The best restaurants Gent

As with all trendy restaurants, chef Kim Devisschere operates on emotion and season: the menu is unique, changing every lunchtime and evening, like an invitation to culinary discovery. For a lunch menu, you can try lacquered veal cheeks, followed by brandade de morue au cognac, roasted carrots and chickpeas, and conclude with a nectarine cheesecake. In the evening, prices are higher but the menu is just as creative and spectacular. Vegetarian options are also available. Reservations are essential, as places are scarce.

If the sign sets the tone for possible dissatisfaction, it's full and happy that we leave here. You'll marvel at the fine Spanish-influenced tapas, which are more convivial when shared. But above all, the small plates are very creative, not hesitating to marry savory and sweet, like these roasted sweet potatoes with fresh goat's cheese and tomato chutney. Or the grilled octopus with hazelnut sauce, the dish's secret weapon. Rolling on the floor. Reservations are highly recommended, as this is one of the best addresses in town.

Lof offers an elegant, designer and refined decor. Chef Hannes Vandebotermet executes a gastrobar concept in collaboration with Michelin-starred chef Ron Blaauw. The menu is of the highest quality and changes regularly as it follows the seasons. Lobster, duck, horse mackerel, cod, caviar... you'll be delighted by noble products worked with precision. Big plus: the menu is available in a vegan version, with Asian touches such as miso, seitan and soya. The beautiful plates are veritable works of art. A visual as well as a gustatory delight.

In this former medieval butcher's shop of the 15th century, you can taste the products of Eastern Flanders in the form of tapas at affordable prices, that you pick with your glass, unless you opt for the dish of the day. The building is impressive. A glazed and heated prefabricated structure was built inside to eat in warmth in winter. In the summer, the tables are spread out under the roof. All products are bought directly from the producers and sold in the adjacent store: cold cuts, cheeses, mustard, juniper...

The concept of this wash bar is to combine the useful with the pleasurable, or even the choreable with the pleasurable, as you watch your laundry run while enjoying a bagel or a slice of toast and listening to the gentle hum of the drums. If you're tired of washing your jeans with hotel soaps, don't bother! The sofas are soft, and the menu is plastered on the bottom of old drawers overlooking the tiled counter. Salads, bagels and burgers are packed with colorful, tasty vegetables, fresh, healthy, affordable, central and inevitably trendy.

Here, culinary specialties are served with Orval beer. And it's around Karel Van der Cruyssen that the restaurant forges its identity: First World War hero, priest then abbot(abt in Flemish) and, above all, creator of the famous local beer. No wonder the restaurant serves an entire menu based on this beverage (yes, yes, even the dessert!). You'll also be able to try the only Flemish chicken-based carbonnades, which are lighter and tastier. In summer, enjoy the sunny terrace, and in winter, the central fireplace.

There's nothing pretentious about Uncle Babe's, just a fine menu of gourmet burgers served on old-fashioned, enameled oval soup plates that hold huge portions. The bar is dressed in copper, and it's more than pleasant to settle your stomach with these behemoths topped with good meat and hand-picked noble ingredients. On the other hand, prices remain very reasonable, making this a highly recommended address. The menu also includes a number of fine salads. In the evening, continue with a glass of wine or a cocktail.

Located in an old Patershol house, this restaurant is masterfully run by young chef Thomas De Muynck and his wife Lien Van de Velde. The warm, intimate interior immediately puts you at ease. Here, there's no choice à la carte; you come for a menu (vegetarian or not) and let yourself be carried away by the chef's sometimes subtle, sometimes more straightforward combinations, such as mussels in saffron sauce and fideua, or Limousin veal in three ways with pickles and chanterelles. The lunch menu is a real bargain given the quality.

You will find the same sign in Ghent and Brussels. Amadeus' specialty: spare ribs at will. Trendy brewery atmosphere, with a busy decoration, with checkered tablecloths... The wine, payable according to what you drink from the bottle ("à la ficelle", as they say in Belgium), is certainly not a grand cru, but the formula seems to be a great success. Instead, we suggest that you choose a bottle to accompany ribs with honey and spices, which you will find difficult to finish on the first plate.

This is a sign across the country. Yet we are far from fast-food chains here: everything is done with fresh products, most of which are organic. Whether for breakfast, lunch or afternoon pies or afternoon pies to enjoy bakery and coffee, we will always find something to eat for a few euros. The oak staircase, parquet and wooden furniture give the place a natural and convivial atmosphere, reinforced by the presence of a large common table where everyone is invited to sit.

A vegetarian fast food... it exists! It is even a concept in Belgium, since there are three of them in the country. Healthy, fast and ultra fresh food in a trendy setting. On the menu, vegan burgers, salads, bowls, wraps, soups, all with an interesting variety of ingredients. You can order quickly, eat well, healthy and at a low price and take away if you want to picnic. You can quickly get into the habit with a vitamin smoothie, a salad with super foods: kale and goji berries, etc. The fast food of the future to eat healthy after the advent of McDonald's!

The ^18th-century façade reflects the delicate, elegant interior décor. For more than 15 years, this intimate, subdued atmosphere has been the perfect setting for refined lunches and romantic dinners. To top it all off, the restaurant boasts one of the most beautiful terraces in Ghent. The four-course lunch menu is very interesting. On Saturday evenings, only the six-course tasting menu is served. The dishes are both fine and gourmet, you can't go wrong, everything is appetizing and well executed!

An institution in the region since Max was present at the region's fairs as early as 1839. At present, it is the sixth generation that works, with a descendant of Max: Yves Van Maldeghem. Inside this beautiful house in the centre of the town, you will find what used to be the wooden hut of the time. There are also many decorative elements of the time. The house specialties are waffles, pancakes and apple fritters. A sweet discovery is a must!

Without doubt the best Thai restaurant. At the weekend, it is better to book because all the city court. Impossible to miss this red façade blood-of- beef large bourgeois residence. Classic will cross contemporary Decor little busy, but a dragon or two well illustrating, with its way, the flavours of the kitchen. Really excel and departs yourself for £26 per person!

A little corner of Paris near the Vrijdagmarkt, northeast of Portus Ganda, for those nostalgic for French cuisine. Song lyrics on the walls flirt with posters of the Moulin Rouge, for the old-fashioned French glamour. Moreover it is not rare to hear Piaf feeding the musical atmosphere. She and others... Ghent, the Francophile, reveals itself around a seductive French cuisine. Good welcome, good service. On the menu, delicacies and lots of wood-grilled meats. You can hang out there past midnight.

De stokerij is translated as "the distillery" and, obviously, this pre-industrial building used to be a brewery-distillery. You have to admit that the walls are quite magical, as are the plates. Fusion cuisine in a trendy place, where the little icons on the menu indicate tapas and dishes that are vegetarian, dairy, gluten-free, sugar-free and so on. Their specialty is a twist on carbonnade. Instead of beef, pork cheek is used with a sauce made with Sint-Bernardus 12 beer, a real treat! And don't forget to try one of the house beers.

Keizershof "The King's Garden", located on the market square, has been in the hands of the same family for 25 years. Simplicity here makes the identity of the place so dear to Lino and his brother Ward, who perpetuate a menu between Italian specialities and traditional brewery dishes. We come here to taste the famous Flemish carbonnade or spaghetti bolognese according to an old-fashioned recipe that we have never tasted before! Bright, wooded on the ceiling, we also linger at the bar in front of a quick coffee. Smart plan: reserve a table in the garden.

Sandwiches, pasta, salads, made from fresh and natural products.