Where to eat in Bruges without falling into the tourist traps? We went and found out for you! Over several trips to the “Venice of the North”, the latest in April 2025, we tucked into the must-try Belgian specialities and worked our way through restaurants, chip stands, a beer bar, waffle shops and chocolatiers… with some real favourites and a few letdowns! And because we’re nice like that, on top of our favourite places to eat, we’ll also tell you which local dishes to try in Bruges. Enjoy! 🙂
Planning the rest of your trip? Our guide to “visiting Bruges in 3 days” is right here!
Article updated in September 2026.
Bruges food at a glance
| 📌 In the mood for… | 🍴 Our favourite places |
|---|---|
| Traditional Flemish food | De Vlaamsche Pot (Helmstraat 3): Flemish beef stew, waterzooi, generous portions. A little pricey, but worth it |
| A quick lunch | Poule & Poulette (Simon Stevinplein 3): reasonable prices and an interior you shouldn’t miss |
| Beer | De Halve Maan (Walplein 26): brewery tour and lunch (grey shrimp croquettes). 2be – The Beer Wall (Wollestraat 53): hundreds of Belgian beers to choose from |
| Takeaway fries | The two green chip stands in front of the Belfry |
| Waffles | Chez Albert (Breidelstraat 16), our all-time favourite |
| Chocolate | The Chocolate Line (Simon Stevinplein) and Moeder Babelutte |
| Biscuits | Juliette’s: Bruges lace biscuits, Bruges knots, speculoos |
| Local dishes to try | Flemish beef stew, waterzooi, moules-frites, grey shrimp croquettes, Belgian fries, beer, waffles, chocolate |
| To avoid | Waffles on the Markt and at the tavern opposite the Belfry |
✤✤✤
What to eat in Bruges: the local dishes to try
Flemish beef stew (carbonade flamande or stoofvlees)
Beef slowly cooked in beer with brown sugar, served with fries (or rice) and sometimes apple sauce. We had ours at De Vlaamsche Pot.
Waterzooi
This dish comes with either chicken or fish, simmered in a creamy sauce with vegetables. Waterzooi literally means “cooked in water”. Absolutely delicious!
PS: You should have seen Cécilia’s face when a whole chicken arrived at the table… Unforgettable!
Moules-frites (mussels and fries)
They hardly need an introduction, do they? Here you’ll find them cooked in white wine or, of course, in beer. A small disappointment when we ordered them with Roquefort: the mussels weren’t cooked with the cheese, which came on the side. Still, both the mussels and the fries were delicious!
Grey shrimp croquettes
The shrimp ones are on the left in the photo (the ones on the right were cheese). Small fried croquettes with a rich, briny flavour. Don’t be fooled by their size: they’re really filling! (And don’t miss our article on the Oostduinkerke shrimp festival!)
Belgian fries
You’ll find several chip stands (frituur) around town, a real institution. Perfect for a quick bite between two visits. We tried the ones in front of the Belfry: so good!
What makes these fries special is the potato variety, Bintje, and the way they’re cooked: fried twice, in unrefined beef fat…
Belgian beer
There are more than 350 beers in Bruges, including Brugse Zot, brewed right in the city centre by the De Halve Maan brewery (more on that below). A paradise for beer lovers! If you’re not an expert, just ask the waiting staff: they’re always happy to help visitors choose! 🙂
Belgian waffles
They’re a speciality of northern Belgium rather than of Bruges alone, but the city does them very well. You’ll find them plain, with sugar, with fruit, filled, or Liège-style, with little chunks of pearl sugar. They’re served hot, so take care not to burn your mouth! There are several places in Bruges where you can make your own waffles, which can be great fun!
Belgian chocolate
And other sweet treats… such as Bruges knots (Brugse achten), babeluttes (butter caramel sweets), the Chocolate Kiss, Bruges lace biscuits (with brown sugar and cinnamon), cuberdons (a speciality from Ghent!)… Plenty to choose from! You can also join a chocolate or praline-making workshop. We haven’t tried one yet, but it’s on our list for next time!
Where to eat in Bruges: our favourite places
Here are the places we’ve tried and recommend! We only had one real letdown… and we’d been warned: don’t eat waffles on the main square (the Markt). Sure enough, it was the worst waffle we’ve ever had: worse than the shop-bought ones!
Restaurants for lunch or dinner in Bruges
Poule & Poulette: we discovered it in April 2025, while looking for a quick lunch spot after our visit to The Chocolate Line… A great find: everything was tasty, the concept is fun and the prices are reasonable. Don’t miss the interior, it’s well worth a look!!!
➺ Simon Stevinplein 3, 8000 Brugge – budget: reasonable
De Vlaamsche Pot: our hotel recommended this restaurant for traditional dishes. Prices are a little high, but given the quality and the portion sizes… it’s worth it! (This is where Cécilia got her whole chicken…)
➺ Helmstraat 3, 8000 Brugge – budget: a little high, but justified
De Halve Maan: we did the brewery tour and, since it includes a beer tasting, we decided to stay for lunch. We had the grey shrimp croquettes. The portion may not look huge (2 croquettes), but the dish is very filling.
➺ Walplein 26, 8000 Brugge
Poules & Moules: on our first trip, the mussels were excellent, as were the fries, and the portions were generous. It’s right next to The Chocolate Line and the Dille & Kamille shop, ideal to round off an afternoon of shopping. On our 2025 visit, however, prices had gone up considerably… so we gave it a miss. Shame!
➺ Simon Stevinplein 9, 8000 Brugge – budget: much higher than before
➺ As every dish we ordered came with fries, the only takeaway fries we tried were the ones by the Belfry. There are two green stands, and the fries were really good!
Where to drink beer in Bruges
2be – The Beer Wall: you can’t miss this long glass-fronted wall displaying hundreds of Belgian beer bottles, each with its matching glass! There were so many that we just couldn’t choose… In the end, we went for a Brugse Zot, the beer brewed in town by De Halve Maan, whose brewery we’d visited! 🙂 At the back of the courtyard, the bar also has a terrace right on the canal.
➺ Wollestraat 53, 8000 Brugge
Where to get the best waffles in Bruges
- Chez Albert
Breidelstraat 16, 8000 Brugge
The best waffle we’ve ever had in our lives… The result: 3 visits to Chez Albert on our first trip, and 2 more in 2025! Since then, lots of new Chez Albert shops have opened. We told you it was THE place to go!
- Go’Fre
Breidelstraat 11, 8000 Brugge
You pick a sauce (white chocolate, milk chocolate, caramel) and a topping (peanuts, hazelnuts, marshmallows, etc.). On our return visit in 2025, it was a total letdown: the waffle had no flavour at all! A shame, as we loved the concept!
- Sweet Bruges
Wollestraat 31, 8000 Brugge
We wanted to sit down, and the waffles were good (though nowhere near as good as Chez Albert’s). Just so you know: as soon as you sit down to eat a waffle, the price doubles or even triples.
- The “Brussels-style” tavern opposite the Belfry: don’t go! Or at least, don’t order the waffles: they were dry and “hollow” inside. And all that for €6 a waffle when we visited…
Where to buy chocolate in Bruges
- The Chocolate Line: we finally tried it in 2025! Voted the best chocolatier in Bruges, we sampled a small selection of treats, from classics to more unusual creations… and yum! Everything was delicious! The shop is well worth a visit too: you can watch the chocolatiers at work.
- Moeder Babelutte: it’s a chain, so there are several shops. We loved everything we tried: praline chocolates, the Chocolate Kiss, their famous caramels and more.
- Chocolatier Dumon: we haven’t tried it, as the shop was closed on our first visit… But it has a reputation as one of the best in town.
- Juliette’s: for all kinds of biscuits: Bruges lace biscuits, Bruges knots, speculoos, cookies… Yum!
✤✤✤
The tally: 8 new specialities + a tonne of fries + 5 waffles each (oops!) + 3 kg on the scales!
Only joking about the 3 kg, probably because we walked 43 km in 3 days. 🙂
As you can tell, we ate very well on our trips to Bruges! We loved discovering new dishes like waterzooi and Flemish beef stew, but also enjoying great mussels, waffles and fries in the country that makes them best! We knew it would be a foodie trip, but not quite this much! Bruges won us over through our stomachs, and we’ll be back!
FAQ: where to eat in Bruges
Your questions answered here!
Where can you get the best waffles in Bruges?
For us, it’s Chez Albert (Breidelstraat 16): the best waffle of our lives, and we’ve been back 5 times! Avoid the waffles sold on the Markt and at the tavern opposite the Belfry. And be aware that in waffle cafés, the price doubles or even triples if you sit down.
What food is Bruges famous for?
Flemish beef stew (stoofvlees), waterzooi, moules-frites, grey shrimp croquettes, Belgian fries, beer, waffles and chocolate. For biscuits, don’t leave without trying Bruges lace biscuits and Bruges knots!
Where can you eat traditional Flemish food in Bruges?
At De Vlaamsche Pot (Helmstraat 3) for Flemish beef stew and waterzooi, with very generous portions. For grey shrimp croquettes, head to De Halve Maan (Walplein 26) and combine lunch with the brewery tour.
Where can you eat well in Bruges without breaking the bank?
Poule & Poulette (Simon Stevinplein 3) is perfect for a quick lunch, with reasonable prices and an interior well worth seeing. For a bite on the go, the green chip stands in front of the Belfry are ideal.
Where is the best place to drink beer in Bruges?
2be – The Beer Wall (Wollestraat 53), famous for its wall of Belgian beers: there are so many that we struggled to choose! And to see how Brugse Zot is made, head to the De Halve Maan brewery (Walplein 26), where the tour ends with a tasting.
Where can you buy the best chocolate in Bruges?
Our favourite is The Chocolate Line, where you can watch the chocolatiers at work. Moeder Babelutte is also a safe bet, especially for its caramels. Chocolatier Dumon has an excellent reputation too.
Pin me!
