5 Best Restaurants in Ghent, Ghent and the Leie

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!

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 distinguished restaurant is a local favorite for French and classic Belgian dishes, particularly seafood and seasonal specialties. Its tasting menus are on the steep side, but the service is uniformly excellent and the presentation borders on the inspired. Sip your aperitif on the terrace overlooking the garden, which also supplies the herbs used in the kitchen. After 23 years, it might have finally lost its Michelin star in 2019, but the menu has lost none of its vigor.

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.