Brussels for foodies

Best restaurants

Brussels eats the way it talks: in two languages, from a dozen countries, and rarely with the pomp its EU-capital reputation suggests. The good tables are not in the tourist arcades off the Grand-Place; they are on the streets that ring it, on Kiekenmarkt and Place Sainte-Catherine and the alleys around the Fourche, where a fish counter, a sushi bar, a rodizio grill and an Ethiopian dining room sit within a five-minute walk of each other. This list is twelve restaurants inside that walking radius, chosen because each one does one cuisine seriously and prices it for people who live here. Some are quick lunches, some are two-service dinner rooms with a Monday off; a few keep going past midnight on the weekend. None of them are here for the branding. Read the hours before you go: this is a city where a kitchen will close between services and mean it, and where a Sunday lunch can be the best meal of your week if you know which door to open.