Belgian dishes to try in Brussels: beyond waffles and frites
Brussels: Secret Food Tours Brussels
What Belgian dishes should you try in Brussels?
Beyond waffles and frites: moules-frites, carbonnade flamande (beef braised in beer), stoemp (mashed potato with veg and sausage), waterzooi (creamy chicken or fish stew), croquettes aux crevettes (grey-shrimp croquettes), vol-au-vent, boulets, and stoofvlees-topped frites. Wash it down with a Belgian beer and finish with chocolate.
There’s far more to Belgian food than waffles
Waffles, frites and chocolate get all the attention, but Belgium has a deep, hearty, beer-soaked cuisine that most visitors never properly explore. It’s French-influenced in technique, Flemish in its love of warming, slow-cooked comfort, and entirely its own in its relationship with beer — which appears as a cooking medium as often as it does in a glass. Brussels is the perfect place to dig in, particularly in the Marolles estaminets and the brasseries of Sainte-Catherine. Here’s what to order beyond the obvious. To find the right tables, see best restaurants.
Belgian cuisine is fundamentally peasant food elevated by care and proximity to France. The best of it is defined by long cooking times, local ingredients, and a conviction that a dish made simply with good materials and patience needs no elaboration. The carbonnade is just beef and beer; the stoemp is just potatoes and vegetables; the waterzooi is just chicken and cream. The results are specific and satisfying in ways that elaborate cooking rarely achieves.
The savoury classics to try
Moules-frites. The icon — a steaming pot of mussels with a generous serving of frites. Eat it in season in Sainte-Catherine, the historic fish quarter, not on Rue des Bouchers (full guide). The mussels are typically cooked marinière — white wine, shallots, celery and parsley — or with cream. The frites come separately, properly double-fried. Order with an empty pot for the shells and use an empty shell as tongs for the others. You’ll feel immediately Belgian.
Carbonnade flamande (stoofvlees / stoverij). Belgium’s great comfort dish: beef slow-braised in dark Belgian beer with caramelised onions, a touch of sweetness (sometimes brown sugar, sometimes sirop de Liège), a smear of mustard on the bread, and six or more hours of patience. Served with frites or stoemp. A well-made carbonnade has a deep, slightly sweet-sour richness that comes entirely from the beer and the time. You can also order it spooned over frites at a friterie, making it one of Belgium’s best street-food combinations.
Stoemp. Rustic mashed potato mixed with vegetables — carrot, leek, cabbage, depending on the cook — and served with a grilled sausage or thick bacon. Pure Brussels comfort food, found in the Marolles’ old estaminets. It’s the kind of dish that defines what Belgians eat at home, and the version at a decent neighbourhood restaurant consistently beats anything fashionable.
Waterzooi. A creamy, gentle stew of chicken (the Ghent classic) or fish in a light, vegetable-enriched broth. More delicate than the red stews; surprisingly refreshing. The name is Flemish for something like “water mush” — extraordinarily unglamorous, strikingly good.
Croquettes aux crevettes grises. Crisp, deep-fried croquettes filled with tiny North Sea grey shrimp in a béchamel — a genuine Belgian delicacy and usually the best starter at any traditional brasserie. The grey shrimp (crevettes grises) are different from the large pink prawns of international cooking: smaller, sweeter, more intensely flavoured, and the béchamel is built specifically to show them off rather than disguise them. The croquette should crack open to reveal a dense, still-hot shrimp filling.
Vol-au-vent (videé). A puff-pastry case filled with creamy chicken, small meatballs and mushrooms in a white sauce — old-school, generous, and enormously popular in traditional brasseries. Deeply unfashionable in international dining; absolutely at home on every Belgian menu. Order it at a proper brasserie with a glass of something crisp.
Boulets à la liégeoise. Meatballs in sirop de Liège sauce — a sweet-sharp reduction of apple-pear molasses that sounds bizarre and tastes revelatory. The contrast of rich meat and fruity-acidic sauce, with chips on the side, is one of the more specifically Belgian flavour combinations.
Chicons au gratin. Belgian endive wrapped in ham, baked under a cheese sauce. Endive is a Belgian discovery (found growing in a neglected greenhouse in the 19th century) and this is its defining preparation. Slightly bitter, slightly sweet, creamy and rich — a side or a light main depending on appetite.
Filet américain. Seasoned raw minced beef — Belgian steak tartare, often with capers, shallots and mayonnaise — treated entirely matter-of-factly on every brasserie menu. Standard Belgian café food; excellent.
The sweet side
Waffles — Brussels and Liège versions (the full difference). The Brussels waffle is rectangular, airy and crisp, best eaten plain or with a modest dusting of sugar. The Liège waffle is denser, rounder, and studded with caramelised pearl sugar.
Speculoos — spiced caramelised biscuits, the Belgian equivalent of gingerbread, found everywhere as biscuits, crumbled into cheesecakes, and as the famous Lotus spread. The industrial Lotus Biscoff is a pale version; an artisanal speculoos from a proper Belgian bakery is considerably better.
Chocolate and pralines — the finish to any properly Belgian meal. A small ballotin of pralines from Neuhaus or Leonidas, shared over a coffee, is how Belgium ends dinner. See pralines explained.
Cuberdons — cone-shaped, raspberry-flavoured “noses” from Ghent, widely available in Brussels. Soft on the outside, crystal-sugary inside. A very Belgian thing to be eating while walking.
Dame blanche — vanilla ice cream with hot dark chocolate sauce, on every brasserie menu, consistently good. Reliably satisfying without pretension.
What to drink with it
Belgian food was designed for Belgian beer. The matches are specific and rewarding:
- Carbonnade — with the same dark ale it was cooked in, usually a brune or dubbel.
- Moules — with a witbier, a dry gueuze, or a crisp lager.
- Rich stews — a Trappist dubbel or a Belgian amber.
- Shrimp croquettes — a dry gueuze, which cuts the béchamel cleanly.
- Dessert — a kriek or a raspberry framboise.
See Belgian beer types explained to match confidently.
Where to eat it
The best Belgian cooking is in the Marolles estaminets (traditional working cafés), the brasseries of Sainte-Catherine, and the neighbourhood restaurants of Ixelles and Saint-Gilles — not the tourist-facing places around the Grand-Place, which cater to visitors who expect to be overcharged and generally are.
The easiest way to taste it all
Sampling this range solo takes several meals and local knowledge about where the good versions are. A small-group food tour packs many of these classics into one afternoon with context, a food tour with a full meal turns them into dinner, and a hearty no-diet tour leans fully into Belgian comfort food. Then return to your favourites — now that you know what to order and where.
Frequently asked questions — Belgian dishes to try in Brussels: beyond waffles and frites
What is Belgium's national dish?
Moules-frites (mussels and chips) is the most iconic, but frites themselves, carbonnade flamande (beer-braised beef stew) and stoemp are all strong contenders for the most quintessentially Belgian everyday dish.What is a typical hearty Belgian meal?
A classic is carbonnade flamande — beef slow-cooked in Belgian beer with a touch of sweetness — served with frites or stoemp, followed by a waffle or chocolate dessert and a Trappist or amber beer. Stoemp with sausage and vol-au-vent are other filling local favourites.
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