Belgium

Belgians like to eat. Belgium is famous for its good cuisine and people like to go to restaurants frequently. Best description for Belgian food would be "French food in German quantities".

international

As a small country in the centre of western Europe, the cuisine is influenced not only by the surrounding countries but also by many other countries. This is also emphasized by many foreigners coming to this country to make a living here, for instance by starting a restaurant. You can find all types of restaurants:

French/Belgian: A traditional Belgian restaurant serves the kind of food you will also find in the best French restaurants. Of course there are local differences: at the coast in France as well as in Belgium you have a better chance to find some good seafood, like mussels, turbot, sole or the famous North Sea shrimp. In the southern woods of the Ardennes remember the battle of the Bulge?, you are better off choosing game or local fish like trout.

English/Irish: There are Irish bars and pubs everywhere and Belgium is no exception, try the Schuman area of Brussels for more Irish pubs than you can shake a stick at. There is also an English pub just off of Place de la Monnaie in central Brussels.

American: There are McDonald's or lookalikes in most every town. The Belgian variant is called "Quick". You may also find a local booth serving sausages, hot dogs or hamburgers. Try it: the meat tastes the same, but the bread is much better. Ketchup in this region is bland and made with less sugar even the Heintz brand. Pizza Hut, Domino's, and Subway also have establishments. There are no real American restaurants, although there is an American bar on the Toison d'Or in Brussels that serves food.

Mexican: Only in the cities and rather costly for only medium quality. ChiChi's near Bourse and Pablo's near Port des Namur serve Mexican American food, neither of which would be considered a good value by American standards. ChiChi's uses reconstituted meats. Pablo's uses higher quality meat, but you pay a premium for it.

Chinese: They have a long tradition of restaurants in Belgium. Rather cheap, but an acceptable quality.

German/Austrian: Maxburg in the Schuman area next to Spicy Grill makes a good schnitzel.

Greek/Spanish/Italian: Like all over the world, nice, rather cheap, with a good atmosphere and typical music Greek: Choose meat, especially lamb Spanish: Choose paella and tapas Italian: Choose anything.

Japanese/Thai: You usually find them only in the cities and they are rather expensive, but they give you great quality. The prices and thequality are both satisfying in a concentrated cluster of Thai restaurants near Bourse station. Avoid Phat Thai though if you don't want disruptions - as they let pan handlers and flower pushers enter and carry out their "work".

Arabic/Moroccan: Rather cheap, with a great variety of local dishes, especially with lamb; no fish or pork or beef.

Turkish: Rather cheap, with a great variety of local dishes, especially with chicken and lamb and also vegetarian dishes, dishes with fish are rare; no pork or beef.

Belgium offers a wide selection of other international restaurants.

general rules

As anywhere else in the world, avoid the tourist traps, where the touts are trying to get you in the restaurants. You will get average to bad quality food for average to high prices, and, at busy times, they will try to get rid of you as soon as possible to make space for the next customer. A good example of this is the famous "Rue des Bouchers/Beenhouwersstraat" in Brussels in this picture.

Belgium is a country that understands what eating is all about and can be a real gastronomic paradise. You can have a decent meal in about every tavern, from small snacks to a complete dinner. Just pop into one of those and enjoy it.

If you want to eat really well for not too much money, ask the local people or the hotel manager that is, supposing he does not have a brother restaurant-manager to give some advice for a good restaurant. Not a bad idea is to find a restaurant or tavern a little bit outside of the cities if advised by some locals they are usually not too expensive but deliver decent -> high quality food. And ordering the specialties during the season will be both beneficial for your wallet and the quality of the food.

Quality has its price: since the introduction of the euro, price for eating out in Belgium nearly doubled. Expensive food like lobster or turbot will always cost a lot of money at any restaurant. But you can also find some local and simple dishes, rather cheap and still very tasty such as sausages, potatoes and spinach. Normally a dinner 3 dishes will be around 30 - 50 Euro's depending your choices of food and restaurant. And for cheep, greasy food, just find a local 'frituur', it will be the best Belgian Fries you'll have had in ages

specialities

A number of dishes are considered distinctly Belgian specialities and should be on every visitor's agenda.

Mussels are a firm favorite and a side-dish of Moules et frites/Mosselen met friet Mussels with French fries. The traditional way is to cook them in a pot with white wine and/or onions and celery, then eat them up using only a mussel shell to scoop them out. The top season is September to April, and as with all other shellfish, do not eat the closed ones. Belgium's mussels always come from the nearby Netherlands. Imports from other countries are looked down on.

Balletjes/Boulettes are meatbalLs with fries. They will either be served with a tomato sauce or with the sauce from Liège, which is based on a local syrup. For this reason they will often be introduced as Boulets Liégeois.

Frikadellen met krieken are also meatballs, served with cherries in a sauce of cherryjuice. This is eaten with bread.

Stoemp is mashed potatoes and carrots with bacon and sausages. It is a typical meal from Brussels.

Stoofvlees is a traditional beef stew and is usually served with you have guessed it already fries.

Witloof met kaassaus/Chicons au gratin is a traditional gratin of chicory with ham and a cheesy bechamel sauce, usually served with mashed potatoes or croquettes.

Konijn met pruimen: rabbit cooked in beer and dried plums.

Despite the name, french fries frieten in Dutch, frites in French are proudly claimed as a Belgian invention. Whether or not this is true, they certainly have perfected it — although not everybody agrees with their choice of mayonnaise over ketchup as the preferred condiment ketchup is considered to be "for kids".

Every village has at least one frituur/friterie, an establishment selling cheap take-away fries, with a huge choice of sauces and fried meat to go with them. The traditional thing to try is friet met stoofvlees, but remember the mayonnaise on it .

Waffles wafels in Dutch, gaufres in French come in two types:

Gaufres de Bruxelles/Brusselse wafels : a light and airy variety.

a heavier variety with a gooey center known as Gaufres de Liège/Luikse wafels.

The latter are often eaten as a street/ take-away snack while shopping and therefore can be found at stands on the streets of the cities.

Last but not least, Belgian chocolate is famed around the world. Famous chocolatiers include Godiva, Leonidas, Guylian, Galler, Marcolini and Neuhaus, but the best stuff can be found at tiny boutiques, too small to build worldwide brands. In nearly all supermarkets, you can buy the brand Côte d'Or, generally considered the best 'everyday' chocolate for breakfast or break among Belgians.