65 Best Restaurants in Brussels, Belgium

Choice is the appeal here. Set in a 1940s bank building famed for its bronze doors, this dizzying food court brings together some of the better street food joints and former pop-ups in the city, ranging from the excellent Syrian restaurant My Tannour (all flatbreads, falafel, and veggies), to the Mexican street food of Social Tacos, and the Vietnamese-style noodle soups of Hanoi Station. Special mention goes to the mousses at Chocolate Station and the beers of microbrewery Flow. It's one giant canteen, so just grab an empty chair and pick what you like the look of. You pay upfront at the counter, whereupon most places will give you a buzzer for when the food is ready to pick up. 

Woodpecker cafés are strewn across the city, including a few kiosks (like this). But it's the setting, in Parc Royal, that wins the day here. Sure, it does decent coffees, ice cream, and the odd burger, but you come to sit beneath the trees and watch locals shuffle by in one of Brussels' leafier parks. In the evening, the neighboring Radio Kiosk sees DJs and drinks flow.  

The kind of authentic southern Japanese cooking little-seen in the capital. While it can be tricky to get a table at this tiny eatery, it's worth putting in the legwork, even this deep in Schaerbeek. An open-plan kitchen, set behind a long bar, puts chef Tomoyuki Ohara skills on full display as you grab a stool and tuck into a menu unafraid to stick grilled chicken hearts and gizzards alongside crowd-pleasing curries, tempuras, and crispy karaage (fried chicken), or introduce you to something you've never tried before. You don't often find Ohara's specialty, chawanmushi (a savory custard), on menus in the capital, and that's something to be cherished.

Leuven has a good reputation for its dining, with a couple of Michelin stars knocking about its streets. This isn't one of them, but it's not far off. A little cluster of high-end restaurants scatter Bondgenotenlaan, leading up from the station. The setting here is rather unique, with a long, narrow dining hall below a beamed ceiling made entirely of skylights, leading to a small walled terrace. It couldn't be lighter, and the same goes for its food, where it almost seems to float off the plate it's so dainty and wistful. Dishes are an experience, with its collection of ingredients arriving in ever more inventive ways.