Get FREE email communications from Fodor's Travel, covering must-see travel destinations, expert trip planning advice, and travel inspiration to fuel your passion.
We've compiled the best of the best in Brussels - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
This cozy café is the epitome of Brussels decor: bicycles hang from the ceiling, Tintin statues everywhere, shelves overflowing with books. It's sculpted chaos and part of a chain of cafés that is slowly taking over the city. This was the first branch, and it's still the best. The bagels and ready-made sandwiches are always tasty, plus it stays open until 8 every day, by which time it's filled with busy students.
A friendly neighborhood café in the shadow of Schaerbeek Town Hall. The weekly lunch menu springs the odd surprise, with everything from Japanese okonomiyaki (savory pancakes) to Lebanese flatbreads cropping up. Look out for the daily homemade soup and a sandwich offer, which is particularly good value.
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.
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 (open 11–4) with a kitchen dishing up hearty, organic, vegetarian lunches (coconut curry, lasagne) and a dish of the day for a decent price. 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.
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.
Power food, in all its acai glory. Wild Lab is the kind of place you get chia jam on your chocolate-banana pancakes or can find a "Goodness Bowl" brimming with lentils, roasted parsnip, and za'atar. It's a great spot for brunch, and the juices and smoothies leave you glowing.
