Situated in the heart of Europe, Brussels is a dynamic city to visit with an extraordinary selection of eating opportunities, numerous pubs, and bars, excellent music venues for all genres, but with jazz as the favorite. There are some good night clubs although the club scene is fairly new in the city.
1. Dine in great style
Fin de Siècle is one of the best restaurants in the city and it always has a tempting daily menu chalked up on the blackboard. The restaurant is furnished in wood with long trestle tables filled with diners. The main courses are all popular classics such as Carbondade du porc and portions are generous. Try and leave room for a dessert as the Tiramisu with speculoos (the Belgian cookie) is tremendous!
2. Or aim high or low
For one month each year, ‘Dinner in the sky’ is in Brussels. This is an open-air restaurant that is suspended by two cranes high above the main square, where a top gourmet chef creates a memorable meal whilst his guests enjoy the view of the city’s main landmarks.
If you enjoy diving, then why not scuba down to the underwater restaurant Nemo 33 – Pearl? Once inside you can peel off your wet suit and slip into something more glamorous whilst you enjoy lobster and Champagne at a depth of five meters!
3. And if you are good at counting
Délirium Café is much talked and written about because it has 3,000 commercially made beers in stock from more than 60 countries! It is situated in a three-floor building and gets busy with beer lovers from all over the world, but it is great fun! Délirium is brilliantly decorated inside with large wooden barrels for drinks, tables and plenty of scarlet-cushioned bar stools. There is the chance to swap beer stories with people from other countries and to sample some of the lesser-known regional brews too!
4. Enjoy live music at Café Merlo
With its long wooden bar inside and attractive terrace outside, this is a popular haunt with those who enjoy a good draught beer. It gets exceptionally busy on a Tuesday when there is good live music too.
5. And great jazz at L’Archiduc
This is a fun venue with lots of small individual booths that are perfect for groups of friends. This is the best spot to enjoy jazz and good for blues too. The music is good all week long and simply amazing at the weekend!
6. Explore Saint Catherine’s area
This lovely quarter is quite close to the city center and by day has a good selection of slightly offbeat shops for browsing and by night, good fish restaurants, bars and a great café on the lower level of the Hotel Café Pacific.
7. The Moeder Lambic bar
There are two of these excellent bars in the city – one in Place Fontainas and the other is in Rue de Savoie. Neither of the bars is touristy but they do serve really good beers – both Belgian and international labels. There’s great food to enjoy too including salads, open sandwiches, and quiches. If you are planning to spend the evening in either, the best news is that stay open until 03.00!
8. Enjoy the atmosphere in Café Belga
Everyone seems to know where Café Belga in Place Flagey is as it is popular with locals and expats! It is open serving tasty food all day through from breakfast. In the evening it is fun to go there for an aperitif before moving on for dinner or to simply stay there for the evening and enjoy a couple of drinks and the lively atmosphere.
9. Discover the best Belgian Frites
Place Flagey is a good place to find as it also has numerous stalls selling frites and if you haven’t tried a bag of Belgian chips, it is a ‘must-do’! The frites are fried twice which makes them crispy on the outside and soft in the center. There is a great range of accompanying sauces to try too and the perfect place to enjoy them is at the lakeside, just a short distance away.
10. Or dance the night away
Fuse is the place to be and is situated in an old cinema. It opened as a techno night club in 1994 and has never looked back! It is regarded as the top club and attracts the top DJs from London and Paris.
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