113 Best Nightlife in Belgium

It might not look like much, but this is regularly voted one of the world's best beer cafés for good reason. Bierhuis Kulminator pours 550 different kinds of beer, some of which are more than 30 years old.

A hefty tome of a menu details the brewery, style, and country of a worldly range of craft ales and Belgian favorites. There are up to 11 beers on draft and around 150 bottled, but if you're at a loss, just ask---the staff are extremely knowledgeable. Grab a board game and settle down for the day, or head upstairs for some excellent Flemish home cooking. It's closed on Tuesday.

This small, two-floor bar manages to be both laid-back and achingly hip with good beer and cocktails, a vintage Photomatique machine, chandeliers, free live jazz and electronica, and DJs on most nights. 

Brewer Annick de Splenter's prolific brewpub has lost none of its ability to surprise. Based in an old galley, relics of the building's former life remain, with various cow statues proliferating the bar. Gruut's beers are made to a medieval recipe, using herbs, not hops; the result is a more subtle, lighter-tasting brew than the usual Belgian offering. Tours of the brewery (€20) can be arranged; you can even add a boat trip to your visit. If you have the time, spare some for its "beeralchemy" sessions (€22) and the chance to brew your own herb beer to take home; it's easily done in an afternoon and the session includes a brief tour and tastings.

This superb cocktail bar re-creates a 1920s speakeasy vibe. The drinks are uniformly excellent, with homemade bitters and infusions decorating an ever-changing menu that has something of a gastronomy vibe, while the outdoor, waterside terrace is cozily hidden. While so many of Ghent's cocktail bars err on the tacky side, Jiggers is an oasis of cool, though at around €15 a drink, it doesn't come cheap.

A fantastically hip, cozy, stylish brick-walled cocktail bar where the quality is never less than high and the drinks deceptively potent. A huge selection of rums and whiskeys also adorn the menu, but you can't go wrong with the slightly sour "Last Shot"—you can even order a bottle of it to take away. 

To taste a potent Flemish and Dutch specialty, head to 't Dreupelkot (sister bar to Het Waterhuis Aan De Bierkant), which produces its own jenever—a liquor similar in flavor to, and said to be the precursor of, gin. Here, it's all homemade and comes in a multitude of flavors, including vanilla, chocolate, and even cactus. The owner is also a character of the eccentric variety. A "barometer" behind the bar indicates his mood at any given time—it rarely points to "happy."

One of the oldest bars in Kortrijk sits on the banks of the Leie. The city has changed around it, and what was once a typical Belgian "brown bar" (its pale walls stained by years of tobacco smoke) in a run-down area is now one of the hipper locations on the riverfront for a beer. It has a nice terrace in summer. 

Part of the joy of this "hobbit hole"--esque pub lies in finding it; the hidden entrance (be prepared to duck) is basically the old service hatch, where goods would be delivered direct to the cellar. In this case, the bar is the cellar. Novelty aside, this is a good, old-fashioned pub, and its beer selection is among the best in the city.

Tourists flock here en masse to see the beer wall, a glass case displaying one bottle for every brand of Belgian beer, but the real lure is the view from the terrace, overlooking the Djiver canal. A prolific selection of local brews also helps. There's a good beer shop, too.

An intriguing neighborhood wine bar that does a roaring trade in crowd-pleasing sharing plates, from shiitake arancini to frites drizzled in Parmesan and truffle. It's mostly good-quality French wines, though you can just as easily bag a beer or kombucha. 

A slightly scruffy interior (complete with resident cat) belies what is essentially a delightful old-school café-bar with a terrace on the street outside. It's popular with locals, who fill the tables outside in the evening. Just grab a beer and a croque monsieur and watch the world go by.

This elegant "brown café" dates from the early 20th century but has weathered well. The mirror-and-wood paneling, leather banquettes, and tiled floors speak to a bar that knows its place in the world, and you can spot the regulars a mile off. There's a good selection of local beers and decent food. 

This specialty-beer bar is also a café chantant, which means locals will often have the tendency to get up and sing in front of everyone else.

With 30 on tap and around 300 more in bottles and cans, this lively central bar has arguably the best selection of Belgian beers in town.

Sometimes the name says it all. Just a five-minute walk from Centraal Station, the selection here runs the gamut of craft ale and Belgian favorites, with a dozen draft brews on tap. Its minimalist interior is more cocktail joint that your typical "brown café," but friendly, knowledgeable staff make exploring a bottle list 150-strong a delight.

This cozy, central bar beside the city hall serves around 250 international craft and local Wallonian ales, while the range in the adjacent shop stretches to over 750.

One of the best beer pubs in the city is Bier Circus, out by the Cirque Royale, which has a huge list of obscure, small-batch Belgian beers, including some excellent organic brews. Part of the bar has now also become a shop, with some 250 bottles to choose from. 

In a city of beer bars, Blend is a tiny oasis. This new wine bar--wine shop was recently opened by two gentlemen who have both previously shared the title "Best Sommelier in Belgium," so the selection is excellent, with 30 wines by the glass and some 300 bottles to peruse, with a big emphasis on Italian grapes.

A brand-new local brewery and tap house set in a former stables. This used to be where they kept the mules that pulled Schaerbeek's trams until the first electric line was installed in 1894. Now tables have been strewn across the old stable yard, and its friendly, mulleted owner pours out glasses of his own brewed German-style wheat beers, along with the odd saison and lager. 

Located at the foot of the Montagne de Bueren stairway, the city's only brewpub serves its own Curtius beers and a full food menu, best enjoyed on the summer garden terrace.

A microbrewery that leans more to the U.S. craft ale style than its native Belgian, though the odd saison does appear. This plucky bar typically has eight beers on tap at any one point. A home-brewers mentality means it's constantly changing beers but you'll always find an IPA or New England--style brew to slake your thirst. 

Arguably the most famous pub in town, Bruges's original specialist beer café is an iconic destination for hop lovers and stocks around 300 different brews. Expect to sample a few curiosities like the Wallonian Bush beer (one of the strongest in Belgium), the odd brew from the famed Sint-Sixtusabdij Westvleteren monastery, an excellent choice of lambic beers from Brussels's Cantillion, and a good selection from the local Halve Maan brewery.

With more than 350 gins—from your standard "mother's ruin" to Dutch-style jenever—served every way you can imagine, this bar is the very definition of a gin palace. It's a bit off the beaten track (hidden on a cobbled street near Koningen Astridpark), and a tad at odds with the rest of beer-swilling Bruges. But sometimes that's not a bad thing, with most of the gins also for sale in 5-cl or 10-cl pharmacy bottles, to take home.

You might have thought that U.S.-style craft beer would go down like a lead balloon in the notoriously old-fashioned world of Belgian beer, but that's rather the point of this iconoclastic project. BBP's 24-tap taproom has quickly become an essential stop for any hop lovers in the city and was the first step to world domination---they're now even in Paris and Tokyo. A new taproom also recently opened in Ixelles on rue de Bailli. 

Set in an ocean-liner-like Art Deco building, this is a favorite among Brussels’s beautiful people. It's the kind of place you'd spot a local TV star sipping a cocktail or mint tea at the zinc bar or outside gazing at the swans on the Ixelles ponds. DJs play until late; it's also a popular brunch spot for hungover locals on Sunday.