Eating in Bruges
Belgium is where France meets the North, and you'll find a good mix of both Flemish and French influences in Bruges and Brussels.
Belgian Specialties
These are popular throughout Belgium.
Moules: Mussels are served everywhere, either cooked plain (nature), with white wine (vin blanc), with shallots or onions (marinière), or in a tomato sauce (provençale). You get a big-enough-for-two bucket and a pile of fries. Go local by using one empty shell to tweeze out the rest of the moules. When the mollusks are in season, from about mid-July through April, you'll get the big Dutch mussels. Locals take a break in May and June, when only the puny Danish kind is available.
Frites: Belgian fries (Vlaamse frites, or Flemish fries) taste so good because they're deep-fried twice — once to cook, and once to brown. The natives eat them with mayonnaise, not ketchup.
Flemish Specialties
These specialties are traditional to Bruges, but available in Brussels.
Carbonnade: Rich beef stew flavored with onions and beer.
Chou rouge à la flamande: Red cabbage with onions and prunes.
Flamiche: Cheese pie with onions.
Flemish asparagus: White asparagus (fresh in springtime) in cream sauce.
Lapin à la flamande: Marinated rabbit braised in onions and prunes.
Soupe à la bière: Beer soup.
Stoemp: Mashed potatoes and vegetables.
Waterzooi: Creamy meat stew (chicken, eel, or fish).
...à la flamande: Anything cooked in the local Flemish style.
Brussels Specialties
These specialties are "native" to Brussels (which tends toward French cuisine), but you'll find them in Bruges, too.
Anguilles au vert: Eel in green herb sauce.
Caricoles: Sea snails. Very local and seasonal and hard to find, these
usually are sold hot by street vendors.
Cheeses: Remoudou and Djotte de Nivelles are made locally.
Choux de Bruxelles: Brussels sprouts (in cream sauce).
Crevettes: Shrimp, often served as croquettes (minced and stuffed in
breaded, deep-fried rolls).
Croque Monsieur: Grilled ham and cheese sandwich.
Endive: Typical Belgian vegetable (also called chicoree or chicon) served
as a side dish.
Filet Américain: Beware, for some reason steak tartare (raw) is
called American.
Tartine de fromage blanc: Open-face cream-cheese sandwich, often enjoyed
with a cherry Kriek beer.
...à la brabançonne: Anything cooked in the local Brabant
(Brussels) style, such as faisant (pheasant) à la brabançonne.
Desserts and Snacks
Gaufres: Waffles, sold hot in small shops.
Dame blanche: Hot fudge sundae.
Spekuloos: Spicy gingerbread biscuits, served with coffee.
Pralines: Belgian filled chocolates.
Pistolets: Round croissants.
Cramique: Currant roll.
Craquelin: Currant roll with sugar sprinkles.
Belgian Beers
Belgium has about 120 different varieties of beer and 580 different brands, more than any other country, and the locals take their beers as seriously as the French regard their wines. Even small café menus include six to eight varieties. Connoisseurs can be confused by the many choices, and casual drinkers probably won't like every kind offered, since some varieties don't even taste like beer. Belgian beer is generally yeastier and higher in alcohol than beers in other countries.
In Belgium, certain beers are paired with certain dishes. To bring out their flavor, different beers are served at cold, cool, or room temperature, and each has its own distinctive glass. Whether wide-mouthed, tall, and fluted, or with or without a stem, the glass is meant to highlight the beer's qualities. One of my favorite Belgian beer experiences is drinking a Kwak beer in its traditional tall glass. The glass, which widens at the base, stands in a wooden holder, and you pick the whole apparatus up — frame and glass — and drink. As you near the end, the beer in the wide bottom comes out at you quickly, with a "Kwak! Kwak! Kwak!"
To get a draft beer in Bruges, where Flemish is the dominant language, ask for een pintje (a pint, pronounced ayn pinch-ya), and in Brussels, where French prevails, request une bière (oon bee-yair). Cheers is proost or gezondheid in Flemish and santé (sahn-tay) in French. The colorful cardboard coasters make nice, free souvenirs.
Here's a breakdown of types of beer, with some common brand names you'll find either on tap or in bottles. (Some beers require a second fermentation in the bottle, so they're only available in bottles.) This list is just a start, and you'll find many beers that don't fall into these neat categories. For encyclopedic information on Belgian beers, visit www.belgianstyle.com or www.beerhunter.com.
Ales (Blonde/Red/Amber/Brown): Ales are easily recognized by their color. Try a blonde or golden ale (Leffe Blonde, Duvel, Straffe Hendrik, Kwak), a rare and bitter sour red (Rodenbach), an amber (Palm, De Koninck), or a brown (Leffe Bruin).
Lagers: These are the light, sparkling, Budweiser-type beers. Popular brands include Jupiler, Stella-Artois, and Maes.
Lambics: Perhaps the most unusual and least beer-like, lambics are stored for years in wooden casks, fermenting from wild yeasts that occur naturally in the air. Tasting more like a dry and bitter cider or champagne, pure lambic is often blended with fruits or herbs to improve the taste. Homebrewed lambics — such as gueuze, faro, lambic doux, and lambic blanche — are on tap in old cafés. Only gueuze, a blend of aged and young ale, is sold commercially in bottles. Some brand names include Cantillon, Lindemans, and Mort-Subite ("sudden death"). Fruit lambics include those made with cherries (kriek), raspberries (frambozen), peaches (peche), or black currants (casis). The result for each is a tart beer, similar to a dry pink champagne.
White (witte): Based on wheat instead of hops, these milky-yellow summertime beers are often served with a lemon slice. White beer, similar to a Hefeweizen in the United States, is often flavored with spices like orange peel or coriander. Hoegaarden is the name to look for.
Trappist beers: For centuries, between their vespers and matins, Trappist monks have been brewing heavily fermented beers. Three typical Trappist beers (from the Westmalle monastery) are Trippel, with a blonde color, served cold with a frothy head; Dubbel, which is dark, sweet and served cool; and Single, made especially by the monks for the monks, and considered a fair trade for a life of celibacy. Other Trappist monasteries include Rochefort, Chimay, Westvleteren and Orval.
Strong beers: The potent brands include Duvel (meaning "devil" because of its high octane, camouflaged by a pale color), Verboten Vrucht (literally "forbidden fruit," with Adam and Eve on the label), and the not-for-the-fainthearted brands of Judas, Satan, and Lucifer. Gouden Carolus is considered the strongest beer in Belgium, and Delerium Tremens speaks for itself.
Restaurants in Bruges
Bruges' specialties include mussels cooked a variety of ways (one order can feed two), fish dishes, grilled meats, and french fries. Don't eat before 19:30 unless you like eating alone. Tax and service are always included.
You'll find plenty of affordable, touristy restaurants on flood-lit squares and along dreamy canals. Bruges feeds 3.5 million tourists a year, and most are seduced by a high-profile location. These can be fine experiences for the magical setting and views, but the quality of food and service is low. I wouldn't blame you for eating at one of these places, but I won't recommend any. I prefer the candle-cool bistros that flicker on back streets.
Rock Fort is a chic eight-table place with a modern, fresh coziness and a high-powered respect for good food. Two young chefs (Peter and Hermes) give their French cuisine a creative twist, and after just a few months in business became the talk of the town (€10 Mon–Fri lunch special with coffee, €15–20 beautifully presented dinner plates, Thu–Tue 12:00–14:30 & 18:00–23:00, closed Wed and at lunch on Sun, great pastas and salads, reservations smart for dinner, Langestraat 15, tel. 050-334-113).They plan to open a tapas place/restaurant next door.
Restaurant Chez Olivier — a classy, white-tablecloth, 10-table place — is considered the best fancy French cuisine splurge in town. While delicate Anne serves, her French husband, Olivier, is busy cooking up whatever he found freshest that day. While you can order à la carte, it's wise to go with the recommended daily menu (3-course lunch €34, 3-course dinner € 45, 4-course dinner-€55, wine adds €15-20, 12:00–13:30 & 19:00–21:30, closed Sun and Thu, reserve for dinner, Meestraat 9, tel. 050-333-659).
Restaurant Tea- Room De Torre has a fresh interior and a canal side terrace, good for € 6-12 lunches and €20-33.50 menu dinners. ( Thu-Mon 10:00-22:00, Langestraat 8, tel 050-342-946)
Pili Pili is a newly opened Pasta Haus where Reinout and Tom prepare and serve pasta dishes for a very reasonable price.(€8.50 lunch plate with drink, dinner menu € 12.50, daily 12:00-14:30 and 18:00-22:30, closed Sun afternoon and Wed. Hoogstraat 17, tel 050-491-149)
Restaurant de Koetse is a good bet for central, affordable, quality local-style food. The ambience is traditional, yet fun and kid-friendly. The cuisine is Belgian and French with a stress on grilled meat, seafood, and mussels (3-course meals for €27, €20 plates include vegetables and a salad, Fri–Wed 12:00–15:00 & 18:00–22:00, closed Thu, smoke-free section, wheelchair accessible, Oude Burg 31, tel. 050-337-680).
Bistro de Eetkamer (the Living Room) is an intimate eight-table place offering stay-awhile elegance, uppity service, and fine French/Italian cuisine — but only to those with a reservation (fine 4-course €42 menu, Thu–Mon 12:00–14:00 & 18:30–22:00, closed Tue–Wed, just south of Market Square, Eekhout 6, tel. 050-337-886).
Bistro de Bekoring — a cute, candlelit Gothic place — is tucked within two almshouses that were joined together. Rotund and friendly Chef Roland and his wife Gerda love serving traditional Flemish food from a small menu (€12 weekdays lunch, €32 dinners, Wed–Sat open from 12:00 and from 18:30, closed Sun for dinner–Tue, out past Begijnhof at Arsenaalstraat 53, tel. 050-344-157).
Brasserie-Restaurant Cafedraal is boisterous and fun-loving, serving a local crowd good-quality modern European cuisine with the accent on French and fish. The high-ceilinged room is rustic but elegantly candlelit and the back bar sparkles in a brown way (€12 2-course lunches, €24 dinner plates, outdoor seating, Mon–Sat 12:00–15:00 & 18:00–23:00, closed Sun, Zilverstraat 38, tel. 050-340-845).
Bistro in den Wittenkop, very Flemish, is a cluttered, laid-back, old-time place specializing in the beer-soaked equivalent of beef Bourguignon (€16–20 main courses, Tue–Sat 12:00–14:00 & 18:00–24:00, closed Sun–Mon, terrace in back, Sint Jakobsstraat 14, tel. 050-332-059).
The Flemish Pot (a.k.a. The Little Pancake House) is a cute restaurant serving delicious, inexpensive pancake meals (savory and sweet) and homemade wafels for lunch. Then at 18:00, enthusiastic chefs Mario and Rik stow their waffle irons and pull out a traditional menu of vintage Flemish plates ( €9-16.50 dinner menu, daily 10:00–22:00, just off Geldmuntstraat at Helmstraat 3, tel. 050-340-086).
Lotus Vegetarisch Restaurant serves good vegetarian lunch plates (€9 plat du jour offered daily), salads, and homemade chocolate cake in a smoke-free, pastel-elegant setting without a trace of tie-dye (Mon–Sat 11:45–14:00, closed Sun, just off Burg at Wapenmakersstraat 5, tel. 050-331-078).
Restaurant 't Gulden Vlies — romantic and candlelit, quiet and less "ye olde" than the other places — serves when the others are closed. The menu is Belgian and French with a creative twist (€14-18.50, €16 3-course menu, €25 monthly menu, Wed–Sun 19:00–03:00, closed Mon–Tue, July only open Fri-Sun, Mallebergplaats 17, tel. 050-334-709).
The Hobbit is a popular grill house across the street from the recommended bar 't Brugs Beertje (listed below). It features an entertaining menu, including all-you-can-eat spareribs with salad for €13 — nothing fancy, just good basic food in a fun traditional setting (daily 18:00–24:00, Kemelstraat 8–10, tel. 050-335-520).
Bars Offering Light Meals, Beer, and Ambience
Stop into one of the city's atmospheric bars for a light meal or a drink with great Bruges ambience. Straffe Hendrik (Strong Henry), a potent and refreshing local brew, is — even to a Bud Lite kind of guy — obviously great beer. Among the more unusual to try: Dentergems (with coriander and orange peel) and Trappist (a malty, usually dark, monk-made beer). Non–beer drinkers enjoy Kriek (a cherry-flavored beer) and Frambozen Bier (raspberry-flavored beer). For more on beer, see page 260.
Any pub or restaurant carries the basic beers, but for a selection of more than 300 types, including brews to suit any season, drink at 't Brugs Beertje. For a light meal, consider their traditional cheese plate (Thu–Tue 16:00–24:00, closed Wed, Kemelstraat 5, tel. 050-339-616).
Another good place to gain an appreciation of the Belgian beer culture is de Garre. Rather than a noisy pub scene, it has a more dressy sit-down-and-focus-on-your-friend-and-the-fine-beer ambience (huge selection, off Breidelstraat, between Burg and Markt, on tiny Garre alley, daily 12:00–24:00, tel. 050-341-029).
Cafe-Brasserie Craenenburg is one of the very few decent places on Markt Square, good for a coffee or beer in a historic setting (daily 8:00–23:00, Markt 16, tel. 050-333-402).
L'Estaminet is a youthful, brown café feeling, jazz-filled eatery. Away from the tourists, it's popular with local students who come for hearty €7 spaghetti (11:30–24:00, closed Mon , facing peaceful Astrid Park at Park 5, tel. 050-330-916).
De Versteende Nacht Jazzcafe is another popular young hangout serving tapas and cocktails on Langestraat 11 (€6-11 meals, daily 19:00- 24:00, closed Sun, live jazz on Wed from 21:00, tel. 050-343-293).
Herberge Vlissinghe, the oldest pub in town (1515), serves hot snacks in a great atmosphere (Wed–Sun open from 11:00 on, closed Mon–Tue, Blekersstraat 2, tel. 050-343-737).
Fries, Fast Food, and Picnics
Local french fries (frites) are a treat. Proud and traditional frituurs serve tubs of fries and various local-style shish kebabs. Belgians dip their frites in mayonnaise, but ketchup is there for the Yankees (along with spicier sauces). For a quick, cheap, and scenic meal, hit a frituur and sit on the steps or benches overlooking Market Square, about 50 meters past the post office. The best fries in town are from Frituur Peter — twin take-away carts on the Market Square at the base of the bell tower (daily 10:00–24:00).
Pickles Frituur, a block off Market Square, is handy for sit-down fries. Its forte is greasy, fast, deep-fried Flemish corn dogs. The "menu 2" comes with three traditional gut bombs (Mon–Sat 11:30–24:00, at the corner of Geldmuntstraat and Sint Jakobstraat, tel. 050-337-957).
Delhaize-Proxy Supermarket is great for picnics (push-button produce pricer lets you buy as little as one mushroom, Mon–Sat 9:00–19:00, closed Sun, 3 blocks off the Market Square on Geldmuntstraat). For midnight munchies, you'll find Indian-run corner grocery stores.
Belgian Waffles
While Americans think of "Belgian" waffles for breakfast, the Belgians (who don't eat waffles or pancakes for breakfast) think of wafels as Liège-style (dense, sweet, eaten plain, and heated up) and Brussels-style (lighter, often with powdered sugar or whipped cream and fruit, served in teahouses only in the afternoons from 14:00–18:00). You'll see waffles sold at restaurants and take-away stands.
For the best €1.50 Liège-style wafels, stop by Restaurant Hennon, their waffles and other dishes are made with fresh ingredients(€ 2.50-6, daily, closed on Mon, between Market Square and Burg at Breidelstraat 16). You can also try Tea-Room Laurent for waffles and pancakes(€ 4-8, Steenstraat 79)