Antwerp · Where to eat

Creative Belgian seafood
Viki Geunes cooks on the ninth floor of the MAS museum, a glass room with the docks on one side and the old city on the other. Closed Saturday and Sunday, which catches out weekend visitors; the eight-course Iodine menu runs €340 and the five-course lunch €210.
Order: North Sea crab; gambero rosso with Imperial Heritage caviar; the Fontainebleau to finish
Why go: Belgium has two three-star restaurants and this is the one you can walk to from a city centre.
Locals order: Take the lunch: the same kitchen, five courses instead of eight, and daylight over the Scheldt that the dinner sitting never gets.
book online or by phone, weeks ahead

Creative tasting menu
Nick Bril cooks where the altar stood, in the chapel of a former military hospital in the Groen Kwartier, under an 800kg chandelier and stained glass by Studio Job. Open Wednesday evening to Saturday only, and the online release goes quickly.
Order: Tasting menu only, running past four hours; oysters with plankton, peach and cucumber; duroc pork with langoustine and gooseberry
Why go: The most photographed dining room in Belgium, and the cooking is still the reason to sit in it.
Locals order: Wednesday is the first of only four services a week and the quietest; the room reads better when it is not full.
online booking, released in batches

Creative Asian-influenced
Gert De Mangeleer and Joachim Boudens cook in concrete and grey inside the Botanic Sanctuary hotel on Leopoldstraat, and ask guests not to post photographs. Two days a week only, Tuesday and Wednesday, lunch and dinner.
Order: Anjou pigeon cooked over hay and finished on binchotan at the table; melted foie gras with beetroot and wild strawberry; a course served only at the chef's table
Why go: A three-star kitchen from Bruges rebuilt as a two-star chamber piece, with a no-photographs rule that changes how the room behaves.
Locals order: Book the chef's table rather than the dining room; it is the version of the meal the kitchen is actually designed around.
book far ahead; open Tuesday and Wednesday only

Classic Belgian cooking
A seventeenth-century town house on Reyndersstraat where dishes still arrive under a cloche and Johan Segers comes over to talk you through the suggestions rather than hand you a card. Lunch and dinner Monday to Friday, closed at weekends, and it shuts for a stretch in high summer.
Order: White pudding with langoustines and beurre blanc; Bresse chicken with a morel cream; whatever the chef recites at your table
Why go: Segers has held the star since 1986, and this is the last Antwerp room doing trotters and cloches without irony.
Locals order: Let him talk you out of your first choice; the offal and the meat-and-fish pairings are what he wants to cook.
reserve by phone; closed Saturday and Sunday

Modern French
Nathan Van Echelpoel cooks and Eva Van de Peer runs a spare, Scandinavian-feeling room in marble and dark wood on Lange Koepoortstraat. Closed Sunday, Monday and Tuesday; Wednesday and Saturday are dinner only.
Order: Sardine served as raw fillet and tartare with a plankton emulsion; raw kohlrabi with a Greek-yoghurt vinaigrette; a chermoula-mayonnaise crisp alongside
Why go: The most precisely plated food in the city, from a kitchen using Asian acidity to keep classical technique from turning heavy.
Locals order: Lunch runs Thursday to Saturday only and is the cheaper way in; the same plating, half the commitment.
book ahead; open Wednesday to Saturday

Belgian meat cookery
An industrial loft inside the De Koninck city brewery on Boomgaardstraat, sharing a roof with the butcher who supplies it, plus a baker and a chocolatier. Lunch and dinner Monday to Friday, closed at weekends, which is unusual here and worth planning around.
Order: Ballotine of pig's trotter with smoked eel on toast; Simmental fillet with foie gras, madeira jus and morels; the fish dishes most people skip
Why go: A starred restaurant inside a working brewery complex, thirty metres from the butcher's counter that feeds it.
Locals order: Come at lunch and stay for the rest of the site afterwards; the bakery and chocolatier under the same roof are open to anyone.
book ahead; closed Saturday and Sunday

Traditional French bistro
Coloured tiles, wall mirrors and wood panelling on Lange Dijkstraat in the Seefhoek, north of the centre, with Michaël Rewers cooking old recipes to order. Closed Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, and it fills, so book.
Order: Ox tongue confited in its jus with a sweet-sharp madeira sauce; fried calf's brains; a heavily seasoned potato purée alongside
Why go: Offal handled at a standard almost nobody attempts any more, in a bistro that looks untouched.
Locals order: Order off the carte rather than the set menu; the menu is the gentler option and the organs live on the carte.
reservations essential; open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday

Modern seasonal tasting
An anonymous terraced house in Borgerhout opened up as a living-room restaurant with a counter and one table, twelve to fourteen covers in all. New to the star list in 2026; with that few seats, book long before you travel.
Order: King oyster mushroom rolled in a chicken panade and fried, with green-herb sabayon; a run of about fifteen small courses; pairings, alcoholic or not, poured by the host
Why go: Antwerp's newest star, in a house you would walk straight past, seating fewer people than most restaurants seat at one table.
Locals order: The non-alcoholic pairing is not the consolation option here; it is built with the same attention as the wine.
12 to 14 seats; book weeks ahead

Belgian steakhouse brasserie
Opened in 1962 by a former Belgian international footballer and barely redecorated since, a long room on Amerikalei south of the centre. Closed Monday and Tuesday, and Saturday is dinner only.
Order: Steak Ciro's; house-made grey shrimp croquettes; stoofvlees
Why go: The steak people mean when they say a steak in Antwerp, at €29.75 rather than brasserie-boom money.
Locals order: Start with the lamb's tongues in brain sauce or the calf's brains with capers, then take the Steak Ciro's rather than one of the dearer Holstein cuts.
phone or email; closed Monday and Tuesday

Sichuan Chinese
A plain, loud room on Breydelstraat near the diamond quarter, with a menu that runs on for pages. Closed Thursday; every other day it does both lunch and dinner, which is rarer in Antwerp than it sounds.
Order: Fish soup with pickled Chinese cabbage in a rich broth; pork belly braised then fried with chilli and fermented black beans; pork neck given the same treatment
Why go: Sichuan cooking with real wok hei in a city whose Chinese restaurants are otherwise mostly Cantonese.
Locals order: Skip the first pages of the menu. The braised and fermented-bean dishes further in are what the Chinese tables are eating.
walk-in or phone; closed Thursday

Japanese sushi
A design-led corner site on Leopoldplaats where Junko Kawada serves sushi at Japanese room temperature rather than fridge-cold. Open Tuesday to Friday, 11:00 to 18:30 only, so this is a lunch and early-evening address and never a dinner one.
Order: Salmon maki rolled in a soy crêpe; sushi of torched red mullet with finely cut confit lime; sashimi and salads alongside
Why go: Sushi served at the temperature it is meant to be eaten, from a counter that also sells tea and teaches classes.
Locals order: Takeaway is a proper part of the business rather than an afterthought; locals collect a box and buy tea at the same counter.
no dinner service; closed Saturday, Sunday, Monday

Natural wine tapas
A small, warm room on Moorkensplein in Borgerhout built around natural wine, with contemporary tapas drawing on French, Italian and Asian cooking. Closed Monday and Saturday, lunch only on Thursday and Friday, and booking is expected.
Order: Aubergine rounded out with soy; onglet with sharp kimchi; pain perdu to finish
Why go: The wine list is the menu here, and the sommelier will take you further than you meant to go.
Locals order: Drink by the glass rather than committing to a bottle; the newest arrivals are why the room is full.
book ahead; closed Monday and Saturday

Vegan market cooking
Karen Shu's room on Haantjeslei has a New York feel and a run of counter seats facing the kitchen that are the better place to sit. Plant-based throughout and largely vegan, but built on spice and umami rather than substitution.
Order: Feta toast, with vegan feta and a pepper-and-tomato salsa on toasted pain de mie; sharing plates off a short carte; whatever the market gave them that week
Why go: A vegan Bib Gourmand that reads as a restaurant first and a vegan restaurant second.
Locals order: Sit at the counter and take the feta toast as a first plate rather than a side; it is the dish regulars come back for.
book ahead; counter seats go first

Classic Belgian cooking
An entirely orange-painted façade on Sint-Bavostraat in Wilrijk, south of the city, with an old wall painting and black-and-white tiles inside and an experienced couple running it. Closed Tuesday and Wednesday; Sunday is served straight through from 11:30.
Order: Fried calf's brains with a sharp gribiche; paling in 't groen in a herb-heavy sauce; ling with savoy cabbage, bacon and potato purée
Why go: Newly awarded in 2026, and the cheapest way to eat Belgian classics properly in greater Antwerp.
Locals order: Sunday runs without a break from 11:30, so a late lunch here does not get you turned away the way it would in town.
book ahead; closed Tuesday and Wednesday

Classic seafood
Opened in 1983 on Sint-Jansvliet by the entrance to the pedestrian tunnel, hung with old shipping photographs and cooking classic fish the same way ever since. Open Thursday, Saturday and Sunday only, so build the trip around it.
Order: Paling in 't groen; sole Véronique in a white wine sauce with body; langoustine with nantua sauce
Why go: The reference address for eel in a country that argues about eel, open three days a week.
Locals order: Sunday lunch is the crowded service; Thursday is the one where the room is calm and the kitchen has time.
reserve; open Thursday, Saturday and Sunday only

Contemporary Italian
Sergio Herman's Antwerp room on Lange Gasthuisstraat in the fashion quarter, with American brasserie proportions, Tuscan detail and an open kitchen at the centre. Wednesday to Saturday only; the cocktail bar at the front takes walk-ins all day, the restaurant does not.
Order: Bouchot mussels in a lively broth; house-made pasta; the perfumed tiramisu
Why go: The clearest statement of what Antwerp's fashion district thinks a restaurant should look like.
Locals order: The front bar is the same kitchen without the booking; sit there mid-afternoon and order pasta.
restaurant books ahead; front bar walk-in

Belgian café cooking
A courtyard house on Reyndersstraat running since 1977, working as café and restaurant at once and known first for its beer list. Open every day 10:30 to midnight and to 02:00 on Friday and Saturday; the courtyard is the reason to come in summer.
Order: Stoemp; paling; a steak with something off the long Belgian beer list
Why go: One of the few addresses in the old centre where a serious beer list and a plate of stoemp arrive at the same table.
Locals order: Sit in the courtyard rather than the front room, and work down the abbey beers instead of ordering a Bolleke by reflex.
walk-in, open daily

All-day brasserie
A glass building on Hopland framed by the iron trusses salvaged from Victor Horta's demolished Maison du Peuple in Brussels. Open seven days, from 10:00 on weekdays and 09:00 at weekends, kitchen straight through 11:30 to 21:30 and breakfast served until 11:30.
Order: Quiche at lunch; Thai beef salad; Texel lamb with couscous
Why go: The only way left to sit inside Horta's Maison du Peuple, whose ironwork was pulled out of Brussels and reassembled here.
Locals order: Come for breakfast on a weekday before 11:30; it is the one part of the day when the hall is empty enough to look at.
walk-in or book online, open daily

Frites stand
A counter at Hoogstraat 1 on the edge of the old centre, with a few seats inside and standing tables outside that are the better option. Long hours and a queue most evenings, and the after-midnight trade is a large part of the business.
Order: Frites with stoofvleessaus; the same with pieces of the stew itself added; mayonnaise on top
Why go: The cone that settles the argument about where to eat frites in Antwerp.
Locals order: Ask for stoofvleessaus and then ask them to put the stew in as well; it costs more and it is the version locals order.
walk-in, queue at night

Waffles and fairground sweets
Back at Schrijnwerkersstraat 16 in De Wilde Zee after a spell in a pop-up on Suikerrui, making the same fairground sweets since 1903. Open every day 10:00 to 18:00, and the tearoom also does grey shrimp croquettes and croques if you want something savoury.
Order: The lacquemant, invented by the founder; the Brussels waffle with lacquemant sauce; smoutebollen
Why go: The lacquemant was invented on this street; the rest of Belgium is selling a copy of it.
Locals order: Take the waffle with lacquemant sauce rather than sugar. The waffles themselves are made without sugar, so the topping is doing all the work.
walk-in, open daily

Traditional bakery
A very small shop on Korte Gasthuisstraat, in the same family since 1884 and now in its fifth generation, which is why the queue is usually on the pavement. Tuesday to Saturday 07:00 to 19:00, closed Sunday and Monday, and bring cash because foreign cards do not always work.
Order: Roggeverdommeke, the dark rye and raisin loaf; pain à la grecque; a sausage bread
Why go: A bakery that has refused to widen its range for well over a century, in a street otherwise given over to fashion.
Locals order: Go before nine. The raisin bread is what the queue is for and it does not last the morning.
walk-in; go early, closed Sunday and Monday

Biscuit shop
A small shopfront on Korte Gasthuisstraat baking the city's hand-shaped biscuits, running since 1991 and now under Ann and her son Maxim. Buy a tin rather than a bag if you are carrying them home, because they break.
Order: Antwerpse handjes; the zilte handjes, the salted version; maantjes with marzipan
Why go: The hand-shaped biscuit is Antwerp's own emblem, tied to the legend the city is named for, and it is still baked by hand here.
Locals order: Ask for the zilte handjes, the salted version; it is the one that is hard to find outside the city.
walk-in shop