Leuven Restaurants

A large piece of meat, lots of sauce, lots of french fries, a small salad and some mayonaise, that is how belgians like their food. Unlike the french or italian we believe in large portions. In that respect, this is a typical belgian restaurant. Don't confuse this with "streekgerechten" = typical regional foods, which are usually simple hearty dishes grand-mother style. A plus is that they have your food ready in no time, so quick it is a bit suspicious somtimes... The place is popular so it might be a good idea to reserve a table if you want to be on the safe side. Not haute cuisine but very decent for it's kind, 'satisfied' is 'le mot just'.

Favorite Dish: Cordon blue with cream-mushroom saus and french fries (small salad is included). Koninginnenhapje (meat +chicken), stoofvlees (meatstew) and steaks are popular dishes in belgium.

Ice cream is excellent and, compared to The Netherlands, a bit cheaper. A scoop doesn't cost less but you get more of it!

Two generous scoops of fresh (!) ice cream put me back 2.20 euro. And it was delicious.

Favorite Dish: I always want malaga flavour. My other favourite flavours are: coffee, hazelnut, mango, lemon sorbet.

At the cooking ware shop we asked for a typical Belgian 'frietkot' (literally a shed where you can buy fries but usually it's simply a shop) in the center of town. One of the staff was glad we asked. That's because it seems to be city council policy to get those fries shops out of the city center.
We thought this is ridiculous. A 'frietkot' (also known as 'frituur') is a typical Belgian thing that you see on just about every street corner normally.

We were directed to the best one in town, in the Muntstraat (exactly! That's the street where there a just about only restaurants and eateries).
It's called Fonske. Probably after the statue of Fonske (fountain of wisdom) standing on Foch square.

So... remember Fonske!

Favorite Dish: Unfortunately we were there just between opening hours. We will have to enjoy those wonderful golden, 3x baked fries with Belgian mayonaise next time.

Open every day from 17.30 hrs

See the website for more restaurants, including Fonske.

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On holiday your eating habits may be a bit different from home. Especially in Belgium where there's such a lot of good quality food. So you want a light lunch? Go here!
You'll be in THE restaurant street of Leuven, hopefully eating on the street and watching people pass by, which I think is fun.

We were looking at the menu but were undecided when the waiter came. He said: why not take the tapas lunch menu? He described it, ending with: and you'll have eaten well.

Thus said, thus done. With the greatest pleasure!

Favorite Dish: We had a tapas lunch menu consisting of (no little portions!):
fresh crusty bread with little dips of garlic/basil butter, good olive oil and finely cubed tasty tomatoes,
gazpacho,
terrine of salmon,
terrine of shrimp,
potato croquettes,
fried fresh (!) calameres.

This cost us an amazing 15 euro each. Which I assure you, is next to nothing for a lovely meal.
Adding up drinks and coffee, we spent 40 euro.

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Het Dagelijks Brood means Daily Bread.

If you want to skip your hotel breakfast, this is the place to go. Organic breads, jams, boiled eggs with a bowl of coffee.
Or later in the morning a cappuccino with a wonderful rich cake.

Lunches with some hot dishes, all organic.
It was busy with customers while we were sitting there. Rightly so!

Opening hours:
Monday-Saturday 7.30-18.00 hrs
Sunday and holidays: 8.00-16.00 hrs

Favorite Dish: We had coffee, cappuccino and 1 chocolate fudge cake and one 'merveilleux' made of meringue, cream with chocolate chips and a chocolate topping. Delicious!

You can also buy your bread here. Some of them are mighty big so you can buy half or a quarter bread.

Mind you, it is a bit pricy. Our cakes were 4 euro each. But I think it was worth it!

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In the Muntstraat, where this restaurant is situated, you are spoiled for choice. However, a VT member recommended it in a tip, and friends, who live nearby Leuven, did also.

The menu is a classic Belgian one. There were main courses for 13-15 euro (for instance the Leuvens stoofvlees (simmered beef). Still, I found the menu costing just a wee bit more than what I am used to in Belgium.

Favorite Dish: Though most mussels come from The Netherlands (Zeeuwse mosselen - mussels from the province Zeeland), they are eaten most in Belgium. The big difference is: in The Netherlands you should have no expectations as to what kind (size/quality) mussels you will get in a restaurant.
In The Netherlands you usually pay just under 20 euro for 'unlimited' mussels.

But in Belgium you get the very best, the largest and most tasty.
You get a kilo or 1.5 kilo boiled and flavoured to your taste (I had garlic, mind you... your loving partner will not love you that night!).
They were excellent. That course cost 23 euro, including fries and some bread.

Shrimp croquettes are a Belgian speciality. These were good. So was the sauce, a good quality flavoured mayonaise. This dish cost 10.50 euro.

The lamb chop dish with herb butter was, well... BIG. A bit too big for a normal eater, which makes it just a bit less fun. The dish was tasty but not very refined. There were no vegetables with the dish.

Salads and side-dishes to be ordered separately.

All in all we paid 83.10 euro for 2 persons, including coffees, beer and tonic and 0.5 ltr red house win.

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Brasserie Domus in Leuven is always crowded. Here you can enjoy a small snack or a simple dish with fish or meat. We had a Spaghetti Bolognese as you can see in the picture below. This is one of the special Horeca places in Leuven who pay a lot of attention to the Belgian beer tradition. Next to the many high quality beers brewed in Belgium, they have their own small brewery.

In the house brewery, they use the traditional methods which take more time than the modern beer production. But they have time. To keep the high quality and pureness of the beer, they installed a pipeline from the brewery to the beer taps in the Brasserie. The conditions for a good beer are optimal.

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Excellent recommendation by Brecht , my VTer (Museeuw) meet up and reliable purveyor of all things Belgian!, this stew made with Leffe beer and tender cuts of beef (but 'even better when made at home by Brecht himself'!) with an excellent salad with a large cold glass of Leffe blonde (my preference to the darker stronger stuff!) in one of those lovely Belgian beer glasses of course! was good value at only 17 euro.

The ambience was definitely of a Leffe kind - being a Leffe pub/cafe all things Leffe were here - the Leffe trademark advertised around the place - but noticeably clean both up around the restaurant and bar and downstairs around the loo areas.

Favorite Dish: Only tried this dish - but Id recommend it - and would most likely choose again if back.