10 Great Restaurants in Brussels

Comme Chez Soi is one of the many standouts in Brussels’ upmarket dining scene. It's been around since way back in 1926 and has held at least 2 prestigious Michelin stars since 1979. You'll find it on a small square just off the Avenue de Stalingrad, on the city’s southwest side.

The kitchen has exerted great influence over the European fine-dining scene for several decades. Comme Chez Soi’s menu includes trademark dishes like Ardennes mousse of ham and halibut with confit lemon and urchin butter. There's also a 7-course tasting menu if you really want to push the boat out.

Le Rabassier is a compact but prominent restaurant in central Brussels. This letterbox slit of a bistro is wedged between the townhouses on the small alley of Rue de Rollebeek, a short 6-minute walk from Brussels-Chapel train station. Here, its husband-wife creators present Euro surf 'n' turf with a difference.

Black truffle elevates Le Rabassier’s already-elegant dishes. You find the tingly, tangy fungi topping off roasted sea urchins, scallops in beluga caviar, and lobster bearnaise. That's just a sample, though, as the tasting menu changes regularly. Book early because there are only a couple of tables available.

Restaurant Vincent is on Rue des Dominicains, just a few minutes' walk north of the Grand Place in Brussels. Tiled murals of Belgian cows grazing on Flanders grasses adorn 1 wall, while depictions of Low Country sailors battling the waves decorate the other.

Restaurant Vincent is one of the most talked-about places for local cuisine in the heart of the Belgian capital. Unashamedly Belgian through and through, the kitchen is all about showcasing moules-frites (mussels and fries), juicy steaks, tartar – the list goes on.

Bon Bon bills itself as a "sensory dialogue" rather than a typical Belgian restaurant in Brussels. It aims to go beyond the pursuit of great taste to make dining a complete experience for the body and mind. That's probably why you need to remove yourself from the distractions of the city centre to Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, a leafy suburban area about a 20-minute drive from the Grand Place.

Once there, you'll find an elegant mansion with white facades and manicured gardens. Bon Bon's 2-Michelin-starred cooks offer up a menu of heavily foraged and local ingredients in a stylish dining space that's decked out in golds and beiges.

65 Degrés melds together haute cuisine and social enterprise in Brussels. It's on the bustling Avenue Louise, just south of the Palais de Justice and a short taxi ride from the Grand Place. It occupies a creative and arty space, providing a nice intro to the cooking-with-a-difference that's on the menu.

The restaurant’s mission is about inclusivity, which is why people with disabilities make up the bulk of the kitchen and front-of-house teams. They create some strikingly tasty dishes – think the likes of scallop carpaccio with a citrus top and smoked ricotta cheeses with natural greens. There's champagne and a fantastic wine list to match, too.

Le Chalet de la Forêt, as the name suggests, is encompassed by the woodlands that roll across the Brussels-Flanders border on the southwest side of the city. It takes about 20 minutes to get to the establishment, travelling down the main N24 from the city centre.

Touting 2 Michelin stars since 2021, Le Chalet de la Forêt boasts a seasonal and modern menu. The dishes include the likes of smoked eel with radish and caviar, Wagyu beef sirloin in pepper sauce, and John Dory with citrus marmalade. The setting is a historic chalet with a balmy sun terrace out front – great for summer eating.

Chez Leon has been serving up Low Country staples since 1893, making it one of the city’s oldest restaurants. This venerable venue is located in the heart of Brussels’ old centre on Rue des Bouchers, just a few steps from the Grand Place.

Step inside to find a colourful and playful burst of Belgium-related paraphernalia – oversized Smurf statues, Tintin art, and murals of Flemish townhouses. Then, it's onto the food, which is a medley of moules (mussels), double-cooked chips, tartar, and cheesy gratin. All of these authentic dishes are backed up by frothy local beers, of course.

Villa Lorraine is a fine-dining restaurant in Brussels that sports an uber-stylish interior to match its edgy array of food. The restaurant occupies a charming building that dates to the 1800s, set neatly on the side of the Bois de la Cambre gardens to the south of Brussels’ city centre.

The menu manages to harness the experimental while keeping its eye on European tradition. As such, you can enjoy langoustines with chou kimchi and parmesan, or beef fillets with bacon and whiskey. Villa Lorraine’s casual lounge-bar menu has a lower price tag attached but equally as thought-provoking tastes – think sashimi in ricotta-wasabi and rice with jalapeno.

PURA is an elegant restaurant in the Leopold Quarter, just north of the Robert Schuman Roundabout. You can easily make your way here on foot from the grand Parc du Cinquantenaire. The menu draws on earthy and salty Low Country ingredients and a touch of culinary experimentation. The result is a collection of dishes like sweetbread curries with buckwheat, red endives in sweet and sour sauce, and tenderloins of pork with sweet potato.

It's somehow both degustation and comfort food, all served up in a stylish space with a wrap-around bar done out in contemporary decoration. The cocktails are pretty excellent, too. PURA has outdoor and indoor dining spaces, though the former tends to fill up fast on warm days.

La Marée is a must-visit for seafood lovers visiting Brussels. The pretty redbrick front with its blue covers and blooming flowers – at least in summer – beckons diners in the hip Dansaert quarter, between cobbled alleys and canals on the city’s northwest side. Paintings of fish and waves adorn the restaurant’s walls and windows.

Starters include raw mussels, Zeeland oysters, and smoked salmon. Mains mean cod with in-house tartar, white-wine mussels, and leek-topped monkfish. On the drinks menu are crisp white labels from France – excellent accompaniment to La Marée’s seafood-focused dishes.