32 Best Restaurants in Belgium

A couple of miles west of Gaasbeek is the rather bijou little town of Lennik, home to a fair number of high-priced dining options. One of the finer is August, a wineshop-cum-restaurant that oozes class and is set in an 18th-century wine merchant's premises. Paired set menus aren't cheap, but they pack a lot of flavor in, arriving immaculately presented.

Eating is serious business in the elegant dining room of this grand suburban house in Les Plantes, a suburb 3 km (2 miles) south of central Namur. Award-winning chef Charles Jeandrain focuses his attention on flavor in his contemporary French-inspired creations, with foams and flashy gimmicks taking a back seat to good old taste.

If there is an obvious go-to restaurant in Binche for a good meal and a beer, it's this old-school brasserie-cum-brewpub at the foot of the city ramparts. Its beers have been brewed in Binche since the late 1800s using the same traditional methods. You can visit the brewery for a tasting and tour (€7), but they're all served as well, along with a menu of brasserie favorites, including a carbonnade (beef and beer stew) made with the Binchoise Brune or a jambonneau (pork knuckle) cooked with their Bière des Ours.   

This is the home of the finest of dining in La Louvière. It's a bit of a walk—away from the center and into more of a residential area—but once you arrive, it's worth the hassle. Chef Cédric Manderlier and his partner, Pauline, who is front of house, serve creative French cuisine in a large, airy building, all windows and geometrically shaped lights. You can see the effort that goes into each meal just by looking at the plate, as dishes arrive as colorful as they are bursting with seasonal flavors. It only opens in the evenings twice a week (Friday and Saturday) but it's worth waiting for. 

The "secret" neighborhood restaurant that everyone knows about is no less likeable for it. It's a bit of a walk from the center of the Lower Town, but chef Christophe Duchêne (known as Duche) has put together a great-value menu of French and Belgian cooking. His specialty is horse meat, but you'll find an array of dishes with both metropolitan and rustic influences, from lobster and fettuccine to calf's liver and hash browns.  

With superb cuisine, excellent wines, and attentive service, this one-star Michelin restaurant remains a regal choice, with an interior (and prices) to match. Lionel Rigolet, who took over the reins as chef from his father-in-law Pierre Wynants in 2006, is a ceaselessly inventive character with one foot in tradition, dishing up elegant racks of veal dashed with sweetbreads or cockerel breasts crowned with crayfish. Earlier creations have been relegated to the back of the menu, but one favorite remains: fillet of sole with a white wine mousseline and shrimp. Book weeks in advance to guarantee a table.

The reputation of D'Oude Schuur often sees Ghentians make a weekend of their visit just to indulge here. As its name (The Old Barn) suggests, it was once part of a farm, though there’s little rustic about its neat, spare interior. The menu does make the most of the country setting, however, dishing up partridge and pheasant alongside the fussier asides of French cooking. Much of the restaurant's reputation lies in its well-stocked cellar, for which the selection of Burgundy wines is especially celebrated.

This working brewery—the only one in Bruges—not only has a rather pleasant courtyard but produces the Brugse Zot and Straffe Hendrik brands that you'll see in many bars around town. If you want to see the brewery in action, daily 45-minute tours (hourly 11–4, with an extra tour at 5 pm on Saturday) cost €9 and include a glass of the house blond beer in its unfiltered form. You'll also find out how a 3-km (2-mile) length of pipeline was laid under the city's medieval streets to allow for enough beer to fill 12,000 bottles an hour in a plant outside the city limits and still keep their brewing operation within Bruges.

True beer lovers should aim for the extended daily 2 pm tour (€19; 90 minutes), which descends into the cellars for a more in-depth tasting session and hopped-up tales.

What was once just a friendly fishmongers has evolved into one of the city's best, and most unexpected, street-food stops. It's set on place Sainte-Catherine, which has been revitalized as the home of all things seafood, and visitors queue up at the counter outside, place an order, then grab it from the window when called. You eat at tables standing in the square (be careful of pickpockets), prodding with your fingers at sumptuous salt 'n' pepper calamari, scampi drenched in garlic butter, and fresh North Sea crab. A true gem rightly lorded by those in the know. It closes at 6:30 pm, though, so get there early. 

This hip Scandinavian-style fish joint is the place to try seasonal, organic, and sustainable seafood---arguably the best in the city---served simply as a fruits de mer platter, grilled with hand-cut fries on the side, or as an always-excellent bouillabaisse. If the weather cooperates, opt for a seat on their spacious terrace instead of the rather cramped dining room, all the better for prime Het Zuid people-watching---it's always packed, but walk-ins can grab a high stool if you arrive early and forgot to book.

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. The small menu rotates frequently.

True Flemish cooking flourishes in this reliable old favorite. The low ceilings and benches around the walls remain from its days as a coaching inn during the 18th century, and little has changed since---including the menu. Its drinks selection is equally single-minded, with a choice of some 100 artisanal beers. The specialty here is the sour lambic variety, which is also used in the cooking, such as lapin à gueuze (rabbit stewed in fruit beer). Go with an appetite, because portions are huge. The knowledgeable waiters can recommend beers to go with your food but can be on the brusque side.

A friendly local favorite with charming service and a Mons classic to devour. The menu is, on the whole, standard brasserie fare, but the addition of porc a l'Berdouille, a dish created in the 1960s that smothers a pork chop (in this case pork fillet) in a white-wine-and-cream sauce flavored with pickled onions and gherkins, is a delight. It's an acquired taste, but one definitely worth developing. 

Chef François Nicolas is not afraid of the more rustic cuts of meat. His daily market menus sway with the seasons and often feature the game, offal, and sweetbreads that are the building blocks of French country cooking, raised to star status. Wild boar hams and veal in a Chimay-based sauce are typical of what you'll find here, all prepared exquisitely. The restaurant building is no less impressive, set within the old Degauquier brewery and malthouse (hence the name). The courtyard, in particular, is a fine spot in the summer. 

Set in a pretty, stone-fronted town house, this elegant mainstay on the city's fine-dining scene rarely disappoints. A sunlit terrace garden offers a break from the dark, sensible interior, but the food is the joy here, concocted with wit and imagination. The likes of scallops and mandarin sorbet or smoked eel with a confit of Iberian ham are past triumphs, but the menu is forever changing.  

There's not a lot of choice for dining in Lessines, with a number of popular old restaurants having closed their doors over recent years. La Tramasure remains the jewel in the crown, dishing up inventive bistro fine dining that leans heavily on local produce. Its market menus are invariably a joy, with the likes of two-stage pheasant (served barbecued and marinaded) and a slew of imaginative desserts—chocolate and red-pepper ganache, anyone?—combining to fine effect. A treat in a town not known for its cuisine.  

A restaurant with a firm eye on seasonal cooking, slow food, and organic produce. No surprise, then, that it's from the same people behind the Titulus wine bar, and that its selection of natural wines is among the finest in any restaurant in the city. The food isn't half bad either, and impresses with its often pared-down simplicity: from chicken with a lemon confit to a comforting chou farci (stuffed cabbage rolls). Dishes are not over fussed but presented simply and with confidence.

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 fine-dining classic that has been around for nearly 30 years. During that time, Lisa Calcus has shaped the taste buds of the city. The setting, in an 18th-century building, belies its modern interior. It's tastefully done and befits a series of well-constructed set menus (from €50 pp) taking their pick 'n' mix influences from around Europe, and as likely to pair a rustic guinea fowl with chutney as fall back on richer French cooking, with sweetbreads in a thick Madeira sauce. 

The Maison Antoine frites stand sells the best fries in the capital, say some people, accompanied by a dizzying range of condiments; try either local fave "Bicky" or the indulgent vol-au-vent sauce. The surrounding bars on Place Jourdan are used to patrons munching on frites (so long as you order a beer), so grab a seat and savor your twice-fried snack.

Portions veer on the gigantic here, while the cooking is firmly traditional. That's no bad thing, and this cozy restaurant dishes up one of the finest versions of stoofvlees in Flanders: a huge metal serving bowl of flaking meat soaked in dark gravy and accompanied by bowls of salad, frites, dijonnaise, and a rough-cut apple sauce. It's an experience, though not cheap. All the Flemish classics are here, and bowls of tiny North Sea shrimp are even dished up to graze on while you wait, along with bread and lard. 

Relocated in 2023 to a more central spot in a 17th-century building, Oak remains a fair contender for the best meal in Ghent, and chef Marcelo Ballardin more than deserves the Michelin star he bagged in 2018. It's intimate and demand is high, so it's wise to book far in advance. Dinner is a seven-course menu that changes with the seasons. Small portions come exquisitely prepared, with every trick in the gastronomic cookbook used, and its surprisingly simple dishes are huge in flavor, from sumptuous dry-aged beef to halibut drizzled in Champagne sauce. A true delight.

A short walk from place Jourdan reveals this elegant, modern French restaurant, its pared-down, neat decor broken up with colorful prints of animals and the bustle of the open kitchen. The choice of food is equally sparse but to the point: its four-course set menus deliver with imagination and no little amount of skill, letting you mix and match from your pick of cold, warm, hot, and sweet dishes on the blackboard. Lunch is a great deal at €28 for a starter and main.

Dishes at this Michelin-starred bistro from established Ghent chef Olly Ceulenaere are intricately prepared with a depth of flavor that belies their often simple ingredients. A small, ever-changing set menu invariably delivers. It's a bit of a walk from the city center, but that hasn't kept the crowds away. Booking is essential, and as you leave, a sign above the door reads "Bugger off quietly."

A sumptuous interior—all swampy green wallpaper and gold felt chairs—sets the scene for a menu just as rich. Think lobster and sweetbreads with a dash of caviar. Chefs Maxence Bouralha and Charles-Maxime Legrand have a fair amount of Michelin-starred kitchens on their CVs, and the dishes here burst with ambition, not least the desserts, where cep mushrooms are pared with cherries and chocolate in one dish. 

The only downside to Rebelle is that it's not exactly convenient. It lies a few miles outside the city center, in the small village of Marke, but it's more than worth the effort to get there. A minimalist makeover of the interior makes room for its inventive three-, six- and seven-course menus, which bring all the color. Save room for the pandan rice pudding.

Deep in the heart of old Antwerp, there is something likably stubborn about the defiantly traditional t' Fornuis, a place where stock Flemish surroundings with heavy oak chairs and beamed ceilings are the setting for some of the best (and priciest) food in the city. Charismatic Michelin-starred chef-owner Johan Segers changes his French-accented menu regularly; however, roasted sweetbreads with a wild-truffle sauce are a permanent fixture and worth trying. He also tends to stop by for a quick chat with just about every diner, if only to explain what it is you're eating. While you're waiting for your visit, take a chance to look at the restaurant's wonderful collection of miniature stoves.

This classy restaurant, run by owners Marniek and Christine, has been dishing up imaginative takes on classic bistro dishes since 1999. A back-garden terrace makes for a quiet escape, while the understated interior sets a refined mood for some sophisticated cooking.