Showing 1-12 of 12 results
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Am Sweet
Spiralling over two floors and several rooms, this charming salon de thé / confiserie on a village-like street resembles a Parisian apartment, with small metal tables, chairs in striped calico slip-covers, shelves of well-thumbed books, and framed watercolours resting against the walls. Not only is it a delightful spot for brunch or a fragrant tea, but the ground floor stocks an enticing array of sweets, including Laurent Gerbaud chocolates.
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Aux Armes de Bruxelles
In a street where dining is a minefield of mussel places, this elegant eatery is where locals come to get treated like royalty and to eat fantastic seafood. The oysters are the freshest around, and for mains try any version of the mussels or fish - the sole meuniere (fish with butter and lemon) is excellent.
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Belga Queen
The Belga Queen is Brussels' queen of indulgence. Generous opening hours, a fabulous restaurant with an equally fab crowd, a lustrous ecailler (oyster bar) and a cigar bar leave you no excuses for not visiting. The main menu (split between meat and fish) even has a vegetarian section and low-calorie options for visiting supermodels.
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Brasserie La Clef d'Or
Unassuming café that's been serving soupe de la maison (house soup) and a good croque-monsieur (grilled ham and cheese sandwich) to flea-market vendors for years. It's as unpretentious as they come. The unusual opening hours reflect the needs of the clientele.
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Chez Léon
Longtime tourist favourite in the heart of Brussels' famous dining street, Rue des Bouchers. This rambling place occupies several gabled houses and offers fast service at any time of the day or night, substantial helpings of mussels and chips, and free meals for kids under 12. You'll find branches all over Belgium, and worldwide.
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Comme Chez Soi
The name evokes cooking just like 'at home', but unless you have a personal chef crafting the likes of North Sea lobster salad with black truffles and potatoes, sole fillets with Riesling and shrimp mousseline or perhaps spicy lacquered pigeon breast with wild rice, it's nothing of the sort. The prices are gobsmacking, but so is the food from master chef Pierre Wynants's son-in-law, Lionel Rigolet.
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L'Ultime Atome
The lively dining strip of Rue St-Boniface typifies 'new Brussels' with its multilingual clientele and diverse cuisines (traditional Belgian to Thai and more). For a good entrée to the scene here, start at this brasserie.
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La Belle Maraîchère
Ste-Catherine has no shortage of superb seafood, but the wonderfully old-school La Belle Maraîchère has long been the restaurant of choice for discerning Bruxellois. Here, the Devreker family reverently prepare lobster and fish, and it's the perfect place to try Brussels' famous mussels in white wine.
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Le Perroquet
Perfect for a drink but also good for a simple bite (salads, sandwiches etc), this Art Nouveau café with its stained glass and timber panelling is an atmospheric, inexpensive stop in an area that's light on such places.
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Les Petits Oignons
Cosy up by the crackling open fire in winter or keep cool in the candlelit garden in summer at this Marolles mainstay. You'll need to exercise judgement when ordering the generous mains, as orders for dessert (including the house profiteroles) are taken at the beginning of a meal.
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Maison Antoine
Brussels can be divided into two kinds of people: not French and Dutch-speaking, or locals and expats, but those who swear by this little chip shop, and those who pledge allegiance to the caravan on Place Flagey. Antoine's chips are twice-fried in beef fat and you'll see dignitaries and the odd celeb queuing for a coneful.
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Picnik
One of the new breed of snack bars gathering steam in Brussels. This one's firmly Flemish, totally vegetarian, mostly organic and, for its size, incredibly baby friendly. An out-of-the-way location that's worth finding.
Showing 1-12 of 12 results
