10 Must Try Restaurants in Belgium
A guest blogpost by Manon
Meet Manon
Manon Melotte is a 21-year old food lover and blogger from Belgium. She has her own blog called La Petite Belge that started in March 2019. Where she writes about her favourite restaurants, shares recipes and also brings you along with her travel adventures. She loves sharing food recommendations from the countries she visits.
Manon’s Top 10 Favourite Restaurants in Belgium
Le Pristine Antwerp
The first restaurant is Le Pristine in Antwerp. It is Sergio Herman’s (famous Dutch cook) new restaurant where you can eat Italian food with a twist of Sergio’s Zeeland terroir. The restaurant opened during the Corona pandemic so I haven’t been able to visit it in person, but I did get his take-out back in November 2020. The food was absolutely delicious and I can’t wait to visit his restaurant once the restaurants open again.
Trentanove – Hasselt
My all time favourite Italian restaurant in my home town is called “Trentanove”. They prepare amazingly good Italian dishes that you will dream of for weeks. They even have plenty of vegetarian and vegan options which I always love to see. The prices are a bit on the higher side, but it is definitely worth it.
Juan Luis – Hasselt
A restaurant that I have already visited multiple times and have loved every since my first visit is called Juan Luis. A small tapas restaurant in the city centre of Hasselt. The tapas are very authentic and delicious and the staff is also super friendly. It is always a pleasure to visit this place.
MON - Antwerp
MON was one of the first restaurants I went to with my parents when I started studying in Antwerp in 2017. At that time I wasn’t a vegetarian yet so I had to try out MON as it was said to be an amazing meat restaurant in Antwerp. It is located at the MAS (famous museum in Antwerp) so the location is great too, especially during summer when you can sit outside. The staff is super friendly and the food is equally as good, I really recommend it to all meat-lovers.
San Sablon – Brussels
San Sablon is a fancy restaurant located in the city of Brussels owned by star-chef Sang Hoon Degeimbre. At San Sanblon you can enjoy a star-worthy 3 or 5 course meal. They even offer a discount price for people under the age of 25 from Tuesday till Friday (only €25 for 3 courses). The food is really good and it is definitely worth it if you want to go to a fancy restaurant but don’t want to pay too much.
In de Zwaan – Hasselt
Another of my go-to restaurants in my town is In de Zwaan, a typical Belgian bistro with a more sophisticated and modern look. You can eat all the Belgian classics here but also many delicious suggestion dishes (every month they have new suggestions).
The prices are a little bit higher than in other normal Belgian bistros, but I think it is definitely worth it because the food is very well prepared and you get a lot for your money.
Pasta Pici – Antwerp
Pasta Pici is an Italian restaurant located in a more quiet part of Antwerp, where they make fresh home-made pasta. The interior of the restaurant is very cute and the table arrangements are also a bit out of the ordinary; there are multiple large tables that you either sit on with multiple parties or share with a bigger group (there are small tables too, don’t worry). The food is absolutely amazing and I would strongly suggest to also try out some of their appetisers.
Bistro Philippe – Alken
When visiting Limburg you should definitely check out Bistro Philippe (only on reservation). They are comparable to San Sablon, but then without the star-chef. You can enjoy a multiple course menu for a pretty decent price. They also adapt the menu when you have any allergies or are vegetarian. The 2 owners are lovely people, the wife takes care of the dining room and the husband is the chef. I went there once and have always wanted to go back again because I loved my visit so much.
Lento – Hasselt
Lento is the ideal destination for all my fellow vegetarian or vegan people. They make these extraordinary dishes that look like they are “normal” but then they tell you that the shrimp (for example) in the Paella is “fake”. They keep blowing my mind with their preparations and the prices are pretty decent too. When you want to go for a more fancy vegan restaurant then I would definitely recommend “De levensboom” in Hasselt, which has already won vegan awards before.
Au Petit Grand
This last restaurant is owned by friends of my parents. They have this cute and lovely Grill restaurant located in the centre of Bruges. Again not my kind of restaurant anymore as I am a vegetarian now but the food there is great and the atmosphere is lovely too.
I would definitely recommend going there when visiting Bruges.
So, those were my top 10 restaurants in Belgium. There are plenty of restaurants that I love as well, all over Belgium and the list keeps getting longer as I am exploring more and more of them. If you want to read more about these restaurants or any other restaurants then you can go to my website for more information.
A bit more about La Petite Belge:
The idea of starting a blog actually came from my mom who noticed that a lot of people came to me for restaurant recommendations. So, she told me to start a blog as kind of a journal for my favourite restaurant visits. I became a vegetarian in the summer of 2019 and have found it very fun to look for great restaurants where both vegetarians and meat-eaters can go together. Don’t forget to also check out the blog section where you can read all about my travels and also find some yummy recipes. I post every Sunday at 10 am (CET), you can also follow me on Instagram @lapetitebelgeblog.
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