113 Best Bars in Belgium

This likable craft beer bar usually has at least 15 draft beers on tap and an ace in its pocket. The selection is huge, the staff are friendly and knowledgeable, but you can also order Japanese food from the rather fine restaurant across the street (Tokidoki). A definite winner.

An excellent and discreet neighborhood cocktail bar buried among the houses a street back from Parc Josephat. It's surprisingly slick given its offbeat location, and it has lost none of its charm, or mixologist flair, after a recent change of ownership, having been taken over by the people behind the equally impressive Life is Beautiful bar on Rue Antoine Dansaert.

This friendly bar, next to La Lorgnette, has a neat quirk: it does self-service beer. You fill up your glass from around 20 taps using a card that you get from the bar, and it means that you can do small tastings of a large selection of different draft beers because you're paying by volume.   

Goupil Le Fol skirts a fine line between curiosity shop and bar, complete with jukebox, comfy old sofas, and no beer for once. The drinks menu consists of an array of fruit wines and punches, while its owner is often sprawled spiderlike in a corner cubbyhole watching TV. If the conversation ever drags, there's always something weird to look at.

Het Roze Huis is Antwerp's gay and lesbian community house, with a straight-friendly café, Den Draak ("The Dragon"), on the ground floor; evenings downstairs tend to run into the small hours (3 am) on most nights.

Het Roze Huis is Antwerp's gay and lesbian community house, with a straight-friendly café-bar, Den Draak ("The Dragon"), on the ground floor; evenings downstairs tend to run into the small hours on most nights.

Back in the plague-ridden early 1500s, this fine estaminet was the city's main source of clean drinking water. As the years went by, it morphed from water house to brothel to barbershop, and finally an inn. Today, it remains one of the city's iconic "brown bars." Come here for the selection; with several beers on tap, including a few of their own house brews and hundreds of bottled beers, it's pretty much perfection. Its small waterside terrace fills up quickly in fine weather, though.

A local institution, this jazz club has been operating since 1962, with regular concerts in its vaulted basement of blues, roots, and jazz music. Everyone from Chuck Berry and Curtis Mayfield to Jerry Lee Lewis has played here, and inside you'll find a small museum about its history.

Down a narrow alley one block back from the Leie, this atmospheric brick-walled music club is the city's premier jazz venue, with live shows most nights.

This "brown café" lies tucked away off the main shopping street, and has found a firm following among locals for its late-night blues and rock. It's cash-only, so leave your plastic at home, and the beer selection is superb.

Belgium's first "ecological" venue lies under the train tracks. As well as club nights, it also runs lectures, vinyl fairs, and workshops, but most come for the music. Nights run the spectrum from deep house to future jazz every Friday and Saturday, so check out the website for upcoming events.

Taking its name from a neurological disorder linked to alcohol abuse, this quirky, artsy café-bar has cultivated a loyal following among the in-crowd of hipster-drenched Mechelseplein. There's live music some nights.

The Art Deco design of L'Archiduc attracts a thirtyish, fashionable crowd, which is hardly surprising given the upmarket shopping area in which it resides. Add to the mix live jazz on weekends and fine cocktails, and it makes for one of the more polished entries in the city's bar scene.

The hospitality of many of the bars around Mons (especially on the Marché-aux-Herbes) tends to be on the brusque side. Yet this two-floor local favorite—all redbrick walls and leather chairs—just off the Grand Place is among the most friendly in town. Its specialty is a "flaming beer," which is everything you'd imagine (and more) when you hear those words.

A great little local beer bar with an excellent selection of bottled and draft (usually around 20) brews, all typically from the smaller breweries that don't find their way onto most bar menus. Regular music nights add to the fun.

A friendly and altogether unpretentious cocktail bar that eschews the usual preciousness for a fun night out. Drinks are uniformly well made and creative, with a few ambitious "beer cocktails" to round out the menu, which is both huge and surprisingly good value (around €8–€9 a cocktail). 

This lovely candlelit bar beside the cathedral is the most atmospheric place to drink in town, and the menu of 80 or so well-chosen beers will give you plenty of reasons to linger.

This narrow vaulted cellar is the setting for a popular bar where the house "chinchin" shots are legendary among locals. A lively weekend spot. 

A slick bar in the northern corner of the Grand Place. The wall of colorful bottles makes clear what you're in for: well-made cocktails alongside fine dishes of antipasti. 

This basic central piano bar has a good selection of beers and hosts live jazz, blues, and rock concerts Saturday night, and has karaoke evenings on Monday and Tuesday.

This lovely pub is in the cryptlike cellar of an 800-year-old building, the perfect setting for sampling some of its many hundreds of different Belgian and global ales.

A cute little bar-cum-shop on the charming rue de la Coupe with room for only a few tables inside. Organic and natural wines, beers, and teas are the specialty here; the owner even runs a natural vineyard near Harmignies village. 

This sparse-looking cooperative-run bar in the Marolles area is branching in a number of directions, with brunch on weekends and dinner served Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. But it's a brewpub at heart, with a handful of its own beers on tap and a real neighborhood vibe.

A little slice of New Orleans on the Leie. Missy Sippy may lie square in the historic center, in the shadow of the Sint-Niklaaskerk, yet it still feels like a back-alley discovery, dishing up thumping blues and roots bands alongside a decent selections of Belgian brews and bourbons.

The cozy, dimly lit Music Village hosts a plethora of international jazz musicians, with nightly concerts usually starting around 8:30 pm. You don't need a ticket, but it's usually best to make a reservation (pay on-site).

There are concerts as well as dance nights at Charlatan. Music starts up at 10, and entry to most events is free. The lineup includes alt-rock, electro, and lots of DJ nights.