Brussels Restaurants
We’ve compiled the best of the best in Brussels - browse our top choices for Restaurants during your stay.
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We’ve compiled the best of the best in Brussels - browse our top choices for Restaurants during your stay.
There are a cluster of bars and restaurants around the Cirque Royal. This "brassonomie" experiment is a cut above the rest, taking the usual brasserie fare and elevating it to a fine-dining bistro experience, and throwing in its own brewery for good measure. A beef-cheek carbonnade arrives drizzled in a silken gravy made from its house Santana beer; even the buerre blanc smothering the plaice and grey shrimps is jazzed up with its own brews.
In a city of students, it's no surprise that something so simple as a "chicken and bread" restaurant would take off. But it is also a thing of beauty. It has been going since the 1960s but closed for several years, reopening to much nostalgia and a hipper new look (think cocktails and decent beer) among the boutiques of Mechelsestraat. At its heart, it's just a hunk of delicious marinated roast chicken with a selection of sides (salads, veggies, apple sauce, hummus), but to locals, it's so much more than that.
Even when neighboring restaurants on Grand Sablon are empty, this one is always full. It's run by the Niels family, who have been restaurateurs in Brussels since 1915, and its short menu emphasizes local specialties; portions are substantial. Its iconic filet Americain—a popular local take on steak tartare and frites—was even invented by grandfather Joseph Niels. Ownership has passed to the next generation, but standards remain high and it still serves unusually good wine (the family also has a wine import business) for the price, by the glass, or bottle. It also has a sister restaurant, Au Savoy, is located in Ixelles.
The novelty of this Italian pizza and food-sharing restaurant is proving pretty enduring. Set on the busy food street of Tiensestraat, this is one of few restaurants here not part of the usual Belgian chains (Wasbar, Balls & Glory, Bavet, etc.). Instead, you'll find good drinks, an array of tapas ranging from stuffed baos to pizza bites and oysters, as well as pastas, risottos, salads, and, of course, good pizza. The food is served on wooden boards, steamer baskets, and on paper. It's just fun and it probably won't be long before they're found all over Belgium.
This cheap, satisfying neighborhood café-restaurant never fails to please. Slightly removed from the center, on Hogeschoolplein, it's as much a lunch spot as a restaurant, but its cheap pastas and salads make for a good, filling meal on the go. Given the prices, it's no surprise that it's a student hot spot with a large terrace that fills up fast on warm days. The fact you can get its desserts from a vending machine seems to delight many a local customer.
This sprawling brewpub-restaurant is pretty much the city's old standby for when you've run out of ideas. It's particularly good for families, it's always packed, the menu is littered with Flemish favorites (carbonnade, meatballs, vol-au-vent), and the service is impossibly quick no matter how full it is. A lot of the food is slathered in the house beer (typically Con Domus and Nostra Domus), which funnels directly from the neighboring brewery into the restaurant. You can even get guided tours and tastings for €11. If you're there for the food, stick to the Flemish classics for a solid meal.
A large, hip coffee shop with art and design books strewn around its cozy lounging area. There are bagels, salads, and the juices are particularly good. Wi-Fi is best nearer the counter, though.
This beloved local favorite lingers on a busy street of cafés behind the Oude Markt. Its small terraces and ethical approach are popular lures, with most of its coffee beans directly sourced from the farmers. You can also buy its own roasted blends in-house.
Located just above the place de Jeu de Balle in the heart of the Marolles area, this café is a local institution—legend has it that residents would come to fill their buckets full of hot water in times of need, hence the name. In 2014, its closure was imminent, but locals stepped in and reopened it as a social cooperative with an organic canteen dishing up hearty lunches and a dish of the day (11–4). It also boasts a well-curated list of bottled beers (many of them organic) from lesser-known artisanal Belgian breweries.
Salads packed with flavor, great hunks of quiches, and homemade lemonades are what keeps locals healthy at this popular lunch spot.
The definition of on-trend Brussels dining. It's not flashy, it's not too expensive, but this Taiwanese-inspired, plant-based street food restaurant, run by a pair of sisters, has certainly captured a mood. It's always packed with mostly younger diners, huddled over their noodle soups, coconut curries, and rice bowls of crispy "chicken," bright lights bouncing off the plain white interior.
In and among the pricey antiques and jewelry shops of the Sablon, you'll find a fair amount of stylish dining. Among these establishments comfortably snuggles Lola, an undeniably charming brasserie of black-leather booths and a bar counter for those grabbing a quick lunch. The menu is rotundly French but with a small exclave of Belgian and house dishes, such as cod and peeled gray shrimp or Holstein carpaccio.
All desserts, all of the time. This chocolate-theme café might be part of a chain, but it's captured the imagination of locals in part due to the sheer abundance of melted chocolate, particularly the fountainlike fondue.
Despite its name, this is not really a wine bar (though they run a roof terrace in summer where you can go for a drink) and it's just on the edge of the Marolles. Owners Vincent Thomaes and Joël Vandenhoudt relocated to rue Haute from Sablon in 2013, back when this was a popular bar. Since then, it's evolved into very much a grande-dame-style restaurant where haughty paintings hang in thick frames, the service is likeably fastidious, and wine is very much at the center of most meals. It's decadent in the best way possible, with an emphasis on classic French cooking and natural wines.
One of the grandes dames of Brussels's many excellent pastry shops has an attractive tearoom and terrace on the Sablon, which also serves breakfast and light lunches. The profiteroles and crème fraîche truffles are particularly tempting.
Woodpecker cafés are strewn across the city, including a few kiosks (like this). But it's the setting 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' prettier parks. In the evening, the neighboring Radio Kiosk sees DJs and drinks flow.
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.
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