Order The Purs vegetarian tasting menu, seven courses built around single seasonal vegetables.
Two Michelin stars in central Ghent: chef Michaël Vrijmoed pushes Belgian produce through fermentation and global technique, with a dedicated Purs vegetarian.
Order The five-course dinner menu, where the vegetable-led cooking is most focused.
One Michelin star in a loft-style bistro on Ham street: Olly Ceulenaere champions lesser-known Belgian vegetables and local produce at every turn.
Order The six-course menu on a Wednesday or Thursday, when the kitchen is at full concentration.
Inside the Pillows Grand Boutique Hotel Reylof on Hoogstraat, chef Paul de Groote runs a five or six-course tasting menu rooted in classical French technique.
Order Moules frites: the mussels arrive in a deep cast-iron pot and the frites alongside are fried to order.
Pakhuis fills a converted 19th-century warehouse behind a central alley. The cavernous glass-roofed interior keeps a menu of daily-fresh oysters, moules.
Order Seasonal small plates board: three or four dishes from the list, chosen to share, changes weekly.
Lokaal built its reputation on a menu that is 80 per cent vegetarian but never feels restricted. The daily changing board of seasonal Belgian small plates.
Order The seasonal set lunch, which delivers the kitchen's quality at its most accessible price.
Housed in a converted turbine hall at Nieuwewandeling, Volta serves confident Belgian brasserie cooking with an upmarket edge and a wine list that rewards.
Order Pork cheek stew: buttery and intense, with frites and salad included.
Memee Gusta runs a grandmother-recipe kitchen in a cosy vintage room near the castle. The signature pork cheek stew is cooked low and slow in a deep brown.
Order The fish main course, which shows the kitchen at its most focused and technically rigorous.
A French-influenced bistro in a handsome historic building near Sint-Jakobs church on Steendam, with confident cooking that plays classical French technique.
Order Meatball of the day on stoemp: whatever the chef has stuffed into the ball changes weekly.
Chef Wim Ballieu built a restaurant around the meatball, stuffing oversized balls with seasonal fillings and serving them on stoemp or a simple salad.
Order Gentse waterzooi: the chicken version, made to the family recipe with the creamiest stock in the city.
Du Progres has been run by three generations of the De Baets family and remains one of the most honest Belgian brasseries in the city. Waterzooi, stoverij.
Order All-you-can-eat spareribs with the house sauce: the price is fixed, the refills are real.
Amadeus is Ghent's most committed rib restaurant, piling all-you-can-eat spareribs onto wooden boards for tables that stretch across its belfry-square.
Order Soup of the day: always made from what the kitchen has just unpacked from the weekly farm delivery.
Karoot keeps a short seasonal menu of Belgian farm-to-table dishes in a low-key neighbourhood room. The lunch formula is a two-course set with soup and main.
Order Kaasplank (cheese board) with a local Belgian beer while your laundry runs.
Wasbar is a launderette and bar rolled into one: leave your washing in the machines and order beer, coffee or charcuterie at the bar while you wait.
