Where We Ate in Brussels: The Good, the Great & the Not-So-Great
Food is always a big part of our trips, and Brussels gave us plenty to work with. We tried everything from Belgian classics and fries to waffles, chocolate, beer, and a few places we found simply by waddling around the city. Some became highlights of the trip, while others we probably would not visit again. Wondering where to eat in Brussels? Here is where we ate in Brussels and what we actually thought.
What Food Is Brussels Known For
Brussels has a food scene that goes far beyond waffles, even though you will see them on almost every street. The city blends traditional Belgian comfort food with famous chocolate shops, historic beer cafés, and plenty of casual places to grab a quick bite while you explore. We tried a little bit of everything, and these are the dishes you will come across most often.
- Belgian fries are probably the city’s most famous street food. They are fried twice for a crispy outside and soft inside, then served in a paper cone with sauces ranging from classic mayonnaise to andalouse and samurai.
- Belgian waffles come in two main styles. Brussels waffles are light, rectangular, and usually topped with powdered sugar, fruit, or chocolate, while Liège waffles are denser, with caramelized sugar baked into the dough.
- Belgian chocolate is everywhere, from famous brands like Neuhaus, Godiva, and Leonidas to smaller artisan chocolatiers where you can watch them make chocolates.
- Belgian beer is a huge part of the local culture. From Trappist and abbey beers to lambics, fruit beers, and strong blondes, the selection can feel endless, even if you are not usually a beer drinker.
- Moules-frites, or mussels with fries, is one of the classic Belgian meals, especially when mussels are in season. They are usually served in a large pot with white wine, garlic, or cream.
- Carbonnade Flamande is a traditional Flemish beef stew slowly cooked in dark Belgian beer until the meat becomes tender. It is often served with fries or bread.
Other foods worth looking out for include shrimp or cheese croquettes, speculoos biscuits, stoemp (mashed potatoes mixed with vegetables), and cuberdons, cone-shaped Belgian sweets.
Eating Our Way Through Brussels: Every Stop We Tried
We didn’t come to Brussels with a list of restaurants to tick off. Some of our food stops were planned, while plenty happened simply because we were hungry, wanted a beer or spotted something that looked worth trying while waddling around the city. That meant our Brussels food experience ended up being a mix of proper sit-down meals, quick fries, waffles, pubs, beer tastings and casual stops along the way.
So, instead of focusing only on restaurants, we are including everywhere we actually ate or drank and thought was worth talking about. For each stop, we will share what we ordered, what we paid, what worked, what did not, and whether we would go back. Some were clear favorites, some were fine for a quick stop, and a few we would probably skip next time. Here is how we ate our way through Brussels.
Waffles at the Atomium
Our first proper food stop in Brussels came right after visiting the Atomium. Outside, we spotted a small mobile waffle stand and, of course, we could not start a trip to Brussels without trying a Belgian waffle. We kept it simple, and it turned out well. The waffle was crispy, freshly made, and reasonably priced, exactly what we wanted for a quick snack before continuing our day. Nothing fancy and not a place you need to seek out specifically, but as our first taste of Brussels, it was a pretty good start to our food adventure.
Beers at Delirium Village
📍 Location: Impasse de la Fidélité 4A, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
💶 Price: €€
🌐 Website: Delirium Village
Of course, after starting our Brussels adventure with a Belgian waffle, we wanted to try another Belgian classic pretty quickly: beer. And for our first proper Belgian beer stop, we headed straight to Delirium, which we think is one of the places to go if you want to experience Belgian beer in Brussels.
Delirium Village is famous for its huge beer selection. In 2004, it earned a Guinness World Record for offering 2,004 different beers, and today the café still advertises more than 2,000 beers from Belgium and around the world. You can find everything from Trappist and Belgian abbey beers to fruit beers and some much stranger options, including chocolate, banana, and coconut beer. With that much choice, deciding what to order is probably the hardest part.
Fritzguard: Belgian Fries with a Twist
📍 Location: Rue Jules Van Praet 7, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
💶 Price: €€
🌐 Website: Fritzguard
After starting our Brussels food adventure with dessert and a few Belgian beers, it was finally time for something a little more filling. We hadn’t researched Fritzguard before the trip and found it by chance while walking through the city. With its central location and a menu built around Belgian fries with different toppings, it seemed like an easy place to stop without committing to a full restaurant meal. We ordered loaded fries with bacon and cheese, along with two more Belgian beers. One of them was a cherry beer, a style we were quickly starting to develop a taste for during our time in Brussels.
The fries themselves were the kind of comfort food that works particularly well with a cold beer. They arrived hot, with a crisp exterior and soft potato inside; the bacon added a salty, slightly smoky bite, and the melted cheese made the whole portion richer. It was definitely heavier than a simple cone of Belgian fries, but that was also the point. The toppings turned them into more of a meal than a snack. Paired with the fruity sweetness and slight tartness of the cherry beer, it was a fun combination and a nice contrast between salty, rich, and sweet. Fritzguard was not one of our planned Brussels food stops, but that spontaneity was part of what we liked about it. Sometimes you do not need a reservation or a famous restaurant, just a portion of hot fries, a Belgian beer, and somewhere to sit before continuing your waddle through Brussels.
Belgian Frites – Papy
📍 Location: Rue de la Madeleine 1–3, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
💶 Price: €
🌐 Website: Belgian Frites – Papy
Although we had already eaten fries the day before, those were loaded with toppings, so we still felt like we hadn’t properly tried traditional Belgian fries yet. And we have to admit, fries are basically our kryptonite. If there is one food we could happily eat over and over again, it is fries. Brussels certainly doesn’t make resisting them easy, with friteries and takeaway windows scattered around the city. The next day, we decided to try a simple portion without all the extras and stopped at Belgian Frites – Papy, ordering straight from the takeaway window.
And once again, Belgian fries did not disappoint. They had exactly the texture we were hoping for: crisp and golden on the outside, with soft, fluffy potato inside. They were freshly fried, properly seasoned, and satisfying without needing a pile of toppings to make them interesting. Sometimes a simple portion of fries is the best way to judge them, and these easily passed the test. Our second Brussels fry experience was another success, and by then we were starting to understand why Belgium takes fries so seriously. For two people who already struggle to say no to fries, Brussels was becoming a slightly dangerous place to waddle around.
Belgian Beer with a View at The BeerLab Rooftop
📍 Location: Boulevard Anspach 80, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
💶 Price: €€
🌐 Website: The BeerLab Rooftop
When you are in Belgium, it feels like you jump from chocolate to waffles to beer to fries and then repeat the whole process, and that is pretty much what happened to us. After visiting Belgian Beer World Experience and learning more about Belgian beer and how it is made, we naturally ended up drinking some more of it. This time, we headed upstairs to The BeerLab Rooftop, which sits on top of the historic Brussels Stock Exchange building. The bar has around 150 Belgian beers to choose from, including dozens on tap, so there is plenty to explore even if you have already sampled a few Belgian beers elsewhere in the city.
We recommend this place even if you don’t visit Belgian Beer World itself. The BeerLab opens independently to the public so that you can come just for the rooftop bar. Grab a Belgian beer, find a spot outside, and enjoy the 360-degree views across Brussels while working your way through the selection. We loved having the rooftop as the final part of the museum experience, but it easily works as a destination on its own. Between the beer selection, relaxed setting, and views over the city, this is definitely one Brussels beer stop we would happily waddle back to.
WOLF Food Market: Our Favorite Food Stop in Brussels
📍 Location: Rue du Fossé aux Loups 48C, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
💶 Price: €€
🌐 Website: WOLF Food Market
After a few Belgian beers, hunger caught up with us again. We waddled around Brussels for a while before ending up at WOLF Food Market, and it became one of our favorite places to eat. WOLF is not a traditional restaurant but a large food market inside a former bank building, where you can sit in a shared space and choose food from different kitchens. The current line-up includes around 16 restaurants, covering everything from pizza, burgers, and homemade pasta to Vietnamese, Syrian, Asian, and Mexican-inspired food, plus a bar and an on-site microbrewery.
With so many options, it is a great place when you cannot agree on what to eat or want something more casual. We eventually went for Mexican food, choosing tortillas filled with minced meat and toppings. They were warm, packed with filling, and had that combination of seasoned meat, fresh toppings, and soft tortilla that makes this kind of food so satisfying. And because apparently our Brussels diet had become beer, food, beer, repeat, we added another couple of beers to the table. We do not remember exactly which WOLF vendor our Mexican food came from, so we will not pretend we do, but the market currently lists Socal Tacos among its restaurants.
What we liked most, though, was WOLF itself rather than one particular dish. You have lots of different cuisines under one roof, everyone can order something different, and you can grab a table and take your time. It works particularly well after a long day of sightseeing when you want good food without sitting through a more formal restaurant meal. For us, it was one of those places where the concept worked, and we would absolutely return on another trip to Brussels to try a few more kitchens.
Brussels Fries: Worth the Hype
Yes. We will say it: Belgian fries are worth the hype. Fries are already our kryptonite, so Brussels didn’t have a difficult audience to impress, but what surprised us most was the consistency. In many other cities, we feel like you need to research where to go if you want genuinely good fries. In Brussels, our experience was the opposite. Whether we ordered them loaded with bacon and cheese or kept things simple with a traditional portion from a takeaway window, they were good every single time.
What makes Belgian fries stand out is the texture. The traditional double-frying method creates that combination of a crisp, golden exterior and a soft, fluffy potato center. And that was exactly what we kept getting during our trip. They arrived hot, properly crisp and satisfying without needing much more than a little salt or sauce. We tried them in different places and forms, and we never really had a disappointing portion. So while everyone will have their favorite friterie and Brussels certainly has some famous ones, we would not stress too much about finding the one place that supposedly serves the best fries in the city. If you see a busy fry stand while waddling around Brussels, chances are you are going to get a pretty good portion. For us, Belgian fries absolutely lived up to their reputation, and yes, we would happily eat them all over again.
Waffles in Brussels
We only managed to have waffles once during this trip, from the little mobile stand outside the Atomium, but luckily our first Belgian waffle did not disappoint.
That does mean we cannot really declare our favorite waffle place in Brussels yet, and we also did not get to properly compare a Brussels waffle with the denser, caramelized Liège version. We did, however, have several places on our list that we would have loved to try and would keep in mind for a future visit. If you want to take your waffle tasting a little further than we did, these are some good places to look at:
- Maison Dandoy (Rue Charles Buls 14, 1000 Brussels) – one of the classic choices where you can try both Brussels and Liège waffles.
- Vitalgaufre (multiple locations in Brussels) – a good one to keep in mind specifically for a traditional Liège-style waffle.
- Gaufres & Waffles (Brussels) – an interesting option if you want to go beyond the classic sweet waffle, with both sweet and savory Brussels waffles on the menu.
- Waffle Factory (Rue du Lombard 30, 1000 Brussels) – a central and casual option if you want to grab a waffle while sightseeing.
So, our Brussels waffle research is definitely not finished. The Atomium waffle gave us a good start, but next time we would love to do a proper comparison between the two Belgian styles and, naturally, waddle our way through a few more waffle shops in the process.
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How Much Does Eating in Brussels Cost
Brussels is not the cheapest city for eating out, especially compared with what we are used to in Bratislava. Still, we didn’t find food prices unreasonable for a Western European capital. The good thing is that you do not need to sit down for a full restaurant meal every time you are hungry. Fries, waffles, food markets and casual takeaway spots make it quite easy to mix cheaper snacks with a proper lunch or dinner. Based on current Brussels prices, we would roughly budget:
- Coffee: around €3–€5
- Breakfast: around €10–€15 for a café breakfast
- Lunch: around €15–€25 per person
- Dinner: around €20–€35 per person for a casual meal, with more for a full sit-down dinner with drinks
- Beer: around €4–€7, although Belgian beers can cost more
- Waffle: around €3–€6 for a simple waffle, with toppings pushing the price higher
- Fries: around €4–€6 for a traditional portion, plus extra for sauces or toppings
- Dessert: around €4–€10 depending on whether you grab something simple or sit down in a café
For us, Brussels was the kind of city where it was easy to spend a little here and there without noticing. One waffle turns into a beer, fries follow the beer, and suddenly you are hungry enough to visit WOLF Food Market. If you are traveling on a budget, make lunch your main sit-down meal and use friteries, waffle stands, and food markets for the rest. If food and Belgian beer are part of your reason for visiting, budgeting around €50–€80 per person per day gives you more freedom to try things without worrying about every euro.
Tips for Eating Out in Brussels
Eating out in Brussels is generally pretty easy, but there are a few things worth knowing before you start working your way through waffles, fries and Belgian beer:
- Book popular restaurants. We would make a reservation if there is somewhere you really want to eat, particularly for dinner, weekends or a larger group. For casual places, friteries, food markets and pubs, you can usually be much more spontaneous.
- You don’t need to tip. Service is already included in restaurant bills in Brussels, so tipping isn’t mandatory. If the service was particularly good, you can round up or leave a small extra tip. A 5–10% tip is considered generous, not something you are expected to add automatically.
- Cards are widely accepted, but keep a little cash. We mostly found it easy to pay with cards in Brussels. Many restaurants and shops accept cards, although Visit Brussels still recommends checking before ordering because not every establishment does. Having a little cash is therefore useful, especially for smaller or more casual stops.
- Be careful around the most touristy streets. Being close to Grand-Place doesn’t automatically mean a restaurant is bad, but we wouldn’t choose the first place with a big tourist menu outside. Walk a few streets away, check the menu and reviews, or head somewhere you already have saved.
- Portions can be filling. Belgian food isn’t exactly shy when it comes to fries, sauces, meat, and beer. If you plan to snack your way around Brussels as we did, remember that a portion of loaded fries or a big cone of traditional fries can quickly become a meal in itself.
- Check opening hours before you go. Do not assume every restaurant serves food continuously throughout the day. Some restaurants have separate lunch and dinner services or close between them, so we always check the hours of a specific place before walking there.
- Do not underestimate Belgian beer. This is probably our biggest tip. Belgian beer can be much stronger than the lager you may normally order at home, and some popular Belgian styles easily reach 7–10% ABV or more. Check the alcohol percentage before ordering, especially when you are tasting several different beers. Those innocent-looking smaller glasses can catch up with you surprisingly quickly.
- English is generally not a problem. Brussels is an international city, and we found ordering in English straightforward. English menus are common in central and tourist areas, and restaurant staff will often speak English even when the main menu is in French or Dutch.
Our biggest tip, though, is not to plan every single thing you eat. We planned some of our Brussels food stops, but others happened because we spotted a fry window, fancied another Belgian beer, or got hungry while waddling around. Leave a little space in your itinerary, and probably in your stomach too.
Buy Us a Ko-fi
Brussels may not have completely won us over, but the food was definitely one of the strongest parts of our trip. We came expecting waffles, fries, chocolate and Belgian beer, and that is pretty much what our days turned into: eat something sweet, have a beer, find some fries, get hungry again and repeat. And we are not complaining. The Belgian fries absolutely lived up to the hype; we quickly developed a taste for cherry beer, and even our simple waffle from the stand outside the Atomium gave us a good start to the trip.
If we came back, we’d happily revisit a few places. WOLF Food Market is likely first on the list, as there’s much more we would like to try. We would also use a second trip to finally do a proper waffle comparison and try some of the places we missed this time. So while Brussels may not be a city we immediately fell in love with, we certainly had no problem eating our way through it. If we waddle back one day, the food will be a pretty good reason why.
Travel Bold. Eat Well. Waddle Wild.
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