Antwerp and Flanders Food Guide
Base yourself in Antwerp and you can eat your way across Flanders on a train ticket. The staples are shared across the region, but each day-trip town has a plate worth going for. Here is what to eat at home in Antwerp and what to order on the road.
The Antwerp table
The city’s own specialities are the anchor: frites from a stand-up frituur (roughly EUR 3 to 5), a shared pot of moules-frites (EUR 20 to 30), and “een bolleke,” the amber De Koninck beer brewed here since 1833. For a sweet, the Antwerpse Handjes, a hand-shaped butter-and-almond biscuit tied to the Brabo legend, from a specialist maker like Philip’s Biscuits. Antwerp also keeps a genuine jenever tradition, poured by the small glass in proeflokaal bars.
Street food and prices, region-wide
Belgium’s frituur culture is nationwide, so the paper cone of double-fried chips travels well; call them frieten, not “French fries.” Belgian waffles follow the same country-wide split everywhere you go: light and crisp (the Brussels style) versus dense and chewy with pearl sugar (the Liege style). Budget roughly EUR 12 to 20 for a casual meal and EUR 25 to 35 for a sit-down bistro dinner with a drink, in Antwerp and across the day-trip towns alike.
Ghent, under an hour away
Ghent is a working university city, so eating is lively and good value. It is a strong place for waterzooi, the creamy Flemish stew, and for a canal-side beer once you have seen the Van Eyck altarpiece.
Bruges, the chocolate stop
Bruges leans hard into chocolate and tourist-facing restaurants; the ones ringing the Markt are priced for the crowds, so walk a few streets off it. It is the best day for a proper Belgian chocolate haul.
The coast: North Sea shrimp
At Ostend and along the Kusttram coast, the thing to eat is the grey North Sea shrimp (garnaal), served simply or in a croquette. This is a seafood day, best from May to September.
Brussels, 45 minutes out
Brussels adds the widest range, from stand-up frites institutions to sit-down brasseries, plus its own chocolate and beer scene; an easy lunch stop on a capital day trip.
Tipping stays the same everywhere in Belgium: not obligatory, with rounding up or 5 to 10% for good service.
Read more: our Antwerp, Belgium day trips guide covers the trips these plates belong to, and the Antwerp food guide stays in the city.