Ghent · Where to eat

Creative vegetable-led
Michaël Vrijmoed cooks on Vlaanderenstraat, a short walk south of the belfry, in a restrained room that puts nothing between you and the plate. The all-vegetable Purs menu is not a side option here but the menu the kitchen is proudest of, and it needs to be chosen when you book.
Order: The Purs menu, entirely vegetarian; yuzu sorbet with Timut and Sichuan pepper; pheasant from the Flemish Ardennes cooked whole with portobello, endive, cranberries and celery
Why go: The only two-star kitchen in Ghent, and the one place in Belgium where the vegetarian menu is the flagship rather than the concession.
Locals order: Take Purs. Ghent regulars order it whether or not they eat meat, and the kitchen brings truffle to the table when it has it.
book weeks ahead; choose the menu in advance

Modern international
Marcelo Ballardin cooks on Burgstraat, a few doors from the Gravensteen, with an international kitchen team whose backgrounds show up on the plate. The menu balances sharp acidity against richer sauces, so the pairings matter more here than usual.
Order: Langoustines seared quickly in a frothy sauce built from the heads and shells; a chimichurri of fregola and mandarin; North Sea clams
Why go: Italian-Brazilian roots and Amazonian ingredients in a Flemish city, handled with enough control that it never reads as novelty.
Locals order: Ask about the manioc and the South American produce. It is on the menu on purpose and the room will explain where it came from.
book ahead; small dining room

Modern Flemish vegetables
Olly Ceulenaere cooks in a loft-feeling bistro on Ham, on the eastern edge of the centre, fitted out by artist friends and still carrying the old beer pump on the bar. It is the cheapest one-star in Ghent and the chef frequently carries the main course out himself.
Order: Rockfish lacquered with shrimp heads, in a yellow beetroot jus and shrimp stock with lovage oil; little-known vegetables treated as main ingredients; whatever the growers sent that week
Why go: A star awarded for cooking obscure vegetables properly, not for luxury produce, which makes it the most interesting menu in the city.
Locals order: Do not ask what the expensive ingredient is. Order the vegetable courses and let the fish be the supporting act.
book well ahead; small room

Modern French classics
A gilded, warm room on Oefenpleinstraat in the Moscou district of Gentbrugge, with the kitchen visible behind glass. It is outside the centre and outside the low-emission zone hassle, which makes it the easier star to reach by car.
Order: Pigeon dried for two days, the breast medium rare with a thyme jus, alongside truffled pigeon sausage, confit leg and a small pigeon stew; scallops marinated in koji; a tasting menu and a full carte
Why go: A veteran chef cooking classical French without apology, in the one Ghent star that still offers a proper à la carte.
Locals order: Order off the carte rather than the tasting menu. The pigeon is the dish the kitchen has built its reputation on and it is served whole across four preparations.
book ahead; easier to reach by car

Modern seasonal
A period mansion on Kortrijksesteenweg in Sint-Denijs-Westrem, on the southern edge of Ghent, renovated without stripping the historic detail. Chef Maurice cooks and Deborah runs the room and the wine, and the list is the reason several tables are there.
Order: King crab with a shellfish beurre blanc and a sharp lemon jelly; scallops given an international treatment; ingredients sourced from the chef's native Zeeland
Why go: The grandest room of the Ghent stars, with a sommelier who will take the meal somewhere the menu alone would not.
Locals order: Put the wine in Deborah's hands rather than choosing. The Zeeland shellfish courses are where the pairings do the most work.
book ahead; out of the centre

Thai
A tall old house in the Patershol on Corduwaniersstraat, with high ceilings, art on the walls and a walled courtyard that is the seat to ask for from May onwards. It has been in the quarter long enough to predate most of its neighbours.
Order: Tom kha kai balancing sour against chilli; massaman curry with real depth; a spread of plates to share
Why go: Thai cooking with balance rather than blunt heat, in the oldest quarter of Ghent.
Locals order: Ask for the courtyard when you book. Regulars order the tom kha kai first and calibrate the rest of the meal against it.
book ahead; ask for the courtyard

Basque pintxos
The pintxos offshoot of Bar Bask, on Doorgang der Hallegasten in Ledeberg, just south of the ring, fitted out as a vintage Basque bar. It is small and popular and does not really work as a walk-in.
Order: Tartare of matured beef with a mustard-heavy cocktail sauce, green salad and warm brioche; a run of pintxos off the counter; whatever the day's best produce turns into
Why go: Basque bar cooking done with the produce standards of a proper restaurant, at pintxo prices.
Locals order: Sit at the counter and order in rounds rather than all at once; the kitchen adjusts to what has just come in.
book ahead; very small

Modern bistro
A neighbourhood restaurant on Antwerpsesteenweg in Sint-Amandsberg with a long counter running down the room, opened by two cooks who worked together at Bodo. The wine list is almost entirely French and priced to be drunk rather than admired.
Order: Deep-fried bites of sole with tartare sauce; chicken breast with Archiduc sauce of mushrooms and cream; chocolate mousse
Why go: Bistro cooking with real technique behind it, twenty minutes' walk from a centre where that combination costs twice as much.
Locals order: Sit at the counter and take the Archiduc sauce. It is an old Belgian sauce almost nobody still makes and it is the dish they are known for.
book ahead; counter seats first

Flemish brasserie
A colonial-style villa on the Gordunakaai with a terrace on the Leie, formal old-school table service and a menu of Belgian classics. It is a twenty-minute walk or a short tram ride south-west of the centre and the terrace is the reason to make the trip.
Order: Eel in green sorrel sauce; vol-au-vent; carbonade flamande, and the sweetbread fritters alongside
Why go: The riverside villa Ghent has taken its family lunches to for generations, still cooking eel in green sauce properly.
Locals order: Order the sweetbread fritters as a first course. Locals treat them as the house dish, not the eel.
book the terrace ahead in summer

Modern French
A dark, low-lit room with elegant mouldings on Vrouwebroerstraat in the Patershol, quieter than most of the quarter. Chef Thomas cooks classical French with a light Asian bend and the sauces are the point.
Order: Pigeon breast lacquered with hoisin and sirop de Liège, the confit legs rolled into spring rolls, with creamy salsify and a vadouvan hollandaise; a short seasonal carte; a dark, sauce-driven style throughout
Why go: The most confident sauce cookery in Ghent outside the starred restaurants.
Locals order: Take the pigeon. The dish arrives in three parts and the spring rolls made from the legs are what people describe afterwards.
book ahead; small room

French luxury
A townhouse on Charles de Kerchovelaan in black marble and gilding, with a grand piano in the dining room. This is the one Ghent restaurant that will happily sell you a great bottle rather than steer you off it, so look at the list before you order.
Order: Wagyu with North Sea crab and a sharp guacamole; radish cannelloni with furikake sushi rice; a wine list carrying Pétrus vintages from 2000 onwards
Why go: The city's only genuinely grand dining room, with a Bordeaux cellar to match.
Locals order: Ask for the full list rather than the by-the-glass card; the depth of the Bordeaux is why regulars come.
book ahead; jacket suits the room

Seafood brasserie
A converted warehouse on Schuurkenstraat with a high galleried interior, in the lanes behind the Korenmarkt. It closes on Sunday and public holidays, and between 14:15 and 18:00 only the smaller card is served.
Order: Fruits de mer platters; oysters, when the annual oyster market runs; Belgian brasserie cooking off a shorter afternoon card
Why go: The best room in Ghent to sit in and the city's default answer for a shellfish platter.
Locals order: Come mid-afternoon on the small card. It is the one window when you can look at the ironwork without shouting over a full house.
book ahead; closed Sunday

Spare ribs
A cramped, deliberately nostalgic room on Plotersgracht in the Patershol, checked tablecloths and bric-a-brac, with a second branch on Gouden Leeuwplein. Bookings are effectively compulsory and the sitting is timed.
Order: All-you-can-eat spare ribs; a salad bar alongside; baked potato with the ribs
Why go: A single dish served unlimited in a room dressed as the 1920s, and it has been Ghent's student and family default for decades.
Locals order: Book the Plotersgracht branch rather than Gouden Leeuwplein, and do not order a starter; the ribs keep coming.
book ahead; timed sittings

Beer café
A brown café on Groentenmarkt with a terrace directly on the water, which is the seat everybody wants between April and September. It is a drinking room first, so the food is limited to plates that sit alongside the beer.
Order: Gandavum, Klokke Roeland and Mammelokker, the three house beers; gueuze and kriek from the list of about 165; a plate of cheese to go with them
Why go: The most-used beer terrace in Ghent, with three beers brewed for the house that you cannot buy elsewhere.
Locals order: Order the house beers rather than the trappists. Locals sit at the bar in winter and only fight for the terrace in summer.
walk-in; terrace fills first

Beer café
A dark medieval-feeling room on the Vrijdagmarkt. Order the Max and you hand over a shoe as deposit, which goes into a basket and is hoisted to the ceiling until you return the glass.
Order: Max van 't Huis, served in a 1.2-litre glass; a list running to around 500 Belgian beers; snacks to keep the beer company
Why go: The shoe-for-a-glass ritual is genuinely enforced here, and the glass is the size the ritual implies.
Locals order: One Max between two. Ghent drinkers order it once for the photograph and then move to something from the list.
walk-in; bring wearable shoes

Vegetable-led modern
An urban room on Edmond Van Beverenplein, east of the centre, where Tom Pauwelyn puts vegetables at the centre without making the restaurant vegetarian. The menu changes often enough that a repeat visit a month later is a different meal.
Order: Cauliflower cooked several ways, one of them with a crayfish Nantua sauce; pear with a stout sabayon; a menu that turns over with the season
Why go: Vegetable cookery at near-starred level without the price or the ceremony.
Locals order: Ask what the cauliflower is doing this week. It is the dish the kitchen keeps reinventing and the version changes.
book ahead; menu changes often

Mustard shop
A tiny shop on the Groentenmarkt making mustard on the premises since 1790, with the barrel behind the counter. Open Tuesday to Saturday 10:00 to 18:00 and Monday afternoons only, closed Sunday and holidays.
Order: Mustard scooped from the barrel into a stoneware pot; the coarser variety for meat; boxes made up to take home
Why go: Mustard made in the same shop, by the same method, since the year before the French Revolution reached Flanders.
Locals order: Bring the stoneware pot back for a refill; that is what Ghent households do and it is cheaper than buying a new one.
walk-in; closed Sunday

Coffee roastery
A narrow coffee bar down the Donkersteeg, an alley off the Veldstraat shopping run, roasting since 1937 and still doing it in the same room. It is standing-and-stools rather than a café to settle into.
Order: The Mysore house blend, roasted on the premises; espresso at the bar; beans by the bag to take away
Why go: Ghent's oldest roastery, on an alley most shoppers walk past, still selling the blend it built its name on.
Locals order: Drink it at the bar and buy a bag of Mysore on the way out; the beans are the actual business.
walk-in; small and narrow

Traditional bakery
A shop at Groentenmarkt 1, in business since 1880 and the oldest bakery in the city, open from 07:30 on weekdays and 08:00 at weekends. It is directly on the tourist route, so go before nine if you want the morning bake rather than what is left.
Order: Mastellen, the Ghent spiced ring bun; sourdough loaves; ice cream from the same counter in summer
Why go: The oldest bakery in Ghent, on the market square it has always been on.
Locals order: Ask for mastellen. They are a Ghent speciality tied to the old Saint Hubert bread blessing and they sell out first.
walk-in; go early

Sweet shop
A very small shop on the Kraanlei with six relief carvings of the works of mercy on the façade, trading under the Temmerman name since 1904. Space inside is tight enough that two customers make a queue.
Order: Cuberdons, the cone-shaped raspberry sweets Ghent calls neuzekes; mokken; knopkes
Why go: The best-kept old sweet shop in Ghent, in a house whose facade is worth the stop on its own.
Locals order: Buy the cuberdons here rather than off a market stall and eat them the same week; the syrup inside crystallises fast, which is why they are never exported.
walk-in; tiny shop

Filled meatballs
An open-kitchen room on Jakobijnenstraat with long shared tables, where the menu is essentially one dish done two or three ways. It seats up to seventy and works as a fast lunch rather than an evening out.
Order: A filled meatball with mash or salad; a weekly vegetarian version; the same thing packed to take away
Why go: One dish, done properly, at a price that has not moved much in years.
Locals order: Take it with stoemp-style mash rather than salad; that is the Belgian half of the idea and the reason it works.
walk-in; shared tables

Bakery and tea room
A small tea room and bakery on the Kraanlei, run by a pastry chef trained in Belgium and open for breakfast through to afternoon tea. The afternoon tea has to be arranged ahead; the counter does not.
Order: Scones baked in-house; cakes by the slice; afternoon tea, booked in advance
Why go: Proper pastry work on the most photographed street in Ghent, at counter prices.
Locals order: Buy a scone from the counter and walk it to the water rather than queueing for a table upstairs.
walk-in for the counter; book afternoon tea

Soup counter
A functional room on Zuivelbrugstraat at the edge of the Patershol with a terrace on the canal side. It is a lunch operation and the soups rotate daily, so the board is worth reading before you commit.
Order: Four soups a day, bread and a piece of fruit included; quiche; submarine sandwiches
Why go: The cheapest sit-down lunch in central Ghent, and the bread and fruit are not an upsell.
Locals order: Take it outside to the canal wall. Students eat it on the water rather than at the tables.
walk-in; lunch trade