5 Best Restaurants in Brussels, Belgium

It's a bit of a walk from the center (about 20 minutes) to get there, but it's worth it not just for the food, which lies at the more educated end of traditional Belgian comfort food (think thick cuts of meat slow-cooked for 24 hours, flaking off the bone into beery sauces), but for the setting. Located in the Vaartcom area, a once run-down industrial and brewing site resurrected into a trendy dining and shopping area that spills into the neighboring park, Gastrobar Hop lies in part of the old Stella Artois brewery. Its vast collection of craft beers powers a seasonal set menu that cherishes the simpler things and relies on local brewers and producers.

A self-declared "vegetable rotisserie," the imaginative prix-fixe menu dangles a mostly pescatarian collection of disparate ingredients, spanning fruit, veg, and fish that somehow come together on the plate to create tiny edible jewels. Yes, they might spit-roast the odd cauliflower, but the ethos here is as much about market-garden ingredients awash in lacy foams and flavorsome sauces. The stylish red-brick interior, hidden away on an otherwise nondescript street, makes it feel all the more like you discovered a secret in St-Gilles.

Kline's concrete, brutalist interior reflects the shock-and-awe spirit of its location on fashionable Rue Antoine Dansaert. It's certainly a palate cleanser for the often delicate fare that arrives on your plate. Offering a refined locavore's take on old-school comfort food, its open kitchen and back-to-basics design is more of a clue to chef Nico Corbesier's zero-waste approach, squeezing everything out of his ingredients. Simply named dishes such as glazed slow-cooked bacon and pickles, or the poetically named "The first of the mushrooms—the last tomatoes" move with the seasons and belie the skill with which they're crafted.

This modest, well-executed Flemish restaurant comes with a superb beer menu and is named after the Dutch phrase for those who "can't get enough." Diners clearly share that sentiment, and queue dutifully alongside its Art Nouveau facade, clutching beers from the bar for warmth—the restaurant's brief dalliance with a booking system has ended. The food leans into the best of Belgian comfort food: stews slow-cooked in fruity beers and meat flaking off in gravy-soaked, hop-flavored chunks onto crisp frites and chicory. It's simple food executed well, and its selection of local lambic beers is a connoisseur's dream.

St-Gilles has become a real haven for creative chefs wanting to stamp down on their food miles. The leafy yard and rustic-meets-industrial interior of Smala offers not only a peaceful retreat from the street outside, but a field-to-fork menu fueled largely by the restaurant's own 1.2-hectare (3-acre) market garden in nearby Anderlecht, which opens up to visitors in the summer and autumn. Well-priced prix fixe (€48) and a la carte menus change up every few weeks to meet the seasons and are not short on flair. It's a real breath of fresh air in the heart of the city.