11 Best Restaurants in Brussels, Belgium

Finally, the mushroom-theme restaurant of your dreams … well, someone's dreams. And while diners might discover that it isn't quite as eccentric as they'd expect (mushrooms feature in all dishes but often as side ingredients), it is nonetheless quite out there, particularly the desserts: try the cakey flan diplomate and wood-ear fungus! The owners also run the impressive fine-dining French restaurant La Buvette and the excellent bakery Hopla Geiss, whose cinnamon rolls are utterly moreish, on the same street, but this is where the "fun guys" go (groan). 

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; even the buerre blanc smothering the plaice and grey shrimps is jazzed up with its own brews. 

The novelty of this Italian pizza and food-sharing restaurant is proving pretty enduring. Set on the busy food street of Tiensestraat, this is one of few restaurants here not part of the usual Belgian chains (Wasbar, Balls & Glory, Bavet, etc.). Instead, you'll find good drinks, an array of tapas ranging from stuffed baos to pizza bites and oysters, as well as pastas, risottos, salads, and, of course, good pizza. The food is served on wooden boards, steamer baskets, and on paper. It's just fun and it probably won't be long before they're found all over Belgium. 

Even in Belgium, where meat tends to feature pretty high on the agenda of most menus, Colonel is something different. It's all about the steak here—marbled, aged, and kept on display like a treasured memory in a cabinet by the bar counter. Choose your own cut of traceable and personally sourced French beef, typically served with thick beef-fat frites on the side. There's more than just meat here, with a well-finessed bistro menu, but why fight it?

This split-level restaurant, on a side alley off the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, has all the trappings of an old-time bistro: green-shaded lamps over marble-top tables, a forest's worth of dark wood paneling, and laid-back waiters. There's nothing casual about the French-style cuisine, however: grilled sweetbreads with baked courgettes, mille-feuille of crayfish and salmon with a puree of langoustines, and saddle of lamb with spring vegetables and potato gratin. The selection of Beaujolais is particularly good.

Paella is the prime reason to come here. It dominates the menu and holds to the old-school Valencian style, with rabbit and snails added to the usual chicken, pork, and fruits of the sea. Certainly, classics like the arroz negro (cuttlefish and blackened squid-ink rice) more than live up to their East-coast Spanish roots. A little piece of Spain in Schaerbeek. 

Bright orange and yellow murals pay humorous homage to the Surrealist René Magritte in this well-known Art Nouveau brasserie. Below these, brass plaques record the names of respected customers and famous diners gone by. This place just oozes old-fashioned charm. The excellent cuisine includes traditional Belgian fare—a generous chicken waterzooi and homemade frites—as well as old-school brasserie staples like andouillette (a coarse tripe sausage), fried duck foie gras with caramelized apples, and rabbit with prunes. Perhaps as a result of its slick trade in tourists, service tends to err decidedly on the dour side. Menus in English are on hand.

In and among the pricey antiques and jewelry shops of the Sablon, you'll find a fair amount of stylish dining. Among these establishments comfortably snuggles Lola, an undeniably charming brasserie of black-leather booths and a bar counter for those grabbing a quick lunch. The menu is rotundly French but with a small exclave of Belgian and house dishes, such as cod and peeled gray shrimp or Holstein carpaccio. 

Some brewery restaurants tend to be slightly chaotic affairs, relying on their draft brews to pick up where the food falls short. Not so this dining offshoot from the local 3 Fonteinen lambic brewery. The menu and cooking here are spot on and embrace more than the usual carbonnades, with a good selection of mussels in various sauces accompanying some interesting game options. Afterwards, visit its nearby Lambik-O-Droom brewpub, which has a tasting room and garden terrace. Brewery tours are only available by appointment.  

Only a 10-minute walk from the castle, in the village of Gaasbeek, is this pleasant country restaurant with a pretty courtyard. Its building dates back to the late 18th century, and it has been a brewery, a tavern, and a farm in its day. Expect dishes such as horse steaks, venison tornados, and goose-liver pie with fig jam, all of which offer a more rustic take on the usual brasserie fare. A few dishes even make ample use of the local lambic beer made in these parts. 

Despite its name, this is not really a wine bar (though they run a roof terrace in summer where you can go for a drink) and it's just on the edge of the Marolles. Owners Vincent Thomaes and Joël Vandenhoudt relocated to rue Haute from Sablon in 2013, back when this was a popular bar. Since then, it's evolved into very much a grande-dame-style restaurant where haughty paintings hang in thick frames, the service is likeably fastidious, and wine is very much at the center of most meals. It's decadent in the best way possible, with an emphasis on classic French cooking and natural wines.