The plates that define Brussels: what they are, and where to eat the canonical version.
The plates that define Brussels. what they are, where they came from, and where to eat the canonical version.
Mussels steamed open in the heavy black pot with white wine, shallot and parsley, served with a side of hand-cut frites. Belgium's national dish, with Brussels as its capital.
Where: Chez Leon, Aux Armes de Bruxelles, Volle Gas, Au Vieux Saint Martin
Price: €22 to €32
Flemish beef stew slow-cooked in dark Belgian beer with onions, mustard and a slice of bread. Sweet, malty, deeply savoury, served with mash, frites or buttered noodles.
Where: Brasserie Ploegmans, Chez Leon, Au Stekerlapatte, Les Brigittines
Price: €18 to €28
Brussels' rustic mashed potatoes blended with vegetables (carrots, kale, celery, leeks) and butter or cream. Served with sausage, bacon or roast meats; deeply seasonal.
Where: Brasserie Ploegmans, Au Stekerlapatte, Volle Gas, Au Vieux Saint Martin
Price: €14 to €22
Flemish cream-and-broth stew with chicken (or fish, the older version), root vegetables and an egg-yolk liaison. Light, comforting, served with bread to mop the bowl.
Where: Aux Armes de Bruxelles, Chez Leon, Brasserie Ploegmans, Volle Gas
Price: €22 to €30
Belgian-style steak tartare, the raw beef seasoned with mustard, capers, Worcestershire and a raw egg yolk, prepared at the table. Served with frites or buttered toast.
Where: Au Vieux Saint Martin, Restaurant Vincent, Volle Gas, Henri
Price: €22 to €32
The Brussels waffle: yeast-leavened, light and rectangular, with deep grids designed to hold whipped cream, strawberries or icing sugar. Eaten warm from the iron.
Where: Maison Dandoy, Maison Dandoy Rue au Beurre
Price: €4 to €9
Crisp Belgian brown-sugar biscuit spiced with cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg. Eaten with coffee, used as a spoon for ice cream, ground into the city's signature spread.
Where: Maison Dandoy, Maison Dandoy Rue au Beurre, Wittamer
Price: €4 to €12 per package
A half-baguette stuffed with frites, a piece of fried meat (sausage, chicken or steak) and a sauce of your choice. The Brussels late-night student classic.
Where: Fritland, Maison Antoine
Price: €7 to €12
Belgian shrimp croquettes: a thick bechamel set with North Sea grey shrimps, breaded and fried golden, served with deep-fried parsley and a wedge of lemon.
Where: Noordzee Mer du Nord, Aux Armes de Bruxelles, Brasserie Ploegmans, Au Stekerlapatte
Price: €14 to €20
Belgian-style chicken or veal pie in a puff-pastry shell: a creamy sauce with mushrooms, chicken meatballs and herbs, served with frites.
Where: Brasserie Ploegmans, Au Vieux Saint Martin, Aux Armes de Bruxelles
Price: €18 to €26
Mussels steamed open in the heavy black pot with white wine, shallot and parsley, served with a side of hand-cut frites. Belgium's national dish, with Brussels as its capital.
History: Moules-frites began as a Flemish fishermen's meal, with mussels from the North Sea coast cheap and abundant. By the 1890s Brussels brasseries were running them as a winter house dish; Leon Vanlancker opened on Rue des Bouchers in 1893 with mussels-and-fries already the through-line. The black-pot service became the standard across Belgian and northern French brasseries through the 20th century, and remains the canonical Brussels order.
Where to try it: Chez Leon, Aux Armes de Bruxelles, Volle Gas, Au Vieux Saint Martin
Watch out for: Shellfish
Flemish beef stew slow-cooked in dark Belgian beer with onions, mustard and a slice of bread. Sweet, malty, deeply savoury, served with mash, frites or buttered noodles.
History: Carbonnade flamande traces to medieval Flanders, when farmhouse cooks stewed tough beef cuts in the local dark abbey beers. By the 19th century it had become a brasserie staple across Brussels and the Walloon north. The technique relies on a slice of bread covered in mustard pressed into the stew to thicken the sauce and balance the beer's malt sweetness; the dish keeps and reheats better the next day.
Where to try it: Brasserie Ploegmans, Chez Leon, Au Stekerlapatte, Les Brigittines
Watch out for: Gluten, Mustard
Brussels' rustic mashed potatoes blended with vegetables (carrots, kale, celery, leeks) and butter or cream. Served with sausage, bacon or roast meats; deeply seasonal.
History: Stoemp emerged in 19th-century Brussels as a working-class kitchen-economy dish, mashing whatever vegetables were cheap and to hand into potatoes. The word is Brusseleir slang for 'mash'. The Marolles and Anderlecht canteens preserved the tradition through the post-war decades, and stoemp remains a cold-weather brasserie staple paired with sausage or roast pork.
Where to try it: Brasserie Ploegmans, Au Stekerlapatte, Volle Gas, Au Vieux Saint Martin
Watch out for: Dairy
Flemish cream-and-broth stew with chicken (or fish, the older version), root vegetables and an egg-yolk liaison. Light, comforting, served with bread to mop the bowl.
History: Waterzooi originated in Flanders in the 18th century as a fish stew, with the name 'zooien' meaning to simmer. As fish became scarce in the inland rivers, the dish evolved through the 16th and 17th centuries into the chicken-based version that became the standard. The Brussels brasseries serve it as waterzooi de poulet, with the chicken poached then bound into an egg-yolk cream broth with leeks and carrots.
Where to try it: Aux Armes de Bruxelles, Chez Leon, Brasserie Ploegmans, Volle Gas
Watch out for: Eggs, Dairy
Belgian-style steak tartare, the raw beef seasoned with mustard, capers, Worcestershire and a raw egg yolk, prepared at the table. Served with frites or buttered toast.
History: The Niels family invented Belgian filet americain in 1968 when Albert Niels took over the Cafe de la Justice on Place du Grand Sablon and renamed it Au Vieux Saint Martin. The technique adapts the French steak tartare with Belgian flavour notes (Dijon mustard, sharper vinegar, a heavier hand with capers), prepared tableside in front of guests. It spread rapidly across Brussels brasseries through the 1970s and remains the canonical lunch order at the Sablon room.
Where to try it: Au Vieux Saint Martin, Restaurant Vincent, Volle Gas, Henri
Watch out for: Eggs, Mustard
The Brussels waffle: yeast-leavened, light and rectangular, with deep grids designed to hold whipped cream, strawberries or icing sugar. Eaten warm from the iron.
History: The Brussels waffle is the city's contribution to the global waffle family, distinct from the denser Liege waffle. Maison Dandoy has been pressing both since 1829 in their Rue Charles Buls tea room; the gaufre de Bruxelles uses a yeast-leavened batter, baked in deep-gridded irons for a crisp shell and a soft interior. Eaten warm with whipped cream and strawberries in summer, dusted with icing sugar through the rest of the year.
Where to try it: Maison Dandoy, Maison Dandoy Rue au Beurre
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Eggs
Crisp Belgian brown-sugar biscuit spiced with cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg. Eaten with coffee, used as a spoon for ice cream, ground into the city's signature spread.
History: Jean-Baptiste Dandoy opened a small biscuit shop on Rue du Marche aux Herbes in Brussels in 1829, baking speculoos from a recipe of brown sugar, butter and warming spice. The family business moved to Rue au Beurre in 1858, where it remains today. Speculoos became the canonical Belgian biscuit through the 19th century, spreading across Flemish and Walloon households and eventually inspiring the global biscoff spread in the 1980s.
Where to try it: Maison Dandoy, Maison Dandoy Rue au Beurre, Wittamer
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy
A half-baguette stuffed with frites, a piece of fried meat (sausage, chicken or steak) and a sauce of your choice. The Brussels late-night student classic.
History: The mitraillette ('submachine gun' in French) emerged from Brussels' frituur counters in the late 20th century as a one-handed student meal: half a baguette split open, packed with hot frites and a slab of fried meat, drowned in andalouse or samurai sauce. Fritland on Rue Henri Maus is its canonical home, with the queue spilling onto the pavement after midnight on weekends. The dish has spread to Liege and Charleroi but Brussels owns the original.
Where to try it: Fritland, Maison Antoine
Watch out for: Gluten
Belgian shrimp croquettes: a thick bechamel set with North Sea grey shrimps, breaded and fried golden, served with deep-fried parsley and a wedge of lemon.
History: Crevettes grises, the small North Sea brown shrimp, have been a Belgian and Dutch coastal staple for centuries, peeled by hand by Ostend and Zeebrugge fishing families. The croquette format emerged in 19th-century Belgian brasseries as a way to extend a small catch of shrimp into a substantial first course. Noordzee on Rue Sainte-Catherine standardised the Brussels version: standing-only counter, two-croquette portion, deep-fried parsley garnish.
Where to try it: Noordzee Mer du Nord, Aux Armes de Bruxelles, Brasserie Ploegmans, Au Stekerlapatte
Watch out for: Shellfish, Gluten, Dairy, Eggs
Belgian-style chicken or veal pie in a puff-pastry shell: a creamy sauce with mushrooms, chicken meatballs and herbs, served with frites.
History: Vol-au-vent translates as 'flying with the wind' for the lightness of its puff-pastry shell, an Antonin Careme invention from early 19th-century Paris. The Belgian adaptation filled the shell with a thick cream sauce of chicken or veal and mushrooms, with small meatballs alongside. The dish became a Sunday-lunch brasserie staple across Brussels and Flanders, served with a bowl of frites to soak up the sauce.
Where to try it: Brasserie Ploegmans, Au Vieux Saint Martin, Aux Armes de Bruxelles
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Eggs
Brussels's signature dishes include Moules-frites, Carbonnade flamande, Stoemp, Waterzooi, Filet americain. See our signature dishes chapter for where to eat each.