11 Best Restaurants in Ghent and the Leie, Belgium

This now ubiquitous "fast food" meatball joint has found plenty of love across Belgium but it all started here in Ghent in 2012 with a simple pop-up. The idea is simple: pick from a choice of large meatballs (as well as a veggie option), served with either stoempe (Belgian-style mash and vegetables) or salad. Communal tables and bowls brimming with apples tick the right boxes, while the meatballs themselves have an array of fillings, from a mushroom and truffle to the classic liégeoise style. It just works!

This café-bar on the market square is popular among cyclists, as any glance at its walls—festooned in photos, jerseys, and memorabilia from the Tour of Flanders—will tell you. Owned by a former professional rider, Frederik Penne, it's a good spot to grab a coffee, a beer, or a few ideas for places to pedal in the area. 

Sometimes you're just in the mood for a solid bar-brasserie meal, and this well-loved spot on the corner of the Vlasmarkt is as good an option as any in the city. Inside, its publike interior has been decked out in hip but cozy sofas and long tables. To the rear sits a neat terrace that sometimes has music. The menu is replete with brasserie standards: steaks, pastas, ham and mustard, eel in green sauce. It's like a haven to all things comfortable.   

Perched over the road from the river, this waterfront café-restaurant is a popular brunch spot, dishing up warm soups, casseroles, and plenty of breakfast treats, from shakshouka to salmon brioche. Even its coffees are on the indulgent side: latte with honey and stroopwaffel, anyone? 

This health-conscious café majors in vegetarian and vegan treats, largely in the form of plate-sized salads, quiches, and soups. It's a charming location, having been sculpted out of an old ice-cream parlor; the Art Deco moldings lend it a distinguished air and there's a quiet courtyard at the rear. 

Here, you'll find the kind of food typical of a Flemish table, with plenty of steaks and classic stews accompanied by less local dishes, just in case, with an array of pastas. Staff are friendly and will happily translate the Dutch menu, but bring an appetite because portions are huge. It can get quite busy, though, especially at noon, since the restaurant's size makes it popular with tour groups.

This place is well hidden from the street, as you enter what is seemingly a mall. But that quickly gives way to a whimsical open-air terrace and a rather cozily lit bar-restaurant. The food decidedly leans towards Italian, though the menu is flecked with the odd Flemish specialty and heaving piles of mussels. A small but polished selection of local beers accompanies big portions and a good atmosphere. 

A beautiful old mansion house is the home of this charming organic bakery and café. Its courtyard terrace is a pleasant spot on a sunny day, though the menu is typically geared towards cold weather: think heavy pastas and Flemish staples alongside a few salads. Its stoempe (veggie mash) and sausage is hearty in all the right ways. 

Organic, plant-based vegan food and natural wines are the specialty of this canteen with the air of an apothecary. It couldn't be more on trend if it tried—and it has, hard! Blackboard menus spell out what lies inside the eight colorful Le Crueset pots that sit warming over (typically vegan chillies, coconut curries and the like), while a pick 'n' mix of accoutrements (grains, sauces, and raw veggies) let you create your own dish, or "prescription" as they like to say, continuing the whole botanical vibe. Even if the marketing spin is a little irksome, the wholesome, home-cooking-style food really hits the mark.

Whoever Grandma (Mémé) Gusta was, she didn't tolerate a 28-inch waist. Portions veer on the gigantic here, while the cooking is firmly traditional. That's no bad thing, and this cozy restaurant dishes up one of the finest versions of stoofvlees in Flanders: a huge metal serving bowl of flaking meat soaked in dark gravy and accompanied by bowls of salad, frites, dijonnaise, and a rough-cut apple sauce. It's an experience, though not cheap. All the Flemish classics are here, and bowls of tiny North Sea shrimp are even dished up to graze on while you wait, along with bread and lard. Grandma would be proud. 

The owners of this food-sharing joint on bustling Oudburg have managed to make its interior look like an enchanted forest—all green walls, fake branches, and pale-pink flowers lit with clever lighting. The theatrics don't end with the decor, either, as each dish on the four- or six-course tasting menu pit-stops in another culinary realm. From tacos to ceviche, to Spanish-style king prawns, each course barrels along with big flavors that don't always match up, but the quality is good and you can always go à la carte if you want to. But it's all about the experience at Ghent's most Instagrammable eatery.