Monday, August 31, 2026

The Top 100 Places to Eat Near Studio Hiel


  1. The view from the top floor of the Museum aan de Stroom takes in the whole Antwerp skyline, which is a strong opening move for a three-Michelin-star creative restaurant. Viki Geunes runs a stripped-back room, elegant and quiet except for an old record player adding a jazzy hum, and builds dishes that are intricate without fussing about it. The kind of place where the sauces alone warrant a moment of silence.


  2. Rank 3. Hertog Jan at Botanic

    Asian New American

    Concrete walls and muted grey tones set the scene for this intimate two-Michelin-star creative restaurant inside Antwerp's Botanic Sanctuary Hotel. The chef's Asian obsessions run through everything, and the kitchen asks guests not to post photos, which somehow makes the meal feel more like a secret. The cooking follows the motto "simplicity isn't simple," which is either profound or a warning that dinner will take a while, probably both.


  3. Nick Bril's two-Michelin-starred restaurant moved from a grand church to a converted warehouse on the Eilandje, and the shift shows: the room is minimalist and airy, with serious art on the walls and the chef's DJ turntables sitting right there in the open kitchen. The cooking is creative and internationally minded, built on mature ingredients, last-minute grilling, and sauces with real backbone. Dress well and come hungry.


  4. Rank 5. Misera

    Modern French

    An open kitchen and counter take up most of the room at this modern French restaurant in Antwerp's Nieuw Zuid, so you watch every plate being built whether you planned to or not. Nicolas Misera holds a Michelin star for cooking that leans hard on fish and shellfish, with classical bones and sauces that quietly steal the show. Everything is à la carte, which feels almost radical at this level.


  5. Rank 6. Nebo

    Modern French

    The name means "sky" in Croatian, a quiet nod to the chef's father and his own Michelin-starred restaurant. This is a polished fine-dining room in Antwerp's Nieuw Zuid district, where an à la carte menu leans on classical French technique with enough unconventional turns to keep things interesting. The sommelier holds a master credential, and the wine list shows it. Nebo holds a Michelin star.


  6. Rank 7. Bistrot du Nord

    Traditional French

    Vintage floor tiles, wall mirrors, and wood paneling give this Michelin-starred Antwerp bistro the look of a French brasserie that time politely forgot to update. The chef runs a tight classical French menu, with a particular affection for the offal-and-tripe end of the spectrum, handled with the kind of technique that makes you wonder why everyone else abandoned it. Book ahead; the room fills fast with people who already know.


  7. Dishes still arrive under a cloche, lifted tableside with a formality that most kitchens abandoned decades ago. This is a classic fine dining restaurant inside a handsome old Antwerp townhouse, where the chef has held a Michelin star since the mid-eighties and shows no signs of slowing down. Pig's trotters share the menu with langoustines, Bresse chicken swims in morel cream, and the sauces do the real work throughout.


  8. Tightly packed tables, wine bottles wedged wherever they'll fit, and a menu built around sharing plates with a heavy lean toward seafood: Bar Misera is the kind of casual, slightly chaotic bistro that Nieuw Zuid locals seem to treat as a second living room. The format is snacks first, larger plates to follow, with sides chosen separately. The fish comes bright and acidic, the kind of cooking that makes you slow down.


  9. Rank 10. Nathan

    Modern French

    Marble surfaces and dark wood set the tone before a single plate arrives, and the room has the composed confidence of somewhere that has thought hard about everything. This Michelin-starred fine dining spot in Antwerp runs on classical French technique bent toward something more playful, where familiar flavors get sharpened by acidic Asian notes. The chef's plating is precise enough to make you feel slightly guilty picking up a fork.


  10. Rank 11. Fine Fleur

    Modern French

    The kitchen team works behind smoked glass, visible but unhurried, while a young front-of-house crew moves with the kind of easy confidence that suggests they enjoy being here. Fine Fleur is a fine dining restaurant inside the Botanic Sanctuary Hotel, and holds a Michelin star for modern French cooking with a Dutch edge: gutsy sauces, exotic flavors, and a pastry chef who clearly has something to prove. Jacob Jan Boerma and Thomas Diepersloot are behind it.


  11. A converted warehouse on the Vlaamse Kaai that still feels like one, in the way only a good renovation manages. This modern restaurant runs lunch menus and a five-course dinner, built around food that pairs smoky and sweet without apology. The sourdough is made in-house and sold at the door, which tells you where the kitchen's head is at. Picked up a spot in the Michelin Guide.


  12. A dockside terrace on the Antwerp waterfront sets the mood at this Michelin-starred seafood restaurant, where the kitchen leans hard into North Sea produce. The chef's approach is about restraint, letting a perfectly poached brill or a golden butter-fried fillet carry the plate, with sauces arriving as quiet support rather than the main event. Flemish good taste, Italian wine, and a Barbera d'Alba already open on the counter.


  13. Rank 14. BÚN

    Vietnamese


  14. Rank 15. InVINcible

    Bistro French

    A wine-forward French bistro where counter seats face the open kitchen and you can taste a glass before committing, which is either hospitality or smart salesmanship, probably both. The cooking runs to big, unapologetic Gallic territory: bone marrow butters, veal kidneys, whole fish in salt crust for two. The kind of food that makes you order another glass without noticing you've done it.


  15. Fourteen seats, a short menu, and a chef who treats Belgian comfort food as a starting point rather than a destination. Bar Pêche is a tiny modern restaurant where stoemp and sausage gets quietly reimagined, and the cordon bleu arrives with Italian ham and truffle cheese. The room is relaxed, the ideas are not, and the booking list fills up in a way that suggests word got around some time ago.


  16. Pop art canvases inspired by the CoBrA movement cover the walls, setting the tone for a sharing-plates spot that leans casual but pulls it together with a proper bar program. The menu hops across continents without apology, lobster rolls alongside pâté en croûte, a beef entrecôte, tarte Tatin for the finish. Leopoldplaats regulars seem to treat it as a standing arrangement rather than a one-off.


  17. The Butcher's Son sits inside the De Koninck brewery, sharing a building with a bakery, a chocolatier, and the butcher's shop where the chef once worked, which tells you something about how seriously he takes his sourcing. This is a Michelin-starred restaurant where red meat is the heart of it, though the kitchen drifts cheerfully into surf-and-turf territory. The industrial-loft room makes it feel looser than the cooking actually is.


  18. The chili oil here is the real opening statement: Sichuan cooking in full, unapologetic form, with a menu long enough to cause genuine decision paralysis. This casual, no-frills restaurant in Antwerp earns its Michelin Bib Gourmand on the strength of honest, fiery Chinese cooking, the kind that has regulars leaning over bowls of rich fish soup or pork braised in fermented black beans. Loud, lively, and very easy to spend too little money at.


  19. The website insists "this isn't a restaurant," which is a bold claim for a place serving modern French-Belgian tasting menus inside a 1920s building with parquet floors and period wooden mouldings. The chef is quietly obsessed with sauces and spices, and has a way with a knife that shows in the plating. He also comes out of the kitchen to serve you himself, which either charms or unsettles, depending on your disposition.


  20. Rank 21. Qin

    Cantonese

    Chinese lanterns and dark wood set the mood at this Cantonese restaurant inside Hotel De Keyser, where the kitchen's calling card is an extensive roster of house-made dim sum. The menu runs from Xiao Long Bao to Sichuan pepper duck to a classic hotpot, the last requiring a reservation, which feels appropriately ceremonious. The cooking skews traditional with just enough modern adjustment to keep things from feeling like a history lesson.


  21. Rank 22. Ninja

    Middle Eastern




  22. Rank 25. Plump

    Smash burger American









  23. Rank 33. Izumi

    Japanese


  24. Rank 34. Cantine

    Mediterranean


  25. Rank 35. Funk

    Vegan Bakery


  26. Rank 36. Noung Inle

    Burmese Noodles



  27. Rank 38. Kato

    Sushi






  28. Rank 43. Mimis

    Cretan Greek


  29. Rank 44. Glou Glou

    Fusion French

    A cozy, convivial wine bar and small-plates spot on a quiet Antwerp square, Glou Glou takes its name from the sound of natural wine pouring freely, which sets the tone for the whole evening. The sommelier steers the glass side; the kitchen does Franco-Asian-Italian tapas, loose and generous in spirit. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and booking ahead is less a suggestion than a practical necessity.




  30. Rank 47. Mario

    Italian








  31. Rank 54. Leo Antwerpen

    Artisanal Bakery





  32. Rank 58. Camion

    Vegetarian





  33. Rank 62. Normo

    Coffee


  34. Rank 63. Bistrot De Pottenbrug

    Franco-Belgian French




  35. Rank 66. Shuk

    Middle Eastern


  36. Rank 67. Bar Ami

    Mexican


  37. Rank 68. Cannolo

    Sicilian





  38. Rank 72. Little Bún

    Vietnamese



  39. Rank 74. Osaka

    Japanese




  40. Rank 77. Hiro

    Japanese



  41. A Michelin-starred spot hiding behind an unremarkable front door in Antwerp, Bloesem seats a handful of people around a counter and one shared table for a single set menu of around fifteen courses. The kitchen leans seasonal and a little playful, textures shifting dish to dish in ways that feel deliberate rather than showy. The host handles pairings, alcoholic or not, with enough enthusiasm that you'll probably let her choose.


  42. The meat hooks are still on the wall and the old butcher's tiles are still glazed in color, which tells you most of what you need to know about this Franco-Belgian bistro tucked into a former slaughterhouse. The menu is short and Gallic and cooked without fuss. Bart co-owns and runs the floor on weekends, and his wine knowledge is the kind you want applied directly to your glass.


  43. Rank 81. Soixante

    Polish Eastern European

    Tables packed close enough that you'll learn your neighbor's business, and a window that makes the whole thing look like a dare. This is a creative restaurant where the chef's Polish roots steer the menu toward earthy, tangy combinations that tend to surprise. Pearl barley stands in for risotto rice, squid ink involved. The wine cellar is taken seriously, which the room's cosy, nostalgic clutter doesn't necessarily suggest it would be.


  44. Rank 82. Hofke van Bazel

    Contemporary French

    The wine cellar is visible through a glass panel in the floor, which sets the tone. This one-Michelin-star restaurant in the Flemish countryside runs on produce the chef tends in his own kitchen garden down the road, and seasonal vegetables form the backbone of creative French contemporary cooking. The room leans romantic, the garden terrace leans northern Italian, and the caviar bar sits somewhere in between, daring you to order.




  45. Rank 85. Nives

    Bakery


  46. Rank 86. Cotmeh

    Turkish


  47. Rank 87. Materia

    Italian, Modern Cuisine

    You push through a curtain off the gravel path and land in an all-black room lit like a film set, which turns out to be a fine-dining Italian restaurant in Antwerp doing something genuinely unfamiliar: contemporary Italian cooking stripped of every cliché. The tasting menu is the move, built around obsessive sourcing and a kitchen that treats playfulness as a technique. It placed in the 50 Top Italy global rankings, which is quite a thing for a room this far from Rome.


  48. Rank 88. Fong Mei

    Cantonese



  49. Rank 90. Hoffy's

    Ashkenazi Eastern European






  50. Rank 95. Camionette

    Vegetarian




  51. Rank 98. Stoked

    New Zealand


  52. Rank 99. Domestic

    French Bakery


  53. Rank 100. Dojo

    Omakase Japanese


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Eat Score

The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

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    Drink Score

    The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

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      Stay Score

      The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

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        Do Score

        The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

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          Best Place Score

          The Best Place Score rates the area around a point, not any one place. It runs on the scored places nearby: more good stuff within reach, higher score. If it looks low, we probably haven't found enough critics out here yet.