Brussels
We arrived in Brussels and started wandering the city - as we walked down Rue Neuve from our hostel, we saw a Belgian waffle place and of course we stopped by to grab a treat from what seemed to be a popular Belgian Waffle Franchise (not so much in this picture - we got there just as the crowd was leaving...).
We decided to order a regular waffle with syrup and watched the guy make a fresh waffle! It was 3.60€ and worth it
Half of the waffle with the syrup soaked in...yummy!
As we kept wandering, we saw the Grand Place and Mannekin Pis and we came to the conclusion that Brussels is not very big at all if we could walk most of the tourist attractions in one day.
We stopped for some frites with "Belgian caviar" (according to our server - it's actually just mayonnaise) and some escargots from this cute little stand right beside the Mannekin Pis.
We had dinner at Chez Leon - famous for their moule-frites (mussels and fries). They were fantastic! (we forgot to bring our cameras to the restaurant, but we took a picture of the restaurant the next day). They had a huge variety of moules on the menu. My friend and I both had the special Formule Léon which was the moules spéciales + frites + 1 bière Maes for 13.90 €
Of course, since we were in Belgium, the chocolate stores were everywhere! Leonidas is a popular chocolate store in Brussels and around the world (there's a few stores in Canada). What was different here was that they sold macarons and my friend and I are huge macaron fans - so we grabbed a few to try them.
Verdict: Not very good - we were quite disappointed with these ones. Leonidas should stick to making chocolate and we decided to save our macaron shopping for Paris on our trip.
The day after the Bruges trip, we went back to explore Brussels and did the touristy thing. For lunch, we ended up near the Royal Palace of Brussels in the Parc de Bruxelles (Warandepark). We picked up some toasted sandwiches from a nearby busy cafe and had a little picnic on the lawn of the park. It's amazing how many people were taking their lunch breaks on the grass in the park! We had to fight for grass space. You definitely don't see that in Toronto. The sandwiches were delicious!
On our way back to the hostel, we passed by City 2 mall and I couldn't help but stop by the Lindt chocolate store:
Despite the small size of the store - I think it was the most overwhelming Lindt store I have ever seen in my life - there were so many varieties of Lindt chocolates that it boggled my mind. I'm an avid Lindt chocolate eater - so I've tried all the types of Lindt chocolates offered in Canada. This store had everything plus a gazillion things more - I wanted to try it all, but I was hoping that the Lindt store we would eventually go to in Switzerland would have a greater selection (seeing as Lindt is based in Switzerland).
In hindsight, this store had more Lindt products than any store that I saw in Switzerland. For some reason, Brussels had the best selection of stuff I wanted than any of the other countries on my trip. I would go back to Brussels purely for the shopping (the tourist thing here is kinda boring).
The next day, we headed to Bruges to check out the historic town and at the train station we got this:
A Quiche Lorraine and a Scat Salad from the Coffee Club
Website: http://delivery.thecoffeeclub.be/SP_Default.aspx?page=TheCoffeeClub
No, it's not really scat - it was a chicken salad with iceberg lettuce, christmas tomato, carrots and corn. Surprisingly, despite the unappealing look of the food at The Coffee club - it was actually pretty good for train station food. The scat was ok (even though we forgot the salad dressing).
In hindsight, this store had more Lindt products than any store that I saw in Switzerland. For some reason, Brussels had the best selection of stuff I wanted than any of the other countries on my trip. I would go back to Brussels purely for the shopping (the tourist thing here is kinda boring).
The next day, we headed to Bruges to check out the historic town and at the train station we got this:
Website: http://delivery.thecoffeeclub.be/SP_Default.aspx?page=TheCoffeeClub
No, it's not really scat - it was a chicken salad with iceberg lettuce, christmas tomato, carrots and corn. Surprisingly, despite the unappealing look of the food at The Coffee club - it was actually pretty good for train station food. The scat was ok (even though we forgot the salad dressing).
The third night in Belgium, we weren't that keen on trying any more Belgian regional cuisine. So we asked the front desk people at our hostel for a recommendation for cheap and good food in Brussels. The guy pointed us to a Greek restaurant on Kaasmarkt which is the street right behind the Grand Place. I also tried the Krick beer (Cherry Flavoured) based on the recommendation of a local Belgian Priest (? - I thought they didn't drink?). The meal was good, super filling and definitely great value for money!
Even after that insanely large Greek dinner, we walked by the Aux Gaufre de Bruxelles (a famous Belgian Waffle restaurant that comes highly recommended by all Travel Guides --> http://www.belgiumwaffle.com/home.en.html) and of course, we had to stop and try their waffles:
Absolutely delicious! We could barely eat the small waffle after the crazy dinner we had, but somehow we managed since it was soooo good. The whipping cream and icing sugar with strawberries on a perfect waffle - the only thing I thought we were missing was the syrup (but that was an extra cost) - the strawberry waffle was 5.50€
It was the perfect end to a good day of eating in Brussels.
Excellent post! I had an amazing time reading your Belgium travel guide. I am happy to have come across your blog as I recently got my Visa for Belgium. So, I was on the lookout for some informative travel guides and that’s how I got to read your article. It does offer some interesting suggestions and tips for a first-time Belgium traveler like me. Hoping to make the most of my trip by exploring the popular attractions of Belgium.
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