensive and a chain, but for the most part, you'll see only locals in them. (I used to eat at the Chez Leon locations in Paris-I like them so much!). My favorite is the "formule" special- a glass of good Belgian lager, a kettle of fresh mussels in their white wine/garlic broth, and of course, a nice pile of frites, with a green salad on the side! Yum! I need that right now, I think!

P.S. There is a cute mural on the wall at Chez Leon that shows the "history" of the mussel and the frite, from the opening of the first restaurant in the late 19th cent., through the two world wars, and then, the mussel "muscling out" the hamburger in the marriage to the frite!

2 great non-touristy places within easy walking distance from the Grand Place area are:

Vert de Gris
Rue des Alexiens 63

Belga Queen
Rue Fosse aux Loups 32

Also check out http://www.resto.be/ware/index.jsp for hundreds of listings.

In the "old days", it used to be all the moules you can eat; now it's all the frites you can eat. How times have changed!

Thanks all for the great input.
I am so looking forward to this trip...first time in Europe, so I am sure I am in for lots of surprises and interesting/good food.
Again, many thanks...Erica

Two other restaurants in Brussels that are not in the Grand Place: the first, "Comme chez Soi" -considered Brussels best restaurant-a Michelin 3 star, one of Europe's top chefs, an elegant art nouveau setting, innovative French cuisine-a hot table, perhaps the hottest in Brussels, so need to book weeks in advance. You can also sit at the communal table and have the chef whip up a 4 course meal of of the chef's choosing-place Rouppe 23. This restaurant comes highly recommended by my foodie ex-pat best friends who live in Brussels.

Another that I would recommend for excellent bruxellois cuisine in an atmospheric 18th century former coach inn, with low wooden ceiling beams, is "In t'Spinne Kopke" (translation: in the spider's head) -Pl du Jardin aux Fleurs-over 100 Belgian beers to choose from and the owner has written a number of cookbooks on beer cuisine, so most all dishes have been cooked or sauced in one or the other Belgian brew (and of course, it is generally acknowledged throughout the world that the Belgians brew the best beer, along with making the best chocolates and frites). This restaurant does things like stewed "lapin" (rabbit) but since I don't eat meat, it does other excellent fish and vegetables dishes as well. A very lively place, that tends to get packed on the weekends.

And don't necessarily write off the Grand Place as having nothing but "touristic" restaurants. One of my goto favorites smack on the Grand Place for authentic Belgian atmosphere is "t'Kelderkerke" -you go down a flight of steps, (it's in a basement) there are long communal tables, it's smoky, they serve authentic Belgian dishes (waterzooi, and the like) the food is good, and the place is nearly always packed and difficult to get into in the evenings but it is open until the wee hours of the a.m.-(unusual for Brussels).

As I already posted before from my trip in June:

Le Manufacture: is an established gourmet restaurant(14 years old), reasonably priced,great creativefrench food, crowd was more business people having power lunch (strange for Grand Place area?).

Bonsoir Claire: trendy locals & tourists, creative French food and again reasonble for food quality. They have a very large non smoking dining room vs a smaller smoking dining room.