The best restaurants Flandres belges

Facing the sea, the imposing building boasts a splendid view of the beach. The house specialties include cassolettes of North Sea fish and mussels in garlic cream sauce. Other fish, meat and lobster dishes are also available. For the suggestions of the month, a large blackboard sets the tone. What's sweet? Pancakes, fresh waffles, and to top it all off? A vast choice of wines, 7 beers on tap and 60 special bottled beers, to be enjoyed also in the afternoon on the sunny lounge terrace.

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!

This seafront restaurant, with its ocean-facing terrace, offers contemporary, flexitarian cuisine. In other words, it moderates the quantities of meat and fish in favor of extreme quality (organic if possible) and freshness, and balances its dishes with a festival of vegetables, seeds and health-giving ingredients. The whole is tasty, light and easy to eat. The tuna, just seared, and the fish of the day, cooked to perfection, are undeniably his strong points.

Olivier Dewulf, a talented young chef, has developed his experience with renowned chefs, which has enabled him to deploy his talents today in a unique, refined and characterful setting. His cooking uses imagination, inventiveness, freshness and above all with a lot of flavours! Doing " à la Brabançonne ", turbot " Vérilhac ", lobster... The wines are also carefully chosen to be as harmonious as possible with the plate. A terrace in summer is the most pleasant place to enjoy these very refined dishes.

Koen and Marijke offer a rather short menu but work precisely in a short circuit. The grills, specialties of the house, feature an indigenous cattle breed, the West Flanders Red. Each dish is accompanied by a beer, on the advice of Marijke. The menu of beers is carefully elaborated, according to the flavors of the beverage (hopped, malted, roasted...). The price of some bottles is quite high.

Here is a nice little café. Especially since it is named after the mascot of the Petit Futé! A fresco with red foxes brightens up a whole wall inside and a poor stuffed wolf invites you to enter. Fortunately, no fox on the menu but a nice beer menu and a small restaurant. One notices immediately the slicer of competence which is enthroned beside the bar. Let's go for a platter of high quality Italian cold cuts (maybe you won't be hungry anymore). The interior is cozy with its large tables and benches.

At the head of the Locàle team are two men: former chef of the famous Kok au Vin, owner and host Jürgen Aerts, and chef Hendrik Dequeker. Mixing local cuisine with influences from around the world (Asia, the Mediterranean...) but always in season. Here, all produce is sourced from responsible, local agriculture, a "short circuit" concept. In a warm bistro atmosphere, dishes are for sharing. It's fun and uninhibited, just the way we like it. It's also Bruges' new culinary spot, so reservations are highly recommended.

The kingdom of Siam, the ancient name of Thailand, is featured in this small restaurant, which is always full (remember to make reservations). The owner is Thai and infuses an authentic taste into the plates, which are also very copious and affordable, while the Flemish owner is friendly. It didn't take us long to turn this into a canteen, as the people of Bruges have decided. The Tom Yam soup with shrimps and the Khung maksaman with chicken and yellow curry were delicious. We also recommend the Thai assortment as a starter to discover new flavors.

This tapas and aperitif bar is the perfect place to share a meal with friends. The interior features rustic-style wooden furniture, as befits a tapas bar, but the deep emerald-green walls give it a contemporary touch. More than tapas, it's small dishes to share. We take a trip around the world of cuisine with American-style fried chicken, portobellos topped with tomatoes and feta, or a seasonal suggestion like Thai mussels. Smart move: one portion is enough for two.

Need a good breakfast? A quick, healthy lunch, a snack of crêpes or waffles, or simply a cup of coffee? Juliette is there. Well, rather than a Juliette, it's Sofie the hostess who offers you her menu of coffees and hot drinks of all kinds, fresh dishes at lunchtime, sweet treats in the afternoon and a few selected alcohols at aperitif time. The place is small, uncluttered, Scandinavian-style, but welcoming, with a few places on the street in fine weather. Remember to book in the morning.

Located right next to the Grand Place, this Brazilian sandwich shop is full of good cheer, offering hearty, delicious sandwiches and salads at low prices. Some are vegan, others are spicy, but all are prepared with fresh produce. The compositions are rather classic, but enhanced by a really varied and vitamin-packed crudités. There are also a few Brazilian specialties, such as pão de queijo, coxinha or bolinho de bacalhau, the fried appetizers so common in Brazil, and breakfast pastries.

This unpretentious Lebanese-Syrian family restaurant offers authentic and tasty cuisine served in generous portions. From the kitchen escapes the music and oriental fragrances. The stars: Lebanese tabbouleh with bulgur, parsley and lemon juice, and the classic shawarma. You can set your sights on a crunchy fattoush salad, babagaboush (roasted eggplant and pomegranate, fabulous), foul (with beans and tahini yoghurt) or falafel, with a touch of orange blossom, a delight. Small prices perfect for voracious stomachs.

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.

This young restaurant, which opened just a few years ago, has already earned its Michelin star and won the hearts of the people of Ghent. Chef Olly Ceulenaere breaks the codes of the luxury gastronomic world by imposing a simplicity that is in his nature. The cuisine is modern and refreshing, relying on local and seasonal ingredients to create wonderful and creative dishes. Since then, it has become a reference point in Ghent, as much for its high-flying dishes as for the friendliness of the place and the team.

Pulpo is a brand-new restaurant in the center of Ghent (which already had a sign near the station), offering either gourmet tapas to share or Mediterranean-inspired dishes. The octopus a la gallega is revisited with a sweet potato purée (albeit a little greasy), while the Italian burrata is hearty. The pasta is particularly good. The decor is very cosy and well cared for, the place convivial with little cushions and studied acid colors. Summer terrace to make the most of fine weather.

Gastronomic restaurant set in two beautiful rooms with antique floors, right in the center of town. Here you can enjoy cuisine created with organic, sustainable, seasonal ingredients grown by small local producers. You can opt for dishes or tapas to share (or order as starters), which is more convivial and allows you to try several dishes. The pheasant with cognac sauce and vegetables is perfect in winter. We regret that the menu is not translated into English or French, and that the welcome is a little cold.

Housed in the majestic former Bourse building on the Kouter, on the border between the Zuid and the Kuip, this brasserie enjoys a good reputation with the locals. We put our trust in them, sit down, look up to enjoy the setting and set our sights on light, tasty Franco-Belgian cuisine, a handful of dishes, salads and pastas that are classic (like the grey shrimp salad with fresh chive vinaigrette and French fries) but well executed. We come here above all for the setting, especially in summer with the beautiful terrace along the water.

Open since December 2019, this Thai restaurant is already sold out every weekend evening in its first month. And with good reason: the dishes are exquisite, the setting attractive, the prices reasonable, the location central. This Thai family offers dishes faithful to the country's subtle culinary tradition. For starters, the Tom Yam Kung, a sweet-and-sour soup with lemongrass-infused shrimp, was perfectly balanced. For the main course, the steamed duck with vegetables, Thai basil, red curry pineapple and coconut milk was simply divine.

This is one of Ghent's most popular restaurants. Oak's contemporary cuisine draws inspiration from the world's best recipes to create fresh seasonal dishes using emulsions, glazes and other sophisticated transformations to create subtle flavors. The menu is fixed and changes daily according to Chef Marcelo's inspiration. The elaborate menu is difficult to decipher in Dutch, so simply let your taste buds guide you and enjoy. Reservations essential, as this is a sought-after table.

The people of Ghent flock here every Sunday. It's a real old-fashioned kiosk, but where flowers and newspapers have given way to a veritable oyster bar, where you can enjoy oysters standing up or at the counter, accompanied by a glass of wine. This is the heart of Ghent. It's the place to meet and strut your stuff on the Kouter. The oysters, on the other hand, come from France, not from Belgium. But who cares, we'll have a few fines de claires d'Oléron with a good dry white wine to fill up on vitamins and iodine.

In this 15th century building where money was controlled, everything is home-made and the cuisine is fusion. The specialty is the fish waterzooi à la Gantoise, rather classic. But there is also a lot of exoticism. For example, the prawns with chilli and honey represent Thailand, and the beef carpaccio displays Italian flavors. In the same spirit, the crocodile fillet with coconut sauce rubs shoulders with the kangaroo fillet with shallot and port sauce or the chicken with moambé, a Congolese specialty. Vegetarian dishes are not to be outdone either.

A pleasant little restaurant that offers a choice of many pasta dishes and salads. The place is well known to students and the atmosphere is young and relaxed, the queue is long at mealtimes, try to go there off-beat, the kitchen is open non-stop. Some of the regulars at the place say they serve the best spaghetti in town. Without exaggerating, the dishes are good and the prices are low, that's what we ask! If the children become impatient, there are colouring books and pencils to keep them occupied.

The trendy, gourmet Belgian pizzeria chain has opened a restaurant in Ghent. The particularity: the dough is made with beer yeast, and the topping combinations are surprising, some of them veggie. The restaurant offers a beer pairing with the menu, or how to choose the best Belgian beer to go with the chosen pizza. Inside, admire the bricks dating back to the inn's ^17th-century construction, and the woodwork and green plants that contrast with the industrial loft look of the walls.

Ghent is a city where vegetarianism is developing at a high gastronomic level. This establishment opened in 2017 proves it: during the day, you can have a coffee or a tea, but at noon it is the salads that attract the locals for a vegetarian break. You can try for example the Boon: lettuce - white rice - beans - daikon - pomegranate seeds - tofu - Chinese cabbage - edamame - fried onions - soy sauce. A real pleasure, in a nice warm and trendy setting. The whole at really democratic prices. You can quickly make it your lunchtime canteen.

The institution in the district of Saint-Amandsberg, close to the Saint-Bavon Abbey, has a huge terrace. We linger there to have a drink or eat an extraordinary waterzooi. The house guarantees that all products are fresh of the day! In season, we run there mainly for mussels, the other house specialty. Mussel season? From July to Easter, pretty much! The house is over fifty years old and serves the many local beers as they should be. The right address to taste the local specialities in this area.

With its world maps, objects from the four corners of the globe and a stuffed zebra on the wall, the journey begins when you push the door. This exotico-tropical trip can be found on the menu through tapas to share, fusion dishes and original salads (Cajun chicken wrap with guacamole, Mac Marrakech burger with lamb...), but there are also timeless Flemish cuisine with beer. The exotic cocktails are also exotic. In summer, terrace and pretty interior court. We bet here on the eccentric decoration, but the plate is creative and affordable.

Here you are in the^2nd living room of a couple who know how to handle vegetarian ingredients with delight and beauty. It's also ethically conscious, since, as its name suggests, the restaurant is locavore, sourcing from local biodynamic farms according to the seasons. It's a cool, intimate Brooklyn-style place, with democratic prices and delicious plates. The weekly menu includes soup, bruschetta with hummus, salad, quiche, gratin and a veggie burger. You'll quickly make it your favorite cantine.